Dive Brief:

Arizona regulators on Thursday voted to set a modest fee of 70 cents per kilowatt—or about $5 per month—on customers who install solar panels beginning in 2014. The current 20,000 customers with solar arrays would not be affected. It is the first such fee in the U.S.

The 3-2 vote by the Arizona Corporation Commission ends a long battle between Arizona Public Service and the solar industry over the state's net metering policy, which allows customers with solar power to sell excess electricity back to the utility.

Dive Insight:

APS was not satisfied by the ACC action, saying in a statement that it "fell well short" of what was needed. "We are very concerned with the cost impacts of this policy," APS' senior vice president of customers and regulation, Jeff Guldner, told the Commission ahead of the vote. "We don't think this proposal is in the best interest of our customers."