Community solar rules finalized

On July 18, the Maryland Public Service Commission finalized its rules for community solar. These final rules include full retail credit for community solar energy on subscribers’ electricity bill with no subscription fees. This means if you subscribe to community solar (when projects become available), you’ll earn the same value on your bill that you’d receive if the solar were on your roof.

The estimated size of the community solar pilot is approximately 218 megawatts. This will be distributed across Maryland’s various utility service territories (Pepco, BGE, Potomac Edison, SMECO, Choptank, and others).

These utilities have 45 days to submit tariffs to implement the program in their territories. After that, the commission will need to approve them. That puts the start of the program sometime in the early fall in participating utility areas. It is not yet clear when specific projects will become available to which consumers can subscribe. Click here to stay informed when projects begin.