Governor Reynolds signed SF 583 March 12, a bill IEC and partners of the Iowa Environmental Council had dubbed the “Sunshine Tax” that failed a year earlier. In the course of that year, Senate File 583 evolved into something that is rarely achieved: legislation with unanimous support from both political parties in both houses of the legislature.
It is a new policy that takes the best of ideas from other states and puts them together to create a policy that found support among solar businesses, environmental groups, farm groups, and MidAmerican Energy with no outspoken opposition by any other party.
“This bill provides certainty that helps farmers plan ahead if they want to install solar technology, and it protects the financial interests of those who have already installed solar panels on their buildings,” said Mike Paustian, president of the Iowa Pork Producers Association.
The new policy codifies net metering while creating a new, optional inflow-outflow system. Solar customers taking service under both net metering and the new inflow-outflow system would be able to supply their own energy needs and would receive credit for the energy they supply to the grid while paying for energy delivered by the utility. Each utility has the ability to choose to bill its solar customers based on net metering or an inflow-outflow rate.
The Iowa Environmental Council played a key role in researching and formulating policy options, analyzing the impacts of various scenarios, and negotiating the specific legal language that would get the results we were looking for. Our strong partnerships with the Environmental Law and Policy Center, the Iowa Solar Energy Trade Association, and the Iowa Pork Producers helped deliver this win for solar in Iowa.