Incoming Connecticut Gov. Dan Malloy (D) is likely to move forward with renewable energy legislation in Connecticut that would establish a solar renewable energy credit (SREC). Such legislation local industry insiders say would provide an important incentive in the state to increase the spread of solar industry in the state.

For years Connecticut has offered incentives for installing clean energy, including solar power, but current solar incentives—including rebates for homeowners— funded through the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund encourage a feast or famine cycle of funding. Creating a SREC funding mechanism in the state would go a long way to change that, said Solar Connecticut President Mike Trahan.

“We’ve learned a lesson that setting aside a pot of money and ringing the dinner bell doesn’t work, because those funds get exhausted to quickly. That in large part is why we turned toward the SREC prospect.”

Currently the Clean Energy Fund is funded through a surcharge on electric bills. “Those dollars are now returned to the community in part,” Trahan said. Commercial projects would directly feed off the SREC and the surcharge would no longer be a funding mechanism for commercial projects, he explained.

Enacting an SREC program would strengthen the state’s solar industry. “It would create a better market for us,” said John Roundtree, cofounder of Westport Solar Consultants and a board member of Solar Connecticut. “Other states around Connecticut have had an SREC market for longer and they’ve been successful.” 

Roundtree explained that “it would be easier for companies to get financing.…This would create an immediate market starting in 2011, they [i.e., utilities] would have to buy renewable energy credits.” The credits, would help fund the construction of large installations. “You would get multi-megawatt systems,” he said.

It’s not the first time SREC legislation has been introduced in Connecticut. “The SREC bill was passed in state house unanimously in ’09, the bill never got a vote in the state senate,” Trahan said. In 2010, SRECs were part of a much larger bill, including reorganization of Connecticut’s Department of Public Utility Control, The legislation passed both houses of state legislature, but outgoing Gov. Jodi Rell (R) vetoed the bill over concerns that it would create too much bureaucracy, according to Trahan.

Malloy, on the other hand, said he would have signed the bill. “Malloy has apparently stated that he would have signed the bill if he were governor at the time. So the expectation is that he would sign such legislation,” Roundtree said.