BOSTON AREA SOLAR ENERGY ASSOCIATION

Thursday March 12, 2015

Spring is nearly here, but is Massachusetts poised to turn the clock back on solar?

Haskell Werlin has been following and participating in the Net Metering and Solar Task Force, including helping to file legislation (SD1616/HD2297) and to craft MassSolar's brief about the benefits of solar .

Emily Rochon has been sifting through more than 100 energy-related bills submitted in January for the current Massachusetts legislative session, finding the handful that address net metering, and also contributing to the efforts of MassSolar.org to promote solar, such as the Vote Solar petition to Governor Baker .

But reports from the public meetings of the Task Force tell of no-show consultants spewing various faulty policy scenarios while the strong public sentiment for expanding solar and net metering rights seems to fall on deaf ears. Some organized input from the solar community, however, has made it to the Task Force's web page, see February 20th Letter to NMS Task Force .

Emily and Haskell are as up-to-date as anyone on what is happening on the solar scene. They both urge our participation: MassSolar is planning a day of support for solar in April.

Presenter: Emily Rochon of Boston Community Capital

Emily Rochon is the Director of Energy and Environmental Policy for Boston Community Capital (BCC), a community development financial institution established in 1985. BCC is also a third party solar developer that owns and operates 4 megawatts of solar generating capacity across 30 Massachusetts projects, 80% of which are located in urban areas and serve low income residents and organizations in those communities. In 2014, BCC was recognized by President Obama as a Solar Champion of Change.

Presenter: Haskell Werlin of MassSolar

Haskell Werlin is the Business Development Director at Solar Design Associates, a renewable energy engineering and architecture firm founded by Steven Strong in 1974, which has produced an amazing portfolio of pioneering solar PV firsts. Previously, Haskell worked with Solar Power Partners, the Mass Executive Office of Energy Resources, and installed hundreds of passive solar residential additions, among other achievements since interning with the Department of Energy under President Carter. He is a founding member of MassSolar, a solar policy and advocacy group (solarisworking.org).