![]() Historically, the capital required to erect the great lattice towers that rut the hills and hollows around the nation are utility company investments, and the costs are passed down to everyone, but in practice, they were rolled into the kilowatt/hour charge, a usage rate that rises and falls. Specifically, something called the cost of service. It’s called net metering, and right now in Little Rock, the Public Service Commission, at the urging of the legislature, itself urged on by legacy power companies, has coordinated and led a Net Metering Working Group meant to rewrite the way rates are set. ![]() Traditional power companies and cooperatives who installed and maintain the electrical grid are increasingly hinky about decentralized generation (though roughly five to seven percent of all electric power in Arkansas is lost to transmission, according to the Energy Information Administration).ĪRKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA Clarksville Light and Water general manager John Lester before the 42-acre site of the city's future solar facility.įor years now, small solar and wind power generators have been able to send electricity back onto the grid and gotten rate credits - that is, been paid for it. ![]() In the final analysis, “there’s no denying that this is a good thing.” “I’m not 100 percent sold that climate change is human caused,” Hill says.īut he is sold on the federal tax incentives (none from the state of Arkansas) that renewable energy investment stirs, the energy independence, the serendipity of solar (it produces most when we need it most, on clear warm afternoons), and then, that “there are people who are hard-core, die-hard environmentalists that want to see that, want to locate where that’s going on.” ARKANSAS PUBLIC MEDIA Van Alan Hill, president of the Clarksville Regional Economic Development Organization, or CREDO, isn't interested in solar power for the environmental benefit, but is "sold" on its allure to environmentally motivated people and businesses.
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