Jun 21 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Tom Incantalupo Newsday, Melville, N.Y.

Businesses and other nonresidential power consumers will be able to sell electricity to utility companies around the state that they generate by solar, wind or other renewable-energy-powered equipment under legislation passed this week by the State Legislature.

Gov. David A. Paterson said Thursday he'd sign the package of bills, and the Long Island Power Authority said it would begin implementing the legislation quickly.

"We think this is very big," said LIPA president and chief executive Kevin Law, although he had no estimates of how many businesses might be interested.

He said businesses that are interested in installing the alternative-energy generating equipment are eligible for financial assistance from LIPA, and for federal and state tax credits to help defray the initial capital investment.

The practice of selling power to the utility company is called "net metering." Until now, in most of the state, only homeowners could sell solar-generated power, and only homeowners and farms could sell wind power. LIPA apparently was exempt from the restriction, but Law said that was unclear and LIPA was waiting for passage of the bills before it expanded its net metering program.

About 1,200 Long Island homes generate their own electric power, Law said, and about 227 had surplus power to sell to LIPA last year.

The new law also permits more powerful generating equipment, including that fueled by biomass -- waste vegetation -- and increases the maximum amount of electricity that utilities must buy.

Key sponsors of the legislation included two Long Islanders, State Sen. Owen H. Johnson (R-West Babylon), and Assemb. Steve Englebright (D-Setauket). "New York's current restrictive net metering law has been an impediment to the widespread use of renewable energy," Johnson said in a statement, "but that's about to change."

Environmentalists also had pushed for passage as it would encourage installation and use of alternative-energy generating equipment. "This is a huge victory for the future of renewable energy in New York State," Carol E. Murphy, executive director of the Albany-based Alliance for Clean Energy New York, said in a statement.