Solar is not the culprit for Maine’s high utility bills, despite claims

Maine’s solar incentive program has become a political scapegoat for rising electricity prices in the state, but clean-energy advocates say the numbers don’t add up.

Maine utility customers pay some of the country’s highest electricity prices, but the portion of their monthly bills that goes toward buying surplus power from neighbors’ solar panels has actually decreased in recent months, according to one analysis.

Meanwhile, the amount of money utilities are paying for power from fossil fuel–fired plants and transmission represents a far bigger share of the electricity-bill bottom line.

“It’s an easy narrative to say ​‘Solar panels are being built in this field, and electricity prices are going up,’” said Lindsay Bourgoine, director of policy and government affairs at solar company ReVision Energy. ​“But that’s not actually what’s happening when you look at the data.”

Maine Republican lawmakers this session have introduced four different bills calling for the repeal of net energy billing, the system that compensates utility customers for unused electricity they generate and share on the grid. Supporters of the bills have called the program a ​“job-stealing solar energy tax,” though it’s not a tax: Utilities compensate the owners of solar panels for excess energy sent to the grid, then spread the cost out among ratepayers.

“What’s really troubling in Maine is that there is this growing narrative that the rise in utility bills is directly attributable to solar,” said Eliza Donoghue, executive director of the Maine Renewable Energy Association. ​“It’s not true.”

The hostility toward Maine’s net energy billing rules is part of a wave of efforts to blame rising power prices on clean-energy and energy-efficiency programs, particularly in New England. In Rhode Island and Maryland, legislators have called for cuts to fees supporting energy-efficiency and clean-energy programs. And Massachusetts regulators last week ordered $500 million to be cut from the state’s energy-efficiency plan, following utilities’ claims that these money-saving programs have been a major driver of rising energy bills.

At a legislative committee hearing last week, Maine legislators testified that small-business owners will be forced to close their doors and low-income households put in dire financial straits by wealthy solar-panel owners imposing the cost of their renewable-energy choices onto everyone else. It is ​“a nefarious scheme,” said Sen. Trey Stewart, a Republican and the sponsor of one of the bills. ​“We risk collapsing our entire economy,” said Republican Sen. Stacey Guerin, the sponsor of another.

Looking at the evidence

The numbers tell a very different story, beginning with the actual dollars-and-cents impact of net energy billing on the average consumer.

Maine’s net energy billing program was expanded in 2019, increasing its cost but also spurring new solar development. By the end of 2024, the state had more than 1,500 MW of solar capacity, up from less than 100 MW in 2019.

Statewide, costs attributed to net energy billing now make up a slightly smaller percentage of the average bill than they did in the latter half of 2024, according to calculations ReVision made using information from utility filings. For Versant Power residential customers using 500 kilowatt-hours per month, net energy billing adds between $6.40 and $7.62 to the monthly bill depending on their exact location, according to a spokesperson for the utility. Central Maine Power residential customers pay on average $7.06 per month for costs related to net energy billing, a spokesperson for the company said.