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This summary is part of Beyond the Beltway: A Report on State Energy and Climate Policies produced by the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at Berkeley Law
Solar energy is poised to make an appearance in South Carolina, in good part to the efforts of a single Republican state legislator.[1] That will be a big change: the state has had essentially no wind or solar power, although nuclear accounts for half of its electricity.
The state senator, Chauncey (“Greg”) Gregory, runs a building supply company in Lancaster, an urban area of about 20,000, located inland by the North Carolina border. He was visiting a sister in Portland, Oregon, where he was struck by the amount of rooftop solar in a place best known for its overcast and clouds. He wondered: “Why couldn’t sunny South Carolina have solar power?”
He was the sponsor of Senate Bill 1189, which became law in the summer of 2014. It made South Carolina law far more open to solar power. For the first time, homeowners could lease solar systems rather than having to buy them outright. It also authorized utilities to build solar farms and include them in their rate base. It also introduced net metering to South Carolina. And it set the first renewable energy requirement for utilities, requiring them to have solar capacity equal to 2% of their average peak demand by 2021.
Solar energy was not going to get anywhere in South Carolina without Republican support. The GOP has about 60% of the seats in both houses of the legislature. Hillary Clinton got only 40% of the vote. So obviously, talking about climate change would have been counterproductive.
An important part of Gregory’s message was that South Carolina was behind its neighbors to the north and south, and it needed to catch up to attract investment. But a major factor in his success was due to something beyond his control: Duke Power switched positions to support the bill. He attributes this to shareholder pressure, but it would be really interesting to know more.
SB 1189 has given solar a much-needed boost in South Carolina. Investment went from $11 million in 2015 to $109 million in 2016. The state’s two major utilities both filed plans to add over 100 MW each in solar. Utility scale generation has also taken off, with $163 million in utility-scale projects announced just in 2017 for Orangeburg County.
South Carolina also gives households a 25% tax credit for solar installation. Gregory sponsored legislation to provide a property tax exemption for solar, but was only able to get it through the Senate, not the House. He says he will try again.
- Links providing support for the discussion of North Carolina can be found in Appendix D of the full report.