Kentucky solar energy proposal shows politicians don't mind screwing the little guy

Dan Hofmann has heard it all before.

Politicians, when they're politicking, like to say they will stand up for the small-businessman. The little guy. The mom and pop operation.

But the decision-makers in Frankfort appear to be doing anything but that by pushing legislation that is designed to help the bottom line of companies like LG&E and Kentucky Utilities.

"We don’t feel like Frankfort is taking care of us as far as looking out for our best interests," said Hofmann, who owns a small company in Louisville that installs rooftop solar power systems.

Hofmann said a bill that has made it through the House and is pending in the Kentucky Senate will cost his customers money and him business — all for the sake of the energy behemoths.

Hofmann started Regenen Solar in 2009 and after a few lean years, he's now installing 30 or 40 solar panel systems each year.

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Regenen Solar is one of the biggest solar energy installers in Louisville, and it's still not that big. Hoffman has a handful of employees, and he hires electricians as needed to hook the solar power systems up to the energy grid.

His revenues are about $1 million a year.

And the systems he installs aren't cheap. The average home solar power system will run in the neighborhood of $20,000.

What makes them affordable are the federal tax credits that allow people to claim up to 30 percent of what they spend, the cost savings from not having to buy so much electricity, and the fact that electric companies are required to buy excess energy from them at retail prices.

Hofmann said it generally takes about nine to 11 years for a solar system to pay for itself.

Now comes state Rep. Jim Gooch, the Republican from Providence who has been whoring himself out to corporate interests for so long he probably doesn't even realize he's doing it right now.

(This isn't a partisan thing. Gooch was whoring himself out to those same corporate interests when he was a Democrat.)

He is pushing a bill that is backed by the American Legislative Exchange Council, you know, that corporation-funded group that writes proposed laws that are designed to help really big corporations and screw people like you.

What Gooch's bill does is it says that if you have one of these solar power systems and it generates more electricity than you can use at certain parts of the day, LG&E only has to credit you with the wholesale price for whatever it takes and sells to others.

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Under the existing system, called net metering, if you had to buy electricity from LG&E one day but then created an equal amount of excess electricity the next day, that part of your bill would effectively be zeroed out.

If at any point solar energy customers generate more than 1 percent of a utility's peak from the previous year, the utility can stop offering net metering to new customers. Solar energy isn't anywhere near that 1 percent threshold at this point.

It may never be.

Regenen has only installed about 200 systems in the nine years his company has been in business, and new battery technology may mean people who install solar panels in the future may go completely off the grid and won't be selling electricity back to electric companies.

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If House Bill 227 becomes law, Hofmann said people will still be able to recoup the cost of installing a solar system, but it will take longer, which he worries may cause people to think twice.

"It would definitely affect sales," said Hofmann, who said he couldn't estimate what percentage of his customers the bill would chase off.

And it would prove once and for all that Kentucky's politicians, when they're talking about helping the small-businessman, are really just blowing smoke where the sun don't shine.

Joseph Gerth's opinion column runs on most Sundays and at various times throughout the week. He can be reached at 502-582-4702 or by email at jgerth@courier-journal.com. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: www.courier-journal.com/josephg.