Relating to solar energy by establishing a community solar facility program

This bill establishes a community solar facility program. The bill specifies that an “electric utility” for purposes of the bill is a public utility that provides electricity to the public for compensation and is required to be rate-regulated under Code chapter 476. The bill defines “community solar facility” to mean a distributed generation facility that generates electricity through solar panels whereby subscribers may receive bill credits for the electricity generated in proportion to the size of the customer’s subscription. The bill defines “subscriber” to mean a customer of an electric utility who owns at least one share of a subscription to a community solar facility. A “subscriber organization” is a for-profit or nonprofit entity that owns or operates one or more community solar facilities. The bill defines “subscription” to mean a proportional contractual interest in a community solar facility. The bill provides that a community solar facility program is established to encourage and enhance solar energy generation and the ability of electric public utility customers to participate in and derive benefit from alternate solar energy projects. The bill provides that a customer shall receive a credit in proportion to the customer’s subscription.49. A subscriber’s subscription shall be credited to the subscriber’s account with the utility. The bill provides that the Iowa utilities board shall develop interconnection agreements for utilization by a community solar facility interconnecting with the utility. The bill provides that a community solar facility may consist of subscribers located within the state and shall not consist of out-of-state subscribers. The bill provides that a subscriber may include all of the subscriber’s electricity meters in the community solar facility. The bill provides that a community solar facility may be owned by investors. The bill requires the Iowa utilities board to adopt rules regarding implementation of the bill’s provisions.