Community Solar Owners File Lawsuit in Maine

LD 1777 imposed retroactive changes on community solar ​projects​, jeopardizing ​​savings and​​​ clean energy jobs

AUGUSTA, ME — Today, 11 companies representing 111 community solar projects filed a lawsuit in Maine, arguing that LD 1777 unlawfully rewrites the rules governing projects that have already been financed, built, and are currently delivering savings to Maine customers. Filed in United States District Court for the District of Maine, the suit asserts that the law’s retroactive changes violate constitutional protections for contracts and property while threatening thousands of clean-energy jobs, millions of dollars in consumer savings, and billions of dollars in investments.  The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction before January 1, when LD 1777’s new project charge is scheduled to take effect.

Complainants emphatically reject the unfounded premise of LD 1777. The claim that community solar is driving Maine’s rising electricity prices is not only wrong—it is a deliberate distortion of the facts. Solar provides locally-sited energy to the communities where it is needed, with zero fuel costs. And each NEB project pays for its own upgrades to the grid to accommodate the new power supply–these are upgrades the Maine grid badly needs and would otherwise be borne by ratepayers. By choosing to blame community solar, Maine policymakers have ignored and therefore failed to act on the actual underlying cost drivers while targeting a state program that helps customers realize meaningful savings on their energy costs.

To wit, the lawsuit comes less than a week after the Public Utilities Commission approved new electric supply rates that will result in customers paying at least $150 more in their electricity bills next year.  In response, both the Maine Department of Energy Resources and the Office of the Public Advocate have blamed high electric supply rates on New England’s dependence on natural gas. 

“LD 1777 doesn’t just threaten Maine’s clean-energy future — it sends a chilling signal to every business considering investing in the state regardless of the industry,” said Jeff Cramer, President and CEO of the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA). “When a state retroactively changes the rules on projects already operating and serving customers, it tells investors, lenders, and developers that the state cannot be trusted to provide a reliable, rational business climate for future investment. And the consequences are immediate: that kind of uncertainty raises costs for ratepayers, makes it more expensive for project owners to borrow capital for their next project, and erodes faith in the value of community solar.  What was most shocking for our industry was watching Maine borrow a page from the Washington playbook and pass an anti-solar bill that hurts a proven tool for lowering retail electric rates, under the false pretense of tackling ‘affordability.”

In reality, the projects targeted by LD 1777 were developed exactly as the state directed. Project owners followed the rules Maine created. The state designed Net Energy Billing to attract clean-energy investment, and companies responded — securing financing, investing billions of dollars in new energy supply and local grid infrastructure, securing local approvals, and building projects to serve Maine customers in good faith. Four years later, the State turned around and wrongly blamed the billions of dollars in investment it sought years earlier for the state’s emerging affordability crisis. Rather than deal with the complicated dynamics that were actually causing rates to rise, policymakers chose to scapegoat the companies and the projects that it celebrated at ribbon cuttings just a few months and years earlier.

Changing the rules now destabilizes the business climate by signaling that commitments made under state policy may not be honored if politically expedient — putting both existing projects and the future of clean-energy development in Maine at risk. Making matters worse, the most controversial provisions were pushed through committee at the eleventh hour without a public hearing, shutting out customers, municipalities, nonprofits, and project owners from participating in a major piece of energy policy that directly affects them.

Tens of thousands of Maine households and institutions currently save 10–20% on their electricity bills through community solar. LD 1777 would jeopardize those savings by imposing charges many projects can’t absorb, putting existing projects at risk and cutting off investment in the local, fuel-free energy that helps counter rising energy costs.

“This lawsuit reflects what we have said all along: LD 1777 is built on a false narrative,” said Kate Daniel, Northeast Regional Director for CCSA. “Community solar has not created energy price spikes in Maine. Natural gas volatility has. Community solar lowers bills, and this law undermines one of the few tools Maine has to provide real and immediate relief.”