QF Adventures

User: jcushing97@gmail.com

Vendor: Drive Green - Green Energy Consumers Alliance

Action: 2593 - Get Solar for your House!

I had a 40-panel, 12kWAC system installed in May.  I originally had signed a deal with one of the big national companies, but it broke down when they wouldn't install as large of a system as I wanted.  If you don't know, the MA law was changed about a year ago to raise the net metering cap exemption from 10kWAC to 25kWAC.  However, because the DPU is taking its sweet time officially issuing the corresponding updated guidance to National Grid, you can't get full net metering on a system that size yet.  So for the time being, even though the law has changed, you still have to install a >10kW system as a "qualifying facility (QF)", which gives you a less favorable net metering rate.  The original company wouldn't do a QF installation.  Figuring all that out and dealing with it was exactly as fun as it sounds, but New England Clean Energy were very knowledgeable about the situation and very responsive, so I ended up switching to them.  They were really well-organized and easy to deal with, so the installation went well.  I didn't worry about the looks too much originally, but now I kind of think the house actually looks a little better with the panels on it.  After about a 3-month wait, I got my permission to operate and I can make about 50-60kWh on a good day.  Now I'm just waiting for my correct net metering rate to come through.