IN THE TRANSITION to clean energy, low- to moderate-income homeowners in Massachusetts have the odds stacked against them. Our state has the second-oldest housing stock in the country, along with some of the highest utility prices.  

A study from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy shows that low-income Black, Hispanic, and Native American households face dramatically higher energy burdens – spending a larger share of their income on energy bills – than the average household. At the same time, this historically expensive market means more homeowners are seeking to improve where they already live instead of purchasing a new house. 

Programs for those types of energy improvements have largely focused on electrifying or decarbonizing units in larger multifamily buildings rather than on single-family homes — even though 1-4 family homes count for 60 percent of building emissions. Plus, higher-income borrowers tend to be the ones to take advantage of existing incentive programs, while low-income communities are vulnerable to predatory lending practices — particularly amid the confusing nature of solar leasing programs.  

Given that Massachusetts wants to reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, we need to make clean energy improvements possible for every homeowner. We can’t afford to leave anyone behind. 

The answer: flexible, innovative financing options that empower homeowners — the ones who had been excluded from the chance to upgrade their homes — to make energy improvements that save money and cut emissions.  

Because of its ubiquity and quick return on investment, rooftop solar is an easy choice. When Nectar Community Investments designed and tested our Solar Plus pilot program in 2023, we had a chance to see what worked. The program included decarbonization assessments and subsidies, and three homeowners purchased solar panels and made other required energy-efficiency upgrades or retrofits required to get their homes ready.  

The Massachusetts Community Climate Bank is on the right track with the Energy Saver Home Loan Program, a new $20 million program that launched in April 2024 to help low- and moderate-income homeowners make clean energy improvements to their homes. After our Solar Plus pilot, we became an early participating lender in the Energy Saver program. We’re proud to partner with the Healey-Driscoll Administration, MassHousing, and others on this sustainable approach to financing green infrastructure. The Massachusetts Clean Energy Center’s Solar for All program is expected to be released this summer, and we look forward to participating in it. 

We’ve closed our first two homeowner loans through Energy Saver, but we know there’s more work to do. Just in our home city of Lawrence, there are more than 400 units heated by electrical baseboard and more than 2,000 units heated with oil, making them potential candidates for electrification and solar.  

Climate change is disproportionately harming these homeowners, and they need options to keep from falling behind. Flexibility and creativity in financing are exactly what we need to meet the moment before us. Our future depends on it.  

Glynn Lloyd is the executive director of Nectar Community Investments, a community development financial institution headquartered in Lawrence. He also serves on the Commonwealth’s Energy Transformation Advisory Board.

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DESPITE THE INCREASED ADOPTION of solar power in Massachusetts, the right of every citizen to have access to predictable and clean power is in danger. And it’s up to industry leaders and neighbors alike to speak up, and protect the solar industry. There’s an item on the agenda that could put the 12,000 clean energy jobs created in New England at risk: the net metering cap. To support jobs in New England, and the clean energy industry as a whole, it’s time to tell legislators to raise the net metering cap.

Net metering gives customers fair credit on their utility bills for clean power that they deliver to their local power grid. There’s a cap in place on how much solar power the utilities are required to accept from local solar projects. By raising the cap, we can protect clean energy jobs. What’s more, we can expand community solar, which allows the 85 percent of people in Massachusetts whose roofs aren’t quite right for solar rooftop panels an opportunity to reap the benefits of the sun.

There are literally hundreds of solar projects that are on hold because the cap has been hit in National Grid territory, and is quickly being filled in others. Some in the business sector argue that raising the cap and giving more power to renewable energy will drive jobs out of Massachusetts, and hurt our economy. Opponents to raising the net metering cap say that unless you go with the cheapest source of fuel, you’ll drive energy costs up in the state. And, those higher costs will eventually lead companies to move jobs out of state.

They’re wrong.

When you talk about the costs to support solar, it’s fundamental to look at both the benefits and the investments. The more reliant we are on natural gas for generating electricity, the more we’ll see price spikes like we did this past winter, where the average bill jumped more than 30 percent. Some say the solution is to build a bigger pipeline. But building that pipeline not only adds to the cost of infrastructure, it doesn’t eliminate our problem of an unstable energy economy. It’s now clearer to many that diversifying our energy sources will help stabilize future energy costs.  And to move in that direction, we need to raise the net metering cap, and let solar thrive.

With the adoption of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and other policies, energy costs have gone down, the gross state product has risen nearly 70 percent and has added a net $1.6 billion to the economies of the RGGI states– all the while, greenhouse gases have gone down more than 10 percent. To say that jobs are not compatible with a diversified and reasonable cost infrastructure is ludicrous. Some say diversifying energy will lead to a downturn in manufacturing jobs. But, according to the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute, manufacturing employment has been stable since 2008. That year was also the year the first major solar legislation passed, the year companies like Next Step Living were founded, and the year that solar started its growth in the Bay State. It’s difficult to justify the ire when manufacturing has seen stability since the very year solar became a priority.

And why is that? There’s predictability with solar that you can’t maintain with natural gas. Fluctuating natural gas costs don’t just affect the typical homeowner.  Business owners and employees are affected, too. Difficult decisions have to be made to work around the constant variance of supply and demand of natural gas resources. Furthermore, with every dollar the Commonwealth invests in growing solar, over $2 in benefits for residents and businesses will be generated, according to studies done by the Net Metering and Solar Task Force. All of these points lead back to our recommendation to invest in solar power.

We’re lucky that the Bay State has become a leader in solar. We’ve proven that we can keep up with the leaders in this industry. And we’re proud to be a part of that.

We won’t deny that there’s a cost to invest in renewable energy, but there’s a cost to do anything. When you consider the benefits and the cost, investing in renewable energy is a better, smarter path than to leave our economy at the mercy of natural gas price fluctuation. That’s the conversation we need to be having.

It’s time, Massachusetts, to let your Legislature know that solar needs to be on their priority list. Look up your representative at WhereDoIVoteMA.org and tell them: We need to raise the net metering cap. We need to encourage our government to take advantage of predictable costs, and not give in to uncertainty.

Geoff Chapin is CEO and Founder of Next Step Living, a home energy efficiency company in Boston, and a member of the Net Metering Task Force. John P. Dumas is business manager of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103.

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THE BAKER ADMINISTRATION, siding with electric utilities over solar developers and environmental groups, is recommending no expansion of a key state solar subsidy until a more cost-effective program to harness the sun’s energy can be developed.

In a letter accompanying a task force report released late Friday, two Baker administration officials said they favored continued growth of the state’s solar power industry, but in a more cost-effective manner. They specifically noted that electric customers who don’t have solar panels on their roofs will be footing the bill for between $2.5 billion and $4 billion in solar subsidy costs between 2014 and 2020.

“Any future credit and incentive must be at the appropriate levels to continue driving the solar industry forward. At the same time, ratepayers who fund the programs through electric rates should not be paying more than is necessary to reach the installation goals,” said Dan Burgess, the acting commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources, and Angie O’Connor, the chair of the Department of Public Utilities. A Baker administration spokesman said neither official would be made available for an interview.

Solar power in Massachusetts receives two major state subsidies. One subsidy, called a solar renewable energy credit, is granted for each kilowatt hour of solar electricity produced. The other subsidy, called a net metering credit, is provided for each kilowatt hour of solar electricity fed into the region’s power grid. Both subsidies are paid for by the state’s electric utilities and passed along to their customers through their bills.

The Net Metering and Solar Task Force said in its report that solar power is heavily dependent on state subsidies and that the subsidies yield more economic benefits to ratepayers than they cost. But utility and business officials on the task force suggested the economic benefits of solar could be attained at far less cost.

Eversource, for example, estimated that Massachusetts electric customers are currently paying about 60 cents a kilowatt hour for solar electricity, while Connecticut customers are paying 25 cents. Eversource also noted that onshore wind power is available for 8 cents a kilowatt hour.

The availability of net metering credits is capped in each utility service area. The cap limit has already been reached in the National Grid service territory and is being approached in the Eversource service areas. Solar industry officials had been hoping the task force would reach consensus on the net metering issue and recommend the Legislature approve an increase in the caps. A clear majority of the task force favored increasing the net metering cap, but the Baker administration sided with the minority viewpoint in recommending that the existing caps remain in place.

Officials on the task force from Eversource, National Grid, and Associated Industries of Massachusetts voted not to lift the cap on net metering credits until a more sustainable solar subsidy program can be developed. Nine other task force members, including representatives from the solar industry, environmental groups, and Attorney General Maura Healey’s office, voted to lift the cap while a new subsidy program is developed. Those in favor of lifting the cap say the failure to do so will lead to market disruption and layoffs.

Sen. Benjamin Downing, a Democrat from Pittsfield and a member of the task force, was not listed as voting on the net metering initiative. But he said he was concerned that it could take six months to a year to develop a new solar subsidy program. “I don’t think we can keep the caps where they are now while we work on a long-term solution,” he said. “There are costs. There are benefits as well.”

The Mass Solar Coalition, a group of solar industry and environmental groups that had several members on the task force, issued a press release on Monday urging lawmakers to quickly vote to lift the net metering cap to prevent planned solar projects from being scrubbed.

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