![]() “This website provides a road map for educating and engaging communities interested in how their local utility stacks up against others when it comes to rooftop solar issues across the region.”Īcross the sunny South, people are turning to affordable rooftop solar to meet their energy needs. “With Rates of Solar, we aim to distill complicated rooftop solar policies for hundreds of utilities across the Southeast into simple, compelling stories that resonate with customers, advocates, utilities, and decision-makers,” said Jill Kysor, SELC staff attorney. ![]() The website provides easy access to information on more than 400 utility solar policies across SELC’s six -state region. Rory McIlmoil, Energy Savings Program Manager, 82Ĭat McCue, Communications Diretor, 43 Southern Environmental Law Center Launches New Website Shedding Light on Utility Charges for Rooftop Solar CustomersĬharlottesville, VA – Today the Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) launched the Rates of Solar website, an interactive site that provides simple, straightforward information about how utilities across the Southeast are treating customers with rooftop solar on their homes. “Members want to be able to afford solar, but because of Blue Ridge’s policies, it’s just not cost-effective for them, and they don’t understand why their co-op is making it harder.” No other electric co-op in the state has as bad of a solar policy as Blue Ridge, so it’s easy to see why they’re being called out for putting the brakes on solar in the High Country.”īlue Ridge members who have looked into installing their own solar panels have expressed their frustration at the co-op’s policies, according to Appalachian Voices Outreach Coordinator Lauren Essick. “That fee alone nearly doubles the cost of a typical solar system over its lifetime. “The added fee that Blue Ridge charges members who want more clean energy and the freedom to invest in their own solar systems is punitive and discriminatory,” said Rory McIlmoil, Energy Savings Program Manager for Appalachian Voices. The additional fee, beyond what non-solar residents already pay, is a minimum of nearly $29 per month. The website, “Rates of Solar,” lists Blue Ridge among its solar “brakers” because of its high monthly fee for owner-members who install solar energy on their home. At the same time, and while not always easy to do, Blue Ridge Mountain EMC has maintained some of the lowest utility rates in the Southeast while upholding some of the highest quality standards for an electric utility.A new interactive website launched this week by the Southern Environmental Law Center highlights Blue Ridge Energy electric cooperative as having one of the worst solar energy policies of all electric utilities throughout the Southeast. Today, in addition to BRMEMC serving over 40,000 members and nearly 50,000 meter points with affordable and reliable electric service, BRMEMC offers a variety of other services including broadband fiber-optics and Internet service, heat pump financing, water heater maintenance, home security systems, and much more. Now with 75 years of continuous dedicated service to the community, Blue Ridge Mountain EMC stands today as a testament to the vision of those community leaders to create an organization that the entire community could support and be proud to call their own. Agreements were also put in place with the Rural Electrification Authority (REA), a federal provider of low-interest financing, allowing BRMEMC to borrow funds and begin construction of the necessary infrastructure to deliver electricity to members? homes and businesses. ![]() By June of 1938 the EMC was incorporated, a Board of Directors elected, and an agreement was executed naming the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) as the sole supplier of electricity for the cooperative. Blue Ridge Mountain EMC was founded in 1937 by a group of local businessmen and farmers desiring to form a non-profit, member-owned rural electric cooperative to provide dependable electric service at a reasonable price within the five counties of its Western North Carolina and North Georgia service area. ![]()
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