Judicial Watch: No Help for Community Solar Projects
The state Supreme Court has closed the door on a citizen clean energy group’s effort to set up an alternative means of financing community solar projects.
Without discussion, the court confirmed the state Court of Appeals’ ruling, which said that the citizen group (NC WARN) was illegally acting as a “public utility” when it financed a church’s rooftop solar energy system and sold the produced electricity to the church on a nonprofit basis.
Community solar advocates had hoped the court would rule that this financing method was not barred by the state’s public utilities laws. Bipartisan legislation to clarify state law in order to allow such financing was introduced during last year’s legislative session, but was blocked by legislative leadership.
The appeal for judicial relief’s failure sends the issue back to the legislative front, and may prompt another key clean energy debate in this fall’s election campaigns.
