Sponsors of community solar projects in Maine filed a constitutional challenge to a law enacted in June 2025 (LD 1777) that they alleged threatened “the continued viability of Plaintiffs’ community solar projects” and would “upend Maine’s progress toward achieving its sustainability goals.” The complaint alleged that LD 1777 “effectively ends” the addition of new community solar projects to Maine’s “net energy billing” program, which the plaintiffs alleged was created by a 2019 law to induce renewable energy investment by allowing project sponsors to recover project costs through long-term contracts with residential, commercial, and industrial consumers. In addition, the complaint alleged that LD 1777 imposed a new charge for some existing projects and changed the rate structure for other current projects, “thereby pulling the rug out from under the solar projects that Maine now enjoys.” The plaintiffs asserted that LD 1777’s imposition of a new charge constituted an unconstitutional per se taking of property in violation of the Fifth Amendment and that LD 1777’s changes to the net energy billing program constituted an unconstitutional regulatory taking and an impairment of lawful contracts in violation of the Contracts Clause.

Maine community solar project sponsors' constitutional challenge to a June 2025 state law that the plaintiffs alleged threatened the viability of their projects. 

Gray Yarmouth Road Solar LLC v. Maine Public Utilities Commission

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Community Solar Project Sponsors Challenged Maine Law that They Alleged Threatened Projects’ Viability

Filed

United States of America

Maine

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Community Solar Project Sponsors Challenged Maine Law that They Alleged Threatened Projects’ Viability

Target

Policy instrument

Risk

Renewable energy

Fossil fuel

Greenhouse gas

Economic sector

Adaptation/resilience

Finance