AB 1139 (Gonzalez) Amendments Make Bad Bill Worse

Assembly Bill 1139 (Gonzalez) would bring California’s rooftop solar and storage market to a screeching halt, slowing the state’s clean energy progress while harming low income solar users, businesses, and jobs. 

AB 1139 would:

• Make going solar more expensive for every ratepayer, including non-residential consumers like schools and farms and including those on CARE rates or living in multi-family affordable housing.

• Eliminate 20-year grandfathering for 1.0 and 2.0 customers, including schools and farms, 

• Introduce new "grid access" monthly charge that will add $50-$86/month for the typical residential solar use. Charge would be more for larger, non-residential systems.

• Bottomline: The bill hurts low income and at-risk communities the most and does nothing to create equity or diversity in the market, quite the opposite. It moves California backward.

Utilities and Energy Committee has amended the bill. The amendments would make the bill worse.

Amendments include:

• Deleting statutory language from 2013 ensuring “sustainable growth” of rooftop solar via NEM.

• Cause energy bills to increase for renters living in solarized buildings

• Set retroactive changes for current solar customers, including low income, schools and farms. 5 years from date of service for non-CARE (including non-residential) and 10 years for CARE. It is important to note that for most CARE customers, a solar system takes on average 10 years to pay for itself. To un-grandfather these systems in year ten is to erase all hope of actually saving money from going solar.

• Adds high mandatory monthly fees applied only to solar users, including low-income.

• Adds prevailing wage for all solar installs (This is a Trojan Horse as the bill would undermine the entire job market)

• Eliminates the one good thing that was previously in AB 1139: funds for low-income and at-risk communities to go solar

• Would instate a so called “no cost shift” NEM 3 unless the PUC adopts a NEM 3 by Feb 1, 2022. 

Bottom-line, CALSSA will move from “oppose unless amended” to straight up “oppose” as the bill is now worse.

As Summer Approaches, California Utility Campaign Against Consumer Access to Solar, Batteries Heats Up

Jonathan Scott of “Power Trip” and Former Kern County Oil Worker Turned Solar Worker to Testify before Committee in Defense of Consumer Solar and Storage

The recent spike in temperatures is a reminder that summer is almost here, and, along with it, the threat of blackouts and wildfires. Yet, solutions to California’s energy safety and reliability problems, such as rooftop solar panels and garage batteries, are facing increasing threats as investor-owned utilities and their allies put political pressure on the California state legislature to block consumer choice and protect the utilities' monopoly over expanding electricity markets.

“Policy makers looking to prevent more blackouts and wildfires have two polar opposite bills to vote on tomorrow,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director of the California Solar & Storage Association. “One bill is a killer of consumer choice, energy reliability, jobs, and climate change solutions, and the other is a public-interest backed solution that ushers in a future of advanced clean energy technologies to help keep the lights on. Were it not for the undue influence of utilities, this would be a straight-forward vote.”

Two bills, AB 1139 (Gonzalez) and AB 427 (Bauer Kahan) will face off in tomorrow’s Assembly Utilities & Energy Committee chaired by Pasadena Democrat, Assembly member Chris Holden.

The utility-backed bill, AB 1139, would cripple the consumer solar and storage market by gutting a popular and effective policy called “net metering.” The bill would retroactively harm those who have already gone solar, including low-income and working-class solar users who are nearing 50% of the annual market, by slapping $50-86 monthly solar fees and lowering the financial value of the rooftop solar energy exported to the grid by more than 80%.  A CALSSA fact sheet analyzing the bill from a low-income and renter perspective can be found here.

“The utilities and their allies are trying to justify AB 1139 with flat out lies about rooftop solar,” said Del Chiaro. "Rooftop solar and battery storage help reduce energy bills for everyone by lowering infrastructure costs, which cuts into utility profits and underscore what this fight is really all about." 

Among those testifying against AB 1139 are Jonathan Scott who produced the documentary Power Trip about how utilities across the country are blocking rooftop solar from getting into the hands of everyday consumers; and Troy Carroll, a Kern County native who turned from oil industry worker to solar industry worker and will address the need to keep clean energy jobs growing in California.

The other bill, AB 427, would grow California’s consumer solar and storage market by creating virtual power plants out of the state’s growing number of small-scale solar and energy storage systems, linking together with the push of a button tens of thousands of solar-charged batteries within minutes of an identified grid-need such as what happened on August 15, 2020 when California found itself without enough electricity to power air conditioners. This bill is opposed by California’s utilities.

Both bills will be voted on Wednesday, April 21, 2021 in the Assembly Utilities and Energy Committee hearing that begins at 1:30. Live broadcast available.

California Voters Oppose Making Changes to NEM, Blame Utility Profit Motive for Rising Rates

A new poll released by CALSSA and the Solar Rights Alliance shows utility company efforts to roll back net metering are highly unpopular among California voters. The poll showed strong support for net metering across political parties, and a bipartisan desire for California leaders to do more to encourage the growth of rooftop solar power. 

Our poll was released just as California’s three investor-owned utilities proposed to the CPUC making rooftop solar two times more expensive than it is today, while slashing the value of solar electricity sent back to the grid on hot summer days by 77%. In the name of equity, the utility’s proposal would make solar out of reach for most low- and middle-income consumers just when recent studies show they make up nearly 50% of today’s market.  

“California is a solar state thanks to overwhelming support from voters,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director, CALSSA. “Voters want California to actively expand and encourage rooftop solar, not allow utilities to undermine consumer choice.” 

More information about the poll can be found here. More information about the utility NEM proposal can be found here. 

Those interested in joining the coalition effort to save rooftop solar should visit www.SaveCaliforniaSolar.org. 

Report Ties Rate Increases to Transmission, But Consumer Solar Blamed

CPUC released a white paper week before last on rising electricity rates showing that utilities charged California ratepayers $7.5 billion in transmission costs from 2016-2019 (page 39). In 2021, transmission expenses are up 38% statewide, and 66% in PG&E territory alone. Incredibly, 60% of these costs were “self-approved,” a term that seems to be new even to the regulators.

Ever heard of the Averch-Johnson effect (see page 24) It comes from the fact that utilities are incentivized to make large infrastructure investments (e.g. transmission) to drive an increase in their rate base and therefore, their profits. Some centralized infrastructure investments are important, and some are especially urgent given the recent wildfires. However, without proper government oversight, an unchecked Averich-Johnson effect turns ratepayers into cash machines and utilities into engorged profit centers. From 2006-2017, PG&E made $13.6 billion in profits and paid $8.6 billion in dividends to their shareholders, and yet the grid has never been more unreliable or unsafe.

What does this have to do with Net Metering (the policy that allows consumers to spin the meter backwards for a bill credit that makes solar cost effective)? Net Metering breaks this cycle of utilities taking advantage of ratepayers.  When consumers, be they homeowners, businesses, churches, or schools invest in rooftop solar, hey reduce the need to build transmission lines. These “non-wire alternatives” are good for all ratepayers (and good for resiliency), but they cut into utility profits. Utilities don’t like that, so they fight against Net Metering. 

Yet, no policy is more important to making solar affordable and accessible to all Californians. Over half of California’s rooftop solar market is in middle and working class neighborhoods. Taking net metering away would put the sun out of reach for most consumers.

But utilities have so much money, they hire economists and consultants to churn out report after report framing the rooftop solar NEM debate around a flawed “cost-shift” argument. At their core, these reports assume ballooning transmission and infrastructure costs are a given and, therefore, they argue, we must turn our attention to who’s paying for those costs and who isn’t. They never stop to ask how we can reduce infrastructure costs to save everyone money. Instead, they point fingers at solar consumers, claiming that they are not properly hooked up to the utility cash machine. Equity, as they define it, is everyone paying into the utility cash machine without any way to unplug it. Ergo, the logic continues, California should stop consumers from building their own solar roofs and, instead, focus exclusively on large-scale power plants that require more transmission lines.

What’s most troubling is that safety and reliability, the main purpose of those infrastructure investments, is no longer in focus. If it were, consumer solar and storage would be doubly valuable: reducing expensive infrastructure costs and helping keep the lights on for everyone. 

How do we get off this negative cycle of rising costs and lack of reliability? Leadership.

Governor Newsom cares about keeping the lights on in California. He cares about those who can least afford to live in this state and pay for things like high energy bills. And he understands that distributed generation is the ticket to safety, reliability and affordability. But we need him to step in and defend consumer solar. So, let’s urge him to stand up to the powerful utilities, put a check on their cash machine, and help everyday consumers keep the lights on through local solar and storage. Sign the Save California Solar petition today!

CALSSA Statement on CPUC Energy Rates and Costs Hearing: “Stop Blaming Renewables for the Utility Industry’s Failures”

Sacramento - The California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) released the following statement from Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro on today’s California Public Utilities Commission En Banc hearing on energy rates and costs:  

Utility interests and the fossil fuel industry rushed to blame renewable energy for California’s August blackouts and Texas’s winter storm outages. Now as utilities like PG&E continue to hike electricity rates on consumers while struggling to provide a reliable source of power, they absurdly and inaccurately point the finger at renewable energy once again, this time rooftop solar. 

Here’s what is really going on. Utilities in California have long been allowed to rig the system by pushing up infrastructure and transmission costs in order to generate tremendous profits and payouts to shareholders. As CPUC’s own report states “IOUs are inherently incentivized to make investments to drive an increase in their rate base and therefore, their profitability.” (see pg 24) That incentive led to $4.336 billion in transmission costs paid by California ratepayers in 2021, up 38 percent from 2016 statewide, and an astronomical 66% increase in PG&E alone.

It’s a raw deal for energy consumers who pay a substantial amount in their energy bill for costs that have nothing to do with actual energy rates, but it’s a profit rainmaker for utilities. CPUC’s report notes “conservative assumptions indicate that every dollar put into transmission rate base costs ratepayers in excess of $3.50 over the life of a transmission asset.” (see pg. 37) The utilities know it pays to sink money into the blackhole that is yesterday’s grid. 

Now, with rooftop solar growing throughout the state and increasingly popular with low to middle income energy consumers due to successful programs like net metering, utilities want to stop any competition and secure the monopoly that allows them to keep treating ratepayers like a cash machine. At the same time, utilities promise a clean energy future they are unable to produce. In reality the growth of rooftop solar through net metering is the fastest way to get more clean energy on the grid and reduce transmission costs for the benefit of all ratepayers. 

It’s time to stop blaming  renewable energy for the utility and fossil fuel industries’ profit-driving rate hikes and failures.  

CALSSA publishes fact sheet on how to follow new state regulations for handling end-of-life PV modules

This week, CALSSA published a fact sheet detailing how to comply with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control’s (DTSC) new regulations on handling “end-of-life” PV modules. The regulations apply to panels that are damaged, inoperable, or decommissioned. If you are an installer, manufacturer, operations and maintenance company, distributor, or practically any business that touches end-of-life modules, you will need to follow the new regulations.

The suite of regulations is the result of the DTSC allowing end-of-life modules to be managed as universal waste. Previously DTSC regulations called for end-of-life PV modules to be managed as hazardous waste, which required the industry to follow onerous requirements, though they were rarely enforced. While the universal waste regulations are less stringent than the previous hazardous waste regulations, we expect the DTSC may increase enforcement and assess fines to those not in compliance.

The regulations remove barriers to recycling end-of-life PV modules, but more policy change is needed for PV recyclers to open shop in California. While CALSSA continues to advocate for policies that enable a healthy recycling market in the state, we strongly encourage companies to recycle modules, if they cannot be reused, with one of CALSSA’s recycling member companies in Nevada and Arizona. For more information on reusing and recycling, please see FAQ #1 in the fact sheet.

CALSSA Welcomes New Board Members

Three Outstanding Individuals To Help Lead California’s Largest Clean Energy Business Group

The California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA), California’s oldest and largest clean energy business group, announces the addition of three industry leaders to serve on its board of directors.

The three new board members are: 

• Samuel Adeyemo, co-founder and COO of Aurora Solar, a leading solar design and sales software provider.

• Martin Herzfeld, Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) Certified Master Trainer for Photovoltaics (PV), California Licensed Solar (C46) and Electrical Contractor (C10), Instrumentation (C7), OSHA-Authorized Construction Safety Trainer, and Third-Party Technical Inspector with 15 years of industry experience. 

• Adam Gerza, VP of Business Development at Energy Toolbase, an industry leading software platform.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome these three outstanding industry leaders to our board,” said CALSSA Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro. “We will benefit tremendously from their insights and expertise as we continue our work to strengthen and grow the California local solar and storage market.”

Coalition for Clean Air Hosts CALSSA on Clean Backup Power Webinar

CALSSA’s Bernadette Del Chiaro joined a panel of experts on clean back up alternatives for California consumers hosted by the Coalition for Clean Air. Del Chiaro presented information contained in this summary slide deck along with a factsheet focused on residential backup power options. CALSSA joined experts from Bloom Energy and Marin Clean Energy on a panel moderated by Politco reporter Debra Kahn.

As State Enters New Lockdown, CALSSA Issues Reminder That Solar Is An Essential Service

The California Energy Commission issued a statement back in April clarifying that statewide orders in response to COVID-19 deem solar installers as essential. As California enters a new round of lockdowns ahead of the holidays starting Sunday, CALSSA wants to remind our members of the state's declaration from last Spring.

With this essential service exemption comes the challenge of keeping our workers and customers safe from the spread of the Covid-19 virus. CALSSA is aware of new CALOSHA regulations related to the pandemic. Our Safety Committee is reviewing them and we will share an analysis shortly.

New Study Documents Superior Performance of Solar Water Heating

Research Shows Solar Thermal Is Essential for Electrification of Water Heating

Sacramento—A new study from Flagstaff Research commissioned by the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) finds that solar water heating with electric backup can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 90% compared to traditional gas tank water heaters. This surpasses the performance of heat pump water heaters, which reduce emissions by 81% on average across California climate zones.  

For multifamily properties, solar water heating produces more than twice as much bill savings as heat pumps. For residential systems, solar water heating systems reduce monthly bills while heat pumps increase them.

“Solar water heating is a proven technology that fits perfectly with California’s future of all-electric housing and carbon-free energy,” said CALSSA Policy Director Brad Heavner.

California policy makers are intent on electrification of water heating. CALSSA produced this research to demonstrate that solar water heating needs to be part of that effort. In California to date, the majority of solar water heaters installed have used gas backup heaters, but solar water heaters are also very effective when used with electric backup heaters. Solar water heating can be used both for fuel switching from gas to electric and to significantly increase the efficiency of existing water heating.

State agencies are implementing two new programs for water heating electrification. The Building Initiative for Low Emissions Development (BUILD) program targets new construction and will be run by the California Energy Commission (CEC). The Technology and Equipment for Clean Heating (TECH) program will address retrofits and will by run by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). In addition, CEC aims to use Title 24 building standards to encourage the construction of all electric housing. Because heat pumps increase energy costs for homeowners, solar water heating is often a better option.

Flagstaff Research evaluated thirteen water heating technology configurations for cost and performance using detailed simulation models for customer behavior and real world conditions in every region of the state.

Heat pumps are only efficient if they can heat water slowly. Because customers expect hot water to be recharged quickly, heat pumps make heavy use of electric resistance elements. This results in significant electricity usage during TOU peak periods, which increases costs and emissions. Solar water heating systems, in contrast, can almost entirely avoid reliance on electricity during peak periods.

“Heating water is one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in buildings, and solar water heating can eliminate most of those emissions without adding to electricity consumption during hours when the electric grid is already strained,” said Flagstaff Research Principal Josh Plaisted.

CALSSA makes the following recommendations:

• CEC and CPUC should proceed quickly to implement programs for water heating electrification. Those programs should have a strong focus on solar water heating.

• CEC should incorporate the new research to ensure that appropriate credit under Title 24 building standards is given to homebuilders that install solar water heating.

CALSSA Releases New Report Showing Job Creation, Clean Energy and Energy Resilience Benefits from Local Solar and Storage Investments

Yesterday, CALSSA released a new report “Shovel Ready for Recovery: A Blueprint for Jobs and Economic Recovery Through Local Solar and Storage Investments,” highlighting the job creation, clean energy, and energy resiliency benefits from local solar and storage investments as outlined in CALSSA’s ten-point plan of action. The report is available here.

We also held a virtual briefing yesterday highlighting key points in the report. You can watch a recording of that briefing here. We want to thank our speakers: Ethan Elkind, Director, Climate Program, Center for Law, Energy & the Environment, UC Berkeley, Devin Hampton, CEO, Utility API, Catherine Von Burg, CEO, SimpliPhi, and Troy Carroll, Operations Manager, CED Greentech, Bakersfield.

A Year in Review: Despite Blackouts, PSPS, Wildfires, the Legislature Fails to Act Decisively On Energy

Calling 2020 an unproductive year is an understatement. This was by far the worst legislative year in a long time in addressing the state’s glaring problems related to energy, or in capitalizing on the state’s growing potential for clean energy and green jobs.

There was a last ditch effort to address wildfire risks, including providing up to $181 million in funding for back up solar and storage systems that failed to go anywhere. There was AB 341 – (Ting) to provide energy efficiency funding for schools as well as cost-recovery for electric vehicle charging infrastructure pushed by the building trades that passed. And there was the CALSSA supported SB 364 (Mitchell) that removed an inadvertent increase in taxes for non-residential properties that have solar in order to avoid opposition to the SEIU-backed Prop 15 this November. But given the magnitude of energy-related problems facing the state and given the huge potential for clean energy solutions, along with broad public support, 2020 was, plainly put, a dismal year.

It was not for a lack of effort on CALSSA’s part. In January, as the smoke cleared (the 2019 smoke, that is) revealing PG&E’s felonious wildfires and the public grew ever more wary of the reliability of the electric grid, CALSSA set out to work with new legislators on various ideas to spur a decade of growth for distributed energy solutions. The outlook was bright: the state had a $6 billion surplus and we had strong support among rank-n-file legislators for distributed solutions to wildfire risks, climate change, rising energy bills, and energy reliability.

Ambitiously, we sponsored an unprecedented number of bills to lower permitting costs, provide real cost-benefit analyses for distributed generation, equip 2000 schools with backup storage systems, launch a virtual power plant market, and prohibit discriminatory fees for solar consumers. We worked to provide a date extension for the CSI-Thermal program. And, we had early discussions about a state tax credit for solar and storage as well as worked with Assembly member Gabriel to get nearly half the state legislature on a letter to congress urging the extension and expansion of the Federal Investment Tax Credit. More details on these bills and others can be found in our 2020 legislative roundup.

Unfortunately, due to Covid-related disruptions along with a lack of prioritization of addressing energy issues in Sacramento, none of these measures were granted a single public hearing. They were deemed “inessential” in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic and were dropped quickly in the spring. Only Ting’s bill on storage at schools had potential into the summer but, given friction over hiring practices, even the chair of the all-important budget committee could not win support for the idea.

Meanwhile, Governor Gavin Newsom announced his Task Force on Business and Jobs Recovery chaired by Tom Steyer. CALSSA pitched several ideas to this Task Force including streamlined permitting via NREL’s SolarApp and funding energy storage at schools – all ideas would spur immediate “shovel ready” projects, put people back to work, and have zero impact on the general budget. But the process for engaging with this group of 80 has been unclear and uneventful thus far. We will keep working at it. 

CALSSA was able to engage with the California Energy Commission earlier this year to clarify that solar is an essential business under Covid-19 lockdown rules. This helped many of our businesses slowly come out of the economic blackout that plagued March and April. Our recent survey shows we are far from fully recovered. 

Optimism, while hard to come by these days, can be found in the new legislators who are emerging as smart and advanced in their thinking about energy. See our roundup for a few of these new faces. We look forward to working with these legislators in 2021 when a new session begins anew in January. In the meantime, CALSSA will convene our membership in October to plan out our policy agenda for the coming year. Thank you for your support and please stay involved.

CLEAN ENERGY IS SOLUTION TO BLACKOUTS, NOT THE CAUSE

How solar and batteries can and do help avoid energy shortages and keep the lights on in California

Solar is part of the solution to avoiding future blackouts, not the problem 

The fossil fuel industry and its supporters jumped at the opportunity to blame clean, renewable energy sources, like solar power, in the aftermath of California’s mid-August blackouts. The attack on solar did not pass the smell test. Fossil fuel power plants under contract with utility companies were the resource that failed to deliver the much-needed electricity which resulted in the blackouts. 

According to analysis by the non-profit organization Vote Solar, California's fleet of fossil fuel power plants underperformed by 17%, leading to major shortfalls in resources during the heatwave. In contrast, solar out-performed expectations by 176%, helping make the weekend’s shortfalls smaller and less extensive.  In fact, solar energy played an especially critical role covering California’s highest energy needs during the hottest part of the day, mid-afternoon, which is when the solar power really shines. Behind-the-meter rooftop solar energy systems contribute to the reliability of the electric grid by reducing energy demand from over a million different customer-sites statewide and exporting surplus power to neighboring houses and businesses. These resources are “invisible” to grid managers like CAISO because they appear more as energy efficiency or conservation, or in the case of surplus electrons sent back to the grid via the important Net Energy Metering (NEM) program, are literally not counted by grid operators as a resource, even though they help play a role in meeting local demand.  

Looking ahead, to prevent more blackouts like this last one, California needs more solar energy, not less, with more batteries to cover evening load as discussed below.  

Distributed batteries can do even more to help keep the lights on, if utilities would embrace it 

The mid-August blackouts provide a unique view into how distributed behind-the-meter solar and energy storage can and did significantly help overall grid reliability. 

During the August heatwave, California’s energy regulators called upon the solar and storage industry to work with customers to voluntarily modify charging and discharging of their batteries in line with the grid’s greatest needs. Many customers complied, without compensation, to help save the day as highlighted in the joint letter to the governor. 

We can do more. During the blackouts, energy was sitting in batteries throughout the state while grid operators were desperately trying to pipe in electrons from Wyoming, Utah and Arizona. When they failed to do so, they turned off the lights for hundreds of thousands of people. While energy regulators did turn to distributed energy storage customers to prevent more blackouts on August 16, 2020 and in the following days, it was haphazard and left a lot of value on the table. 

Nearly every battery energy storage device in California has the ability to communicate offsite at near instant speed. But the California utilities do not have the software to communicate with the distributed systems and energy regulators have not set up a market mechanism for compensating storage customers.  

People all over California took collective action to turn down their thermostats and turn off their lights in the days following August 14 and 15, 2020. This Flex Alert helped but imagine how much more energy could be mined from homes and businesses if charged-up batteries could be deployed for the benefit of the entire grid. Aggregating all of these small batteries together would form a virtual power plant large enough to keep the lights on. California’s energy complex needs to embrace smart, responsive, and advanced clean technologies. 

California has 30,000 batteries located at customer sites throughout the state totaling 530 megawatts (MW) with over 1,000 MWh of energy capacity. In contrast to the 130 MW of energy storage CAISO reported to the media during the blackouts. This amount of energy equals the shortfall for the one hour that CAISO reported on August 14, 2020 led to the utilities order for rolling blackouts. Although rules today prohibit these distributed storage systems to export all of that power to the grid and help meet emergency energy needs upon demand, the potential is there if policy makers align.

This fact illustrates the potential of behind-the-meter energy storage to play a meaningful role in not only reducing load on the electric grid during peak times but to also help meet shortfalls in generation and enable the shutdown of fossil fuel power plants should policy makers allow.  

Beyond blackouts, to a resilient clean energy future. 

Instead of always patching up a broken system of the past, let's build something better for the future. 

While today’s distributed fleet of 30,000 behind-the-meter solar-charged batteries represent a meaningful amount of storage, compared to both the one million solar systems California built since 2006 and the state’s needs for energy storage, the state’s energy storage market remains woefully small. The number of homes, schools and businesses with battery energy storage is growing every day and we can accelerate that growth just like we did when California committed to building one million solar roofs by embracing a One Million Solar Batteries Initiative to achieve market transformation by 2030. 

If the August blackouts taught us one thing, it is that it’s time we unleash the power of solar and storage in California.  

California lacks a comprehensive plan or policy to achieve the goals it needs to truly integrate renewable energy and build a reliable energy grid. Significantly increasing the amount of distributed solar and energy storage over the next few years through a One Million Solar Batteries Initiative would help forestall future blackouts. 

Specific policy goals to achieve this vision include:

• Establish a 10-year incentive program dedicated to market transformation of energy storage

• Reduce friction in the system by cutting red tape around local permitting through the SolarApp, an NREL developed software that provides one-stop-permitting of solar and storage systems. 

• Cut delays and cost increases from utility interconnection delays. 

• Create opportunities for behind-the-meter batteries to participate in California’s electricity grid in meaningful and effective ways. So called “virtual power plant” programs have been proven to work. We need California regulators to unleash the power of energy storage. 

• The federal investment tax credit should be extended and inclusive of energy storage. 

Amidst Blackouts, Wildfires, Covid Setbacks, CPUC Takes Up Utility-Led Effort to Slow Adoption of Local Solar + Storage

Long-awaited “NEM 3” Proceeding Kicks Off, Predetermines Future of Customer-Sited Solar + Energy Storage

Yesterday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) officially opened its much-anticipated proceeding to consider additional modifications to the foundational policy for distributed solar + energy storage, Net Energy Metering (NEM). With a backdrop of Covid-19 that has hit the solar industry hard, blackouts caused by unreliable fossil fuel power plants, and wildfires – widely believed to be a sign of the ever more present impacts of global warming – the CPUC waved the checkered flag yesterday in a decision that will determine whether and how many local solar and solar-charged batteries are built in the coming decade. 

“Solar and storage companies, still struggling to recover from Covid-19, are bracing for a utility-led effort to turn the lights off on the future of rooftop solar and garage batteries,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director of the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA). “From nearly every angle – climate change, clean air, jobs, economic stimulus, grid reliability and wildfire risk – growing, not shrinking, these highly reliable and technologically advanced clean energy resources should be a priority for California policy makers.”

The last time the CPUC took up this policy was in 2016 with the “NEM 2.0” decision that gave utilities a win, reducing the rooftop solar market by more than 1,000 MW over the following four years. To put this market loss into perspective, the August 14, 2020 blackout was the result of a shortfall of 500 MW – 1,000 MW of energy generation. 

“As we electrify transportation and homes, and as climate change continues to take its toll, reducing strain on the electric grid and animating innovation and resources at the local level is going to be critical to California’s clean energy future,” warned Del Chiaro. “We really need to stop looking to the utilities and the fossil fuel industry for answers and start looking to ourselves and all the innovation and investments that come from the community level on up.”

The order issued today kicks off a proceeding that will likely get underway with utility input this fall. Some utilities and natural gas companies are already getting their message out with opinion editorials and consumer-facing videos disparaging rooftop solar. The CPUC decision is scheduled to take more than a year to conclude.

Covid-19 Solar & Storage Business Survey – Summer 2020

50% Better Than April; Plenty of Room for Improvement As Pandemic Impacts Majority of Businesses.

As part of our ongoing work to address industry needs during the Covid-19 pandemic, CALSSA did a follow up survey of our members from July 17-30, 2020 with an eye toward determining whether conditions were improving. Results can be found here, including some of these highlights: 

• Of our 252 company respondents, 80% reported being overall negatively impacted by Covid-19 with 18% in the extreme negative category compared to 41% in April.  

• 50% report doing better than the early months of the pandemic, 34% report doing worse, and 16% report no change in business. Another measure of recovery: 76% of respondents report either no change or an increase in business activity for this summer quarter compared to summer 2019. 

• 48% of companies received some form of federal assistance. 6% of companies were denied all forms of assistance.

• Looking ahead, 51% report having a somewhat or a very optimistic outlook for the next six months, a 10% jump over how companies were feeling during CALSSA’s first survey conducted in April. Driving optimism, the vast majority of companies have a pipeline of projects, although customer interest is still not what it was pre-Covid. 

CALSSA has felt the pain of Covid-19 alongside our companies. In April, we made cuts to adjust for lower income and rolled out some special Covid-19 fundraising efforts to help make up for the loss of in person events. Many thanks to our members who stepped up to help this summer! We continue to advocate for policies that will get us all back to work even as we defend foundational policies from utility attacks such as SMUD’s attack on NEM and the IOUs upcoming campaign against NEM. 

Please let us know if there’s more we can be doing for you. 

Fossil Fuel Plants Failed Us, Not Solar

What's needed is more solar-charged batteries, not more peaker plants

Some headlines and quotes from experts erroneously lay blame for the recent blackouts on solar energy. This couldn't be further from the truth. In fact, solar energy technologies did exactly what solar energy can be relied upon to do: generate tons of energy on hot sunny days! In fact, if not for all the solar power on the grid this past weekend, the outages would have likely lasted far longer and been more widespread.

The blame should be laid at the feet of the fossil fuel industry who had power plants fail to produce when they were most needed. The idea of building more peaker plants, or prolonging the life of the old plants, is a recipe for more energy outages in the months and years ahead. 

Moving beyond blame, what is really needed is more solar energy, not less, combined with more batteries to cover evening peak. The state is not doing enough on this front. 

The chart below based on August 14, 2020 CALISO data demonstrates this point.

Since the last electricity crisis in 2001, California has built 9 gigawatts (GW) of local solar energy at over a million customer sites throughout the state. Without those systems helping lower peak demand on hot summer days, such as August 14, 2020, the strain on the state’s electric grid would have been much greater, as portrayed in the yellow line of actual total energy usage. The red line depicts CAISO’s visibility on electricity demand. Because the electricity generated by behind-the-meter solar systems is consumed entirely on local circuits, CAISO data does not reflect the contribution of local solar and storage to the state's energy picture. 
 
If California builds 3 GW of additional energy storage systems at customer locations that can be dispatched during grid shortages, it would further trim evening peak needs. This is shown in the figure as the dotted blue line. CALSSA estimates the state can achieve this level of build-out within the next five years with state policies.

What is interesting to those of us who were around for the previous rolling blackouts is that California’s electricity needs still peak in the late afternoon, around 3pm. All the solar we've installed on the grid via NEM interconnected systems has had a significant effect of lowering peak demand, and shifting it into the evening hours. Because CALISO only manages the centralized grid and no other energy regulator (CEC or CPUC) has stepped in to communicate the complete picture, the public is left thinking Californians use more electricity at 6pm than we do at 3pm. The problem with this is of course it gives the impression that solar energy is either not doing its job or it is irrelevant to today’s energy needs (or both!). Nothing could be further from the truth. We do, of course, have an evening peak which requires more energy storage, not more fossil plants. 

This is the message CALSSA is pushing out to the public, policy makers, and the media. Please follow us on on various social media platforms (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn) to share this content and spread the word. 

California Lawmakers Urge Congress to Prioritize Clean Energy in COVID-19 Economic Recovery Efforts

52 Legislators Sign Bipartisan Letter Urging Focus on Clean Energy; Emphasize Importance to California’s Economy, Wildfire Mitigation, and Climate Change Response

Facing soaring unemployment, ominous predictions for the 2020 wildfire season, and the persistent threat of climate change, this week a bipartisan group of California State Legislators led by Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) sent a joint letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield) urging immediate economic recovery action around clean energy. 

The joint letter—which is signed by nearly half of the California Legislature—urges the two House Leaders, who both represent the Golden State, to “take immediate steps to support the clean energy industry in the State of California,” including by extending and strengthening federal tax credits for clean energy technologies, continuing incentives for electric vehicles, and extending residential and commercial tax incentives for energy efficiency. The letter notes that the clean energy industry accounts for over 500,000 jobs in California, and argues that “[s]upporting this vital industry will protect hundreds of thousands of jobs, promote economic recovery, enhance our energy resiliency, help us respond to devastating wildfires, and is critical to California’s efforts to address climate change.” 

“Investing in clean energy has a quadruple bottom-line for California,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), the lead author of the joint letter. “It will lead to faster economic recovery, lower energy bills, improved resiliency, and cleaner air for folks across our state. We’re asking our federal partners—especially the Californians in leadership positions in the House of Representatives—to prioritize clean energy in the next round of economic recovery efforts.” 

“California is leading the nation in green technology development and jobs, showing that smart environmental policy can be smart economic policy,” said Assemblyman Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo). “However, for us to solidify the gains we have made and continue to grow, Congress must extend the investment tax credit so Californians can do what we do best: innovate, innovate, innovate.” 

The letter notes that the COVID-19 pandemic has compounded the threats posed by wildfires and Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) and argues that the combination of Shelter in Place orders with prolonged blackouts could have devastating economic and public safety consequences. It further argues that clean energy technology—such as battery backup systems charged by solar energy—can keep the power on and critical enterprises functioning during such challenges. 

Dan Jacobsen, Director of Environment California, a leading environmental group, applauded the letter, noting that “The pandemic has not slowed the danger of global warming. Restoring our clean energy workforce is key to protecting public health and staving off the worst impacts of climate change.” 

“Clean energy, such as rooftop solar and batteries, are some of the most shovel ready projects around,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association. “With help from Congress, such as extending and expanding the Investment Tax Credit, we can put people back to work right away and create jobs in every corner of the state and country.” 

"A growing clean energy industry helps families on the front lines of climate change by lowering household energy bills, replacing polluting fossil fuels and creating good-paying careers with low barriers to entry,” said Elise Hunter, Policy Director at Grid Alternatives. “Extending the Investment Tax Credit is an important tool for reducing the cost of solar and storage projects that has made it possible for GRID Alternatives to make solar technology and job training accessible to thousands of California’s low-income residents." 

Read the full press release here >>

Resources on COVID, Cal/OSHA, and your workforce protection questions

As COVID Shelter-in-Place orders start to lift and companies start working from shared office spaces again, there are new questions the employees, managers, and business owners need to address. To protect your team, it is important to implement clear, written guidelines and procedures so everyone can return to work safely. CALSSA member Carothers DiSante & Freudenberger LLP has put together a suite of resources to help businesses across California as they get ready for the next step in returning to Post-COVID operations. The Covid-19 Workplace Prevention and Response Plan is a starter template for important items for companies to implement to better ensure the safety of all team members. It lays out examples of specific language regarding the responsibilities of supervisors and all employees to ensure a safe workplace, training topics, preventative measures, and risk assessments. The other factsheets help answer questions around Cal/OSHA requirements, worker employee rights, privacy, management responsibilities, and navigating claims & litigation. 

COVID brings unprecedented challenges to workplaces and we hope these resources will be helpful starting points as your company moves forward.

CALSSA's Eight-Point $2 billion+ Economic Stimulus Plan of Action

CALSSA estimates the California solar and storage industry lost a catastrophic 15,000 jobs, over 20% of our workforce, in the first six weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. With the ability to get back to work, we are optimistic that our industry can rebound to not only our pre-COVID state but to a state of healthy, sustained annual growth that will bring many benefits including more jobs, consumer savings, energy resiliency in the face of upcoming fire season, and cleaner air.

Recovery and growth of the state’s most promising clean energy marketplace, however, will require that policy makers give attention to removing barriers and encouraging growth. To help guide and inform policy making in the next six months, CALSSA published an eight-point short- and longer-term plan of action. 

1. Expand and Extend the Federal Investment Tax Credit

2. Launch Resilient Schools Initiative

3. Cut Red Tape Through “No Touch” Permitting

4. Launch One Million Solar-Charged Batteries Initiative

5. Unleash Power of Existing Ratepayer Storage & Equity Programs

6. Remove Utility Barriers for Connecting Solar & Storage Systems

7. Increase Efforts to Reduce Natural Gas Usage in Buildings

8. Protect Clean Energy Investments from Unnecessary Local Taxes

You are encouraged to share this plan of action with any policy makers you know. There is an action item for every level of government in this plan and the benefits of these eight action items will bring economic stimulus and multiplier effects to every community in the state. 

Department of Treasury Agrees to Extend Deadline for ITC Safe Harbor due to COVID-19

The U.S. Department of the Treasury sent a letter in early May 2020 to Finance Committee Chair Charles Grassley stating its plans to modify "the relevant rules" related to safe harbor for the Energy Investment Tax Credit (ITC) providing more certainty for projects on longer timelines that have experienced disruptions due to COVID-19.  A few weeks later, on May 27, 2020, the Treasury and IRS put out a notice extending safe harbor provisions for projects begun in 2016 or 2017. More information about the COVID-related decision can be found here.