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Today, in an effort to expand upon the success and continued growth of Massachusetts’ solar industry, the Baker-Polito Administration filed legislation to establish a long term, market-predictable, sustainable framework for further solar development in the Commonwealth.  The proposal seeks to achieve the administration’s goals of reducing costs to ratepayers while strengthening the clean energy economy in Massachusetts and meeting greenhouse gas emissions reduction requirements set forth under the Global Warming Solutions Act (GWSA).

With solar installation expected to double in the next two years, the White House today announced a series of new initiatives and investments to expand solar power to low and middle-income areas. There are now more than 20,000 megawatts of installed solar capacity in the United States, with more than 60 percent of it installed in just the past two years. In 2007, the United States installed 224 megawatts of solar domestically. In 2014, it was more than 30 times that amount: 7,000 megawatts

Despite a strong first quarter, industry leaders are warning that future solar growth in Massachusetts is being jeopardized because net energy metering (NEM) caps have been reached in many areas of the state. These caps have been hit because of the exploding popularity of solar – evidenced by a 150 percent increase in new solar capacity in the first quarter of 2015, compared to the same quarter a year ago.