• By Scott Rogers Guest column

The increasing number of electricity rate hikes across West Virginia is a growing concern for our state’s economy. Just this year, Appalachian Power Co. requested a revenue increase that would raise its customer’s bills by a whopping 11 percent. The burdens of such rate hikes often fall hardest on hard-working West Virginians. Couple this with cyclical costs and the “boom and bust” cycles that influence energy commodities trading and you have a recipe for economic hardship throughout our community.

However, our energy system is going through significant technological change and the old model of centralized power is becoming outdated. The reality is, distributed renewable energy resources like solar, wind, hydropower, geothermal and biomass offer increasingly affordable alternatives to traditional modes of power production. Solar Power Purchase Agreements are a powerful instrument for change in our energy markets and offer the promise of lower energy costs.

As a state we should encourage diversity in our energy markets by providing families, businesses, communities and institutions with affordable energy options through power purchase agreements. The time is now for the people to encourage and challenge their lawmakers to move forward with this innovative policy option. The benefits are many, including attracting large employers and investments, encouraging entrepreneurship, expanding our state and local tax bases, and creating well-paying jobs in expanding economic sectors.

Third-party financing models such as power purchase agreements have been extensively used by commercial businesses and tax-exempt institutions like schools, churches and municipalities, providing consumers access to affordable energy with little to zero upfront cost and immediate savings. Further, these agreements allow the developer to qualify for a 30 percent federal energy investment tax credit, allowing those savings to be passed on to the end user in the form of a lower energy bill. These agreements benefit the end user, the developer, our state, and maybe more importantly, our environment through the decreased reliance on carbon-based fuels.