Maine calls for 400 MW of distributed solar

[jpak]

https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/06/18/maine-calls-for-400-mw-of-distributed-solar/

In today’s edition of sentences we would have never thought we’d be typing just one year ago, the state of Maine has all but passed its third pro-renewable bill this month, the first of which to be specifically tied to solar.

That bill, needing only a few remaining procedural votes in each chamber and approval from Governor Janet Mills (D), is LD 1711, An Act To Promote Solar Energy Projects and Distributed Generation Resources in Maine. Yesterday, LD 1711 easily cleared the Maine Senate by a 32-2 vote, before waltzing right through the State House shortly after, by a 93-52 vote.

And with those votes, assuming there are no major road blocks between the bill’s current standing and the tip of the governor’s pen, Maine solar is back from the brink.

Under LD 1711, the state will look to develop more than 400 MW of distributed solar, as well as grow access to community solar farms. What’s so paramount about LD 1711 is the focus that the bill has on distributed solar. LD 1711 specifically calls for 150 MW of the aforementioned 400 MW to be put towards distributed solar for commercial and industrial (C&I) solar projects.

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