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Wisconsin will miss out on creating thousands of jobs in the solar industry if state regulators side with We Energies when they take up the utility's rate case.

That's the view of the chief executive officer of California-based Solar City, whose company expects to double solar installations across the country next year and is hiring 350 people a month.

But that growth won't include Wisconsin if the state Public Service Commission approves the utility's plan to pay solar customers less for their power — and raise fixed charges on all customers' bills, said Lyndon Rive, CEO of Solar City, which operates in 14 states and is the solar contractor for the Walmart and Walgreens chains.

"If the commissioners do not want to create jobs, do not want to allow competition in a monopolized energy market, do not want to give consumers choice, then make that the decision," Rive said in an interview. "That's fine. That's deciding, 'We want to be beholden to the monopoly for the rest of our lives.' "

The jobs pitch by a company that's part of a coalition challenging We Energies' rate plan came as the PSC gets ready to discuss We Energies' rate change proposed for 2015 — at a meeting tentatively scheduled to take place Friday in Madison.

Last week, the commission voted, 2-1, to support a Green Bay utility and its proposal to increase customers' fixed charges — a sign they will do the same for We Energies as well.

But the We Energies case raises additional issues. The utility wants to bar solar leasing and pay solar-generating customers less money for the power their panels produce.

"No matter how they try to twist and change their arguments, the fact remains that out-of-state solar developers are demanding subsidies that will raise electric bills for our 1.1 million customers who do not have solar panels," said utility spokesman Brian Manthey.

"In our opinion real job creation should not come at the expense of customers that can't afford or are unable to install solar panels or other renewable energy systems," he said.

The solar companies dispute that there's a subsidy, saying that states like Nevada established policies that place a value on the societal and environmental attributes of solar power.

We Energies and other utilities concede they're not losing money today because so few Wisconsinites have installed solar panels to date, but that now is the time to get the policies right.

Solar companies say this is an opportunity to open up the market to make solar more affordable for everyone.

Solar City offers a no-money down lease. By leasing panels and paying for them over time through the sale of the power they generate, customers avoid paying the high upfront cost of panels.

The solar market in Wisconsin will open up if the state's policies are constructive and solar panel prices continue to fall, said Rive of Solar City.

In a recent report, a Deutsche Bank analyst said solar prices in Wisconsin will reach a point in 2016 where they will fall below the average cost of power in the state.

"Every market opens up and then hits a massive tipping point," Rive said, adding that as costs fall markets are opening up. "Nevada had no solar market six months ago....Now we've hired over 800 people in Nevada."

We Energies says its own renewable energy projects — including the state's two largest wind farms — have been strong sources of job creation. The Milwaukee utility built its wind farms in Wisconsin, unlike other state utilities that have built some or all of their wind farms in Minnesota or Iowa. The utility has also worked to hire Wisconsin contractors for its projects, Manthey said.

We Energies in May filed a request to increase electric rates by 1.8% in 2015. As part of that proposal, the utility proposed to increased the fixed charge on customers' bills to $16 a month from $9.12, a proposal that has riled consumer groups worried that it will hurt low-energy users and customers looking to save energy by taking steps to make homes more efficient.

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