via Wikipedia:
Net metering is a state level electricity policy for consumers who own "qualifying facilities," which are generally smaller, renewable energy sources such as a wind or solar power. Under net metering, a system owner receives retail credit for at least a portion of the electricity they generate. The ideal has your existing electricity meter spinning backwards, effectively banking excess electricity production for future credit. In reality, the rules vary significantly by country and possibly state/province if net metering is available, if and how long you can keep your banked credits, how much the credits are worth (retail/wholesale), etc. In North America, 40 U.S. states have some form of net metering in place, and Canada has an ongoing net metering project. The United Kingdom government is reluctant to introduce the net metering principle because of complications in paying and refunding the value added tax that is payable on electricity, but pilot projects are underway in some areas.

Germany, on the other hand, has adopted an extreme form of net metering, whereby customers get paid for any electricity they generate from renewable energy on their premises. The actual electricity being generated is counted on a separate meter, not just the surplus they feed back to the grid. For the power generated, roughly 3 times the market price per kWh for residential customers is being paid in order to boost renewable energy (figure from 2006).

www.grist.org

Looks like Wikipedia is a little off in this case.  Net metering always results in price received for electricity to be at the retail price.  This is favorable because the highest price for electricity in the distribution chain is the retail price (no surprise).  Net metering allows a utility customer to put an approved electricity resource, like a solar panel or wind turbine, on its property and connect it to 120/240 volt wiring on the property thus displacing electricity otherwise bought from the utility.  Further, if the generation exceeds the need of the customer the customer gets a credit for that electricity.  Typically if the credit remains positive throughout the year for a customer the customer gets paid for the power at the retail rate.

Net metering does not meter the electricity resource seperately.  Because it does not measure it seperately there is no way the resource does not, in effect, get the benefit of the retail price.  Letting the meter turn backwards to undo past purchases is a great feature of the approach.