The monthly surcharges on electric bills include 20 cents for residential users, $2 for commercial users and $20 for industrial users, $2 for commercial users and $20 for industrial users. The money will go toward rebates for homeowners who wish to install panels on their houses, and the Public Utility Commission will use the fund to incentives the construction of large scale solar complexes. Other provisions in the bill would prohibit homeowners associations from banning solar installations in most cases, and would require that homebuilders offer solar as an option to their customers.
Texas is recognized as the national leader in renewable energy, especially in wind generation, he said. Senate Bill 545 allows our state to become more energy independent and to meet our renewable energy goals through the installation of solar generation.
Fraser believes the current wind power infrastructure could work well with new solar power generation. The way I’m hoping this will happen is that every place that there is a wind generator, I would love to see a solar panel there, so that during the day when the wind’s not blowing, solar would be generating and we’d transmit it on those same lines that we’ve already installed, he said. The bill now heads to the House for further consideration.
