Maryland's goal to produce 2 percent of the state's electricity from the sun will be under scrutiny today by regulators and solar industry officials who are charged with reaching the target by 2022.
The two sides are meeting to discuss how to implement legislation passed last April that puts Maryland among just a few states to set such a high target for development of solar power. If successful, Maryland's plan would put enough solar panels in the state to generate 1,500 megawatts of power - roughly the equivalent of a large nuclear power plant, or three traditional fossil fuel plants.
Solar is one of several forms of renewable energy state officials are promoting to reduce greenhouse gases. But the industry has long grappled with how to get homeowners and businesses to embrace solar energy when it typically costs several times more than electricity off the power grid. A typical residential system can cost $20,000 at the low end and take a decade or more to pay for itself through energy savings.
The law addresses the cost issue in part by establishing a trading system for renewable energy credits that homeowners and businesses can sell to help pay for new solar energy systems.
Utilities must purchase a certain amount of the credits in order to meet their obligations under the state's renewable energy portfolio standard program passed in 2004. That program requires 9.5 percent of the state's energy to come from various renewable sources - including solar, wind and biomass - by 2022. Utilities that don't comply face stiff penalties.
"It doesn't matter what you really do, solar is going to be more expensive than any other source, so it's got to be either subsidized or you have to force people to do it," said E. Tyler Claggett, an energy and finance expert at the Perdue School of Business at Salisbury University.
The Energy Information Administration, the statistical arm of the Energy Department, estimates that solar power produced on an industrial scale still costs two to three times as much as electricity available on the Mid-Atlantic grid - even during the most expensive time of day in the summer. Costs are somewhat lower in states like California, Arizona and Nevada, which have aggressively pushed solar energy with various rebates and tax credits.
Despite its less predictable climate, proponents say the Mid-Atlantic could match or surpass the growth of solar in western states if the right incentives are in place.
