A significant amount of money collected from Ohioans as part of the controversial HB6 legislation is sitting idle in a state fund, raising questions about its future. The 'solar generation fund,' intended to subsidize specific solar projects, has only distributed a fraction of the $54 million collected since 2021. Pending legislation could halt further collections and distribution, leaving the fate of the existing funds uncertain. Lawmakers are still debating what to do with the money, with some expressing concerns about the history of the fund and its connection to the HB6 scandal.
Published: Feb. 17, 2025, 12:37 p.m. A solar farm, managed by the Chinese CHINT smart energy solutions provider, operates in Slatioara, southern Romania, Saturday, Oct. 12, 2024. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)COLUMBUS, Ohio – Nearly $54 million collected from Ohioans since 2021 as add-on fees atop their electric bills is sitting idle in a state bank account, a vestige of the HB6 scandal that lawmakers for years have refused to repeal.
Created as part of Ohio’s controversial HB6 legislation, the “solar generation fund” was intended to provide subsidies for a narrow set of solar projects. However, the $20 million per year in collections under the bill for these projects was a pittance compared to the roughly $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants authorized by HB6. Pending legislation at the Statehouse, however, could cut off collections and distribution of the subsidy. Lawmakers say they’re still determining what to do with the pot of $53.7 million that has already been collected. Between 2021 and 2024, Ohioans paid about $62.2 million into the solar generation fund, according to Ohio Air Quality Development Authority spokeswoman Katie Lundy. Of that money, only $8.5 million has been paid as subsidies to two developers.The legislation that created the fund was, according to federal prosecutors, the fruit of a yearslong bribery scheme from FirstEnergy Corp. as it sought a nuclear bailout for two nuclear plants owned at the time by its subsidiary. Ex-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and three others were convicted in the scheme; FirstEnergy’s former CEO and another executive await trial; and FirstEnergy as a company in 2021 admitted to the bribery scheme in an agreement with federal prosecutors. The bribery scheme led to the passage of HB6, which included provisions not only for the nuclear bailout but also for subsidies for coal and solar power. While much of HB6 was subsequently repealed, the provisions related to coal and solar subsidies remain in effect. Money in the solar generation fund is only available to six solar projects. To qualify, a solar operation must have obtained a certificate from the Ohio Power Siting Board before June 1, 2019. That means a vast majority of solar generation in Ohio is not eligible. A 200-megawatt farm in Brown County owned by Innergex, has received nearly $6 million under HB6, Lundy said. Two units under Hardin Solar, a combined 300-megawatt operation in Hardin County owned by Invenergy, got nearly $2.6 million. Three other projects – Highland Solar in Highland County, Willowbrook Solar 1 in Highland County, and Vinton Solar Energy in Vinton County – have been approved for funding but haven’t yet received any. Eligible solar generators are paid out of the fund for each megawatt of power they pump back into the grid. Part of the cause for the delay, Lundy said, is that the subsidy by law only pays out a year after developers report a given quarter of generation to the state. Vinton Solar isn’t yet operational, and the other two haven’t yet reported enough generation over enough time to receive the money. Cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer reached out to the developers behind the six eligible solar projects for comment. The Utility Scale Solar Energy Coalition of Ohio, via a spokesman, declined questions on the fund and deferred to the projects' owners. But pending legislation in both the House and Senate, now prioritized by Republican leadership, would halt collections on both the coal and solar subsidies. The coal subsidies, under the current versions of those bills, would halt between 2025 and 2028, pending the utility the money flows to. Unlike the solar subsidies, the money has been collected from customers and distributed to the three Ohio utilities with ownership stakes in the coal plants: American Electric Power, Duke Energy and AES Ohio. The new legislation stops the $20 million in annual collections on the solar subsidy, and bars the state from paying it out to the developers. But what happens to the $54 million currently in the solar fund is much more uncertain. According to the Legislative Service Commission, the bills do “not state what is to happen to the money already collected and deposited in the Solar Generation Fund.” State Rep. Roy Klopfenstein, the Republican sponsor of the Ohio House version of the bill, said Wednesday that the fate of that money is a point of legislative negotiation. An aide to state Sen. Bill Reineke, the Republican sponsor of the Senate’s version of the bill, said in an email the $54 million’s fate is “an ongoing discussion between the members.” Senate President Rob McColley, who voted against House Bill 6 as a rank-and-file member and now leads the chamber’s Republican supermajority, also said it’s an open question of where the money goes. “So I don’t know that we have a plan for that money. It’s probably something we would have to work out through the process of the bill where the money would go,” he said. “You know, quite frankly, I don’t believe the history of those solar collections is a very good history as to, you know, maybe how they got put into the bill”
HB6 Solar Subsidy Ohio Politics Firstenergy Bribery Scandal Renewable Energy Legislation
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