"Duke Energy Florida was disappointed with the “Blocking Rooftop Solar” report. Spectrum Bay News 9 reached out to all three investor-owned utilities named in the report: Duke Energy Florida, Tampa Electric Company and Florida Power & Light for comment. “They don’t want the decentralization of it.” “They look at rooftop solar as being competition and so they want to maintain their business model where customers pay them for electricity,” she says. Anna Eskamani acknowledges that the investor-owned utilities have been expanding their solar capacity in recent years, but adds that “they want you to pay them for it.” The report also says that another factor on why Florida lags behind many other states when it comes to rooftop solar is the “fierce opposition” from the state’s three investor-owned utilities: Duke Energy, TECO and Florida Power & Light. “By focusing on centralized solar installations, they’re not encouraging rooftop solar, which actually assists the utility grid by lowering the overall necessity, because the homeowner’s rooftop solar is providing the power for their home.” “One of the biggest blockages we have when it comes to rooftop solar, is the inherent design of the utility solar system,” says Clifford Mitchum, an independent energy advisor for Crew SWFL Solar. Of the more than 21 million people who now live in Florida, the Public Service Commission reports that around 90,00 households and businesses have net metering, which is the policy that allows residential and commercial customers who generate their own electricity from solar power to sell the electricity they aren’t using back into the energy grid. She added that while Florida does offer net metering, “the overall policy framework is not conducive to rooftop solar.” “Florida does not allow solar Power Purchase Agreements, or PPAs, which facilitate solar power financing, and we also require that homeowners purchase expensive insurance for solar power systems,” said Ryann Lynn, climate and clean energy advocate for Environment Florida on a Zoom call with reporters on Thursday. PIRG and the Frontier Group, contends that the utilities, lobbyists and “front groups” are responsible for undermining local clean energy efforts in the Sunshine State. The report, titled “ Blocking Rooftop Solar,” written by Environment Florida, U.S. The Florida Public Service Commission says around 90,000 households or businesses have net metering to get rooftop solar power.Florida has surpassed North Carolina in terms of generating the most solar power in the Southeast.The report takes aim at Florida's owner-invested utilities for not doing enough to encourage rooftop solar for homeowners and businesses.
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