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National Clean Energy Summit Tackles Net Metering Debate

Rooftop solar installation
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The Clean Energy Summit meets in Las Vegas this week. One of the topics expected to be on the agenda is net metering.

The National Clean Energy Summit is the country’s leading ongoing discussion on green fuel. 

It takes place in Las Vegas for its eighth year next week. 

One of the sponsors of the conference is the Clean Energy Project, a non-partisan nonprofit based in Las Vegas.

CEP Executive director Jennifer Taylor says one of the new things the summit is trying this year is a debate session.  

The hot topics up for discussion? Rooftop solar and net metering, which is when rooftop solar customers get credit for returning excess energy produced by their solar panels back to the power company. 

"[Net metering] is something that Nevadans want to hear about," Taylor told KNPR's State of Nevada. "We thought it was very important to bring the subject forward at the summit and we love the idea of doing it in a debate format."

The issue of net metering has been a hotly debated one in Nevada as the limit on how much excess energy can be sold back to NV Energy gets closer.

The solar industry says without an increase in the so-called net metering cap thousands of jobs will be lost.

NV Energy says the practice pushes the cost of infrastructure from solar customers to customers who don't have solar.

Other highlights of the summit include panels about clean energy innovations such as electric cars and the keynote address from President Obama, who recently released his own clean power plan.

 

Jennifer Taylor, executive director, Clean Energy Project

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Nikole Robinson Carroll was a Morning Edition host at KNPR. She also produced segments for KNPR's State of Nevada.