Solar garden great idea, but hits reality snag

Sen. Amanda McGill has a great idea that she picked up in Colorado.

The Lincoln legislator would like to allow Nebraska individuals, businesses or nonprofits set up solar panels in spare spaces, such as on a vacant lot, on the roof of a church or school, then sell shares of their project to the neighbors, who would get a credit on their electric bills.

The idea is supported by environmental groups like Sierra Club and Wildlife Federation, who say solar is becoming much more competitive as prices of hardware drop and prices of oil and coal climb. It would also keep energy dollars, now flowing to Wyoming coal fields and oil wells around the world, in Nebraska.

Great idea, right?

Well, not if you listen to the people supplying our electricity now.

They note the solar garden idea contradicts the 2009 net metering law, which allows individuals with their own solar panels or wind generation to fall back on the electric company when it's dark, cloudy or the wind isn't blowing.

The law wasn't allowed to offset or provide credits for electricity consumed at another location. They also worry that it would complicate billing and could increase costs for other customers.

The irony is that power companies struggling to keep up with demand might somehow oppose others trying to meet that demand.

In a way, it's like the city water system, which sometimes asks customers to stop using water during hot summer months, but depend on consumption by those same customers to pay for improvements that keep the clean water flowing.

Conservation practices -- like encouraging xerascaping and planting of buffalo grass lawns that don't require so much water -- work against balancing the books in the city's enterprise fund.

Nebraska is already behind when it comes wind power development, in part because of its status as an all-public power state, but also because of distribution shortcomings.

A representative of the Lincoln Electric System said that utility is already doing a solar power study, and the legislation isn't needed.

The economics of alternative energy are always a limiting factor when it comes to adopting new ideas, and it's a mistake to throw too much of the cost of energy on the taxpayers and other energy consumers.

It's also a mistake, however, to allow entrenched bureaucracy or short-sighted legislation stand in the way of making progress toward energy independence.