Study shows solar net metering’s financial benefits outweigh costs

A report to the Delaware General Assembly indicates that the benefits of net metering of solar systems outweighs any shortcomings.

The report came from Energize Delaware, a state utility that focuses on renewable energy and energy conservation.

According to the report utilizing publicly available data and information from electric utilities, Delaware’s net metering policy realizes greater financial benefits than costs for all customers by reducing the overall cost of energy, improving grid resilience, and creating additional economic and social benefits.

The analysis shows net metered solar benefits significantly outweigh costs even when considering only direct benefits that do not include the use of cleaner energy and cleaner air.

Based on the current status quo net metering cap, net direct benefits are $136 million and $1.4 billion in total net benefits. also, every dollar spent on net metering generated $1.28 in direct net benefits.

“We hope this continues as a living document providing new analysis of the behind-the-meter landscape in Delaware,” said Drew Slater, executive director of Energize Delaware. “The findings are somewhat surprising in that each megawatt of net metered solar supports 22 local jobs and creates $2.1 million intotal value-added benefits to the local economy in addition to the overall benefits exceeding $1 billion. This simply hadn’t been quantified before."

Slater added, .”Energize Delaware believes this to be the first Value of Solar study in the country to include an entire state and every electric utility.