NY has a plan to make solar energy affordable. But utilities can't work out how to bill customers

• New York is the top market for community solar programs in the nation.
• Outdated billing systems make it difficult for utilities to calculate complex solar bills.
• State regulators are weighing fines and penalties for utilities that are slow to create automated billing systems.

New York’s all-out push to expand the use of solar energy is being undercut by utilities who can’t master the one task needed to make it work – calculating a bill.

Nearly eight years ago, New York cleared the way for community solar programs to offer discounts on energy bills to state residents who agreed to get their electricity from a field of solar panels that would be located nearby.