Letter to the editor: A cloud over shared solar power providers

I have been deluged in recent months with mailers offering me 15 percent off my electricity bill if I sign up for shared solar power. So, I picked one out and went online, following their signup process to the end, at which point they asked for my bank account information.

This was a deal breaker, because I do not give out my banking information, nor should anyone else to any entity that has not already been proven to be legitimate. (My bank, of which I was formerly an officer, continually urges its account holders never to hand out their account information.)

I then googled “Maine shared solar offer” and eventually found a list of all of the providers on the website of the Maine Public Utilities Commission. That list, which was endless, contains little more than the operator’s negative reply to the PUC‘s question about any previous run-ins with the law. Eventually, however, I ran into a provider with the name Consolidated Edison Solutions, which I contacted and which did indeed turn out to be Consolidated Edison of New York, but the people there denied any knowledge of a Maine program of any sort.

I’m writing to you about this, instead of to the PUC, because it seems to me that if the PUC has already published this list, then it would be fruitless to approach them about its shortcomings. Instead, perhaps you can publish this so that other people will know about the problems with this program.

Richard Wolfe
Cumberland