Florida voters have rejected a utility-funded ballot measure that would have opened the door for changes to the system of credit earned by homeowners who install solar panels and produce surplus energy.
Currently, solar owners who send extra power back into the energy grid earn credit that can offset the price of any energy they might use, in what is known as "net metering." Such homeowners might produce all of their own power -- and then some -- during sunny periods.
They might draw electricity during cloudy periods but will have no net cost if it was offset by power they previously had made available to other users.
Utility companies argue that solar homeowners unfairly take advantage of infrastructure costs paid by other customers, and Amendment 1 would have allowed them to make changes to the state's net metering system.
