As homeowners and consumers increasingly gravitate towards more sustainable forms of energy, many are adapting solar power. Roof-mounted solar panels can provide nearly all the energy that’s necessary to power most residential homes.

While reducing one’s carbon footprint and generating clean energy are huge incentivizes for many solar adopters, many are also motivated by the possibility of significantly reducing or even altogether eliminating their monthly energy bill.

The process that enables this is what’s known as net energy metering, or NEM. However, NEM as we know, it may soon cease to exist.

Explaining Net Energy Metering

Net energy metering is essentially the system that enables residential and commercial customers who generate their own electricity from solar power to earn credits that can be offset against the energy bill they receive each month from their utility provider.

Under the current system in place, residential solar customers in California and other states are credited for the full retail value for the energy they produce.

NEM set to Expire

Net energy metering is set to be phased out in the state of California. The state plans to end the current program for awarding NEM credits to homeowners who install solar and sell power back to the grid by July of 2017, or even earlier if a certain cap is reached before then.

In fact, according to some current projections, the cap for ending the current program for awarding NEM credits to homeowners could be reached by as early as August or September of 2016.

After that, opponents of the current system for net energy metering, mainly utility companies in California, want homeowners and businesses with net-metered rooftop solar systems to earn less for the energy they produce and feed back to the grid. They also want solar customers to pay extra charges to cover the cost of being served grid power.

Solar Companies Take a Stand

Thankfully, proponents of solar power aren’t taking the proposed changes lying down. Groups like The Alliance for Solar Choice (TASC), the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Vote Solar are lobbying the California Public Utilities Commission to uphold the key aspects of the state’s current net energy metering arrangement, like customers receiving full retail payments for power produced by their rooftop solar systems and fed back into the grid.

“Net metering is the only proven state policy that puts solar into the hands of homeowners, renters, school, churches, farmers and businesses,” said Walker Wright, public policy director for Sunrun, speaking at a recent gathering outside the California State Capitol.

And it’s not just NEM that could be coming to an end if the proposed policy changes are allowed to take effect as planned. The current federal solar investment tax credit (ITC) is also due to be dramatically slashed from the current rate of 30% to just 10% by the end of 2016.

If you’d like to find out how installing solar panels on your roof can help you drive your electric bill down to zero, contact us today for a free quote.