In a letter circulated on January 24, 2017, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) announced it will present a final proposed design of a new solar incentive program at a meeting on January 31, 2017.

DOER has worked with stakeholders over the last several months to develop a successor program to the Solar Carve Out II Program (SREC II). Final details are not yet available, although the DOER circulated a straw proposal in September 2016, which my colleague Zachary Gerson blogged about at the time.  The successor program is expected to include a new pricing structure, encourage co-location of solar and storage, and address land use issues, among other features.  DOER has indicated that shortly after the issuance of the proposal, it will file an emergency regulation.

At the January 31 meeting, DOER will also provide information on proposed interim measures to bridge the gap between the implementation of the successor program and the end of the SREC II Program.  Based on previous guidance from DOER, any project greater than 25kW qualified under the SREC II program had a January 8, 2017 deadline to be interconnected or be mechanically complete in order to maintain SREC II qualification.  Projects not yet mechanically complete by the January 8 deadline but for which 50% of construction costs had been spent would retain SREC II qualification, but would receive a reduced SREC factor.

The SREC II Program, which has been in effect since April 2014, was designed to incentivize the development of 1,600 MW aggregate installed PV capacity in Massachusetts.  The development of the successor program follows the passage of the bill  An Act Relative to Solar Energy in April 2016.

Interested stakeholders must RSVP for the meeting by the end of day on January 27. The full text of the letter is available here.  We will provide an update when the details of the successor program and SREC II Program interim measures become available.

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