Our town assessor in Brunswick is between a rock and a hard place. Cathleen Jamison believes that solar panels have value but there is no body of evidence as to how that value is determined. When it comes to solar panels on homes, the usual ways of determining value are: 1) Values based on local comparable sales; 2) Cost of acquisition and installation; 3) Income derived from the array.

Since there is general agreement across our state that there have not been enough comparable values to make a determination of the value that’s added to a property by having a solar array, the first assessing method is premature and moot. Since the cost of acquisition and installation is all over the board — with different types, efficiency levels, different installers — the second assessing method is also problematic. In simple terms, Homeowner A’s 20-panel unit might have cost $10,000 to install 10 years ago, while Homeowner B’s 20-panel unit installed five years ago might have cost $15,000 but is two times more efficient, and Homeowner C’s 20- panel unit installed this year might cost $16,000 but is three times more efficient. How do you arrive at an assessing formula that’s uniformly fair given such wide variations?

So we are left with Method 3: Basing the assessment on income derived from the solar array.

But even that is problematic, since residential solar owners don’t really derive income from the power generated by their solar arrays. They receive monthly credits that are applied to their electricity bill based on how many kilowatt hours are generated. The value is then deducted against the cost of their monthly electricity usage and, if it exceeds that cost, it’s carried over and added to the value of the next month’s solar power. But only to a point: After a year, the value of any excess power is wiped out on a rolling monthly basis — meaning, CMP gets the value of that clean energy delivered to the grid and not the homeowner.

So, how does that factor into the third assessing method? Especially, since it will be different year by year, homeowner to homeowner.

There’s also a lot of political uncertainty about the future of “net metering,” with the potential of diverting even more of the value of the power generated by a residential solar array away from the homeowner and toward the benefit of CMP and its shareholders.

For those who took out a loan to pay for their solar installation, these shifting financial regulations can extend the “payback” date for finally achieving a return on their investment.

Despite all these financial uncertainties, the environmental value of solar power is certain. It’s clean energy that doesn’t pollute like electricity generated by burning natural gas, coal or oil.

Back to Cathleen Jamison. It’s her decision to tax solar panels installed on Brunswick home as if each one added $500 to the value of that house. So that mean an average 20-panel residential solar installation is given a hypothetical value of $10,000 that’s added to the value of the property.

With the tax rate of $18.37 per $1,000 valuation, that results in an additional property tax of $183.70 for that 20-panel solar array.

But what is the basis of that $500-per-panel value used by our town assessor? Is it fair, and is it consistent with our nation, state and town each promoting in the past solar power as a clean alternative to fossil fuels? Is it fair when solar energy helps to alleviate the generation of greenhouse gases that add to global warming, creating serious problems for our generations to come?

Why is our town assessor taxing solar producers of clean energy in a premature, punitive and excessive manner? What does that tell the rest of Maine and New England about the values of our town?

Municipalities have latitude in deciding what to tax, or not. For example, a homeowner’s investment in super insulation to reduce their heating cost isn’t taxed at all. Why, then, should solar panels be taxed when they reduce our dependence on electricity generated by burning natural gas, coal, oil or nuclear? Shouldn’t we, as a town, be supporting those homeowners who are trying to move in the direction of being part of a cleaner and greener energy future?

Which type of town is Brunswick going to be?

Cathleen Jamison got in the first word on that question in the tax bills that went out last fall to Brunswick’s residential solar owners. Most like the Board of Appeals will have the final word as homeowners challenge the fairness and methodology of how solar panels in Brunswick have been assessed.

Let your views be known to your neighbors, town councilors, town manager and assessor. Let’s join together in making the production of clean solar energy financially possible, rather than watch it be pushed out of reach for the average family and home.

Linda Muller lives in Brunswick.