However, in districts where there are net metering rules in place, schools could sell excess energy back to the utility and get close to offsetting all of their energy bills.

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The paper notes the success of numerous policies California has implemented to promote distributed generation, including the California Solar Initiative (CSI), net energy metering (NEM), the renewable auction mechanism (RAM), and the Self-Generation Incentive Program.

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The change has taken Denmark nearly two decades to implement, but the most critical step was the introduction of smart- or net-metering, which required utilities to buy back electricity from consumers at 85% of the price.

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