By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What’s happening in Nevada right now is frankly amazing.

If you had told most observers that Nevada would ever hit net metering caps after its Public Utilities Commission ended the program without warning at the end of 2015, they would have told you that you were crazy.

And yet, three years (and a lot of mea culpas later), here we are, with the state’s installed and applied-for solar capacity hitting the cap for what’s allowed by law at full retail net metering rates.

What that means is that any rooftop solar installation will at this point be compensated at 88% of the retail rate in what is being referred to as Tier 2. There are currently four tiers in Nevada’s net metering program.

Nevada’s solar industry has been ping-ponging between support and opposition for the solar industry since December 2015, when the state’s Public Utilities Commission abruptly ended net metering, which compensates solar users for the excess electricity they export back to the grid. It caused several national solar installers to pull out of the state and set off a firestorm of criticism from the state’s rooftop solar industry, which cratered in response.

Obviously, the ping-ponging has come to a stop, as rooftop solar has clearly taken off under the latest round of legislation. Solar Industry has the details on what’s next:

Under A.B.405, NEM customers in the Tier II category will receive an excess energy credit of 88% of the retail rate for the net excess electricity sent back to the grid and beyond what was delivered to them by Nevada utility NV Energy over the monthly billing period (as opposed to 95% in Tier I). Customers in the Tier II category may have the opportunity to move into Tier I through attrition and until Tier I closes. Tiers III and IV have rates of 81% and 75%, respectively.

All this activity comes as a ballot initiative moves forward in the state to raise the state’s renewable portfolio standard to 50% by 2030. If the latest numbers from the PUC are any indication, Nevada and its solar industry are healthy and growing – something that should excite solar advocates everywhere.

More:

Nevada Hits Milestone For Newly Revived Rooftop Solar Market