I asked for and received placement on the Science, Technology,
and Energy (ST&E) committee. As an electrical engineer, and
having also worked previously for a solar power company, I felt that
the ST&E committee was the best place for me to exercise my
talents.

I wasn’t disappointed! The ST&E committee is the home of geeks
and nerds, and this is where all bills related to technology end up.

Tax Rebates for Residential Customers  -
House Bill 1628 and House Bill 447

Last year I sponsored a bill (HB855, later renamed to HB1628) to
allow residential customers to a rebate for putting renewable
energy generation on their homes. Because it used funding from
the RPS renewable energy fund, it was delayed until this year. It
has passed the House, was amended by the Senate, and is going
to a committee of conference to iron out the differences.

The program will offer $3 per watt of renewable energy generation
for small residential systems of 5 KW or less, up to a maximum of
$6000. Many citizens of New Hampshire have been waiting a long
time for an opportunity to generate their own clean, renewable
energy, and now they finally will get their chance. This will go to the
Governor for signature before the end of June.

HB447 increased the amount of power that small renewable
electricity generators could put into the grid from .05% or the total
grid power to 1%. It also allowed bigger systems, raising the size
limit from 25 to 100KW.

This would allow small businesses to generate a larger portion of
their usage with renewable energy, and use the grid as a reserve
for when they can’t produce enough.  A significant change to the
law was to require utilities to accept national test standards, so
that utilities could not throw up barriers to small systems.

Coincidentally, while working at Advanced Energy Systems almost
10 years ago (and sadly, no longer in business), I worked with
Underwriter’s Laboratories (UL) to develop UL-1741, the safety
test standard for grid-tied inverters.


The Renewable Portfolio Standard

The Renewable Portfolio Standard came from our committee and
eventually was passed by the House and Senate and signed into
law by the Governor. I sponsored and passed a bill to expand the
net metering law (HB447), which not only increased the amount of
power that could be put into the grid by renewable customers, but
also increased the size of the systems to 100 Kilowatts so that
commercial customers could also generate clean renewable
power and take advantage of net metering.

Net metering allows renewable electricity generators to treat the
electric grid as a battery, by allowing users to “bank” energy when
they produce more than they can use, and to use it when they can’t
produce enough. This reduces system costs and helps all
electricity users by reducing peak loads and reducing
transmission line losses by distributing power sources closer to
where the power is used.


Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative

The ST&E Committee passed the Regional Greenhouse Gas
Initiative, which has passed both the House and Senate as is on
its way to the Governor for signature. This is a landmark
agreement that will make electricity generators pay for emitting
greenhouse gases, yet will eventually lower ratepayer costs. The
ST&E committee also studied ways to bring other forms of
alternative energy such as wind and tidal power to New
Hampshire, as well ways to make it easier for companies to bring
more efficient technologies into the state.
Mike Kaelin's Record in the New Hampshire State House

Energy and the Environment
Mike's Accomplishments in
the New Hampshire House