In January, the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) released the final regulations for its Solar Massachusetts Renewable Target (SMART), a new solar program that eliminates and replaces the Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SREC) program. The SREC program allows investors to trade credits for their clean power on an open market. But SREC reached its capacity target of 1,600 MW of installed solar in Massachusetts in February 2016. Since then, there have been several extensions of SREC that allowed for solar implementation in Massachusetts until SMART was implemented. The SMART program is expected to be implemented by March 31, 2018. Systems installed before this date will be eligible for the SREC program; systems installed after this date will be eligible for the SMART program. Both programs provide incentives solar investors, but there are important differences between the two:
SREC
- Provides two streams of income throughout the course of the incentive: 1) income derived from the electricity created; and 2) income derived from the sale of solar renewable energy credits on the open market
- Operates as a 10-year program
SMART
- Provides a fixed incentive payment per kilowatt hour
- Operates as a 20-year contractual commitment for systems larger than 25 kW AC
The fixed incentive payment for SMART is comprised of a base rate, adders per kWh depending on the project type, and a multiplier based on the project size (capacity):
Total Incentive/kWh = (Base rate/kWh x Capacity Multiplier (%)) + Adder(s)
