California solar plus storage shows consistent installs, residential growth

By John Weaver, PV Magazine

CALSSA has obtained the interconnection data for California solar and solar plus storage for the first six months of 2019, showing significant volume of solar+storage in residential markets while commercial buyers are considering solar alone.

The California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) has collected and shared data on California’s behind the meter solar+storage activity in the first half of 2019, with data that goes back to the beginning of 2016.

The data suggests that within the three main investor owned utilities – San Diego Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas & Electric – commercial interconnections are running slightly behind the 2018 numbers (below image) in terms of projects interconnected. However, residential systems seem to be picking up a bit.

View fullsize

One chart that gives a bit of indigestion is the time for approval for stand alone and solar+storage installations – if only because of the high variance, but also because quite a few larger projects take more than a year to get approved. The projects are divided into residential, commercial, education and industrial with time frames ranging roughly from 30 to 60 days for residential, to two years for industrial systems.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Adding solar power to a storage installation seems to speed up the amount of time for a residential installation, however, it slows a commercial installation.

In Pacific Gas & Electric territory 20% of residential energy storage systems are stand alone, while in the other territories solar is coupled with storage 99-100% of time. Commercial installations had an inverse relationship though – with only 40% of storage projects coupled with solar power, suggesting the market is being driven by other factors like demand charges.

While not broken out on an annual basis, so tougher to see recent trends, we did get insight into the top manufacturers of modules and inverters. Hanwha really has a market hold on residential modules (below chart) at 23% of product deployed, with LG & Sunpower bringing the top three to 49% of market share. The report does note 107 unique solar module brand names since 2016.

View fullsize

Commercial modules have SunPower on top though at 14% of all systems, with LG and Canadian Solar at 10%.

Inverters are a much tighter marketplace – with 56% of residential being SolarEdge product, followed by 20% Enphase and 12% SunPower (some of which are Enphase). The commercial market is 13% SMA, 16% Yaskawa-Solectria and 14% SolarEdge.

Installation companies are to be found aplenty – with the long tail of residential installation companies at just shirt of 1,700, and over 450 commercial installation companies noted. In the residential space, Vivint has installed over 8,000 systems totalling 50 MW and 13% of total capacity. Quickly this falls off to Tesla (SunRun mostly) at 6% of systems, SunRun at 5%, and SunPower at 3% – then a massive number of companies at 2% and less showing that customers who own pick from a variety of sources.

View fullsize

Source: https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/08/23/california-solar-plus-storage-shows-consistent-installs-residential-growth/

California board votes to limit who can install energy storage

By Christian Roselund, PV Magazine

View fullsize

The vote by a committee of the Contractor State License Board was not the worst outcome, but it begins a process to limit the kind of energy storage systems that solar installers who do not have an electrician’s license can put online.

Last night the Legislative Committee of California’s Contractor State License Board (CSLB) voted to begin the process of limiting the installation of energy storage systems, including those that accompany rooftop solar, to licensed electricians.

In specific terms, this means those who hold a C-10 electrical license, and not solar installers who only hold C-46 licenses. While the committee did not go forward with an outright ban, the option that it chose would allow solar installers with C-46 licenses to install energy storage only under the following circumstances:

• Limit to a PV system up to 10kW on a single-family dwelling or duplex with a battery system that must not exceed a 5kW backup/20kWh energy

• The battery system is installed at same time as solar PV system

• No upgrade or alteration is made to the existing electrical system

California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) blamed both the utilities and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), which had pushed for the outright ban on installations by C-46 license holders. The organization had choice words for CSLB’s action:

It was a blatant, outright abuse of power threatening to lead to arbitrary and capricious restrictions on thousands of workers and their contractor employers with absolutely no empirical data in support: simply because the utilities and the IBEW say so.  

CALSSA and Vote Solar testified against the proposal during last night’s five-hour meeting, and CALSSA mobilized its members to testify as well. The organization says that concerns over safety are a “sham” and cites what it describes as the “impeccable” record of California’s solar installers, most of whom hold C-46 licenses.

“Watching the investor owned utilities and their henchmen bend a state agency to their will in broad daylight, attacking us in yet another forum at the expense of harming real businesses not to mention the state’s clean energy goals, was disturbing,” stated CALSSA.

But they were not alone; Sierra Club also testified in favor of the IBEW-backed proposal to entirely limit the installation of energy storage to C-10 license holders. In an email to pv magazine, Sierra Club described its position as merely wanting to “continue” the requirement that only C-10 licensed contractors can install energy storage, and “closing a loophole” that allowed non-electricians to install batteries. Sierra Club’s testimony provided further insight into its position:

We must have qualified people install and maintain battery storage systems in the safest and most effective manner whether they are stand alone or are paired with solar. For us, that means all battery storage systems – from residential to utility scale – should be installed only by licensed C-10 contractors with state certified electricians.

This is far from the end; CALSSA says that despite the desire of the IBEW and the utilities to put this matter to rest at the next meeting on September 24, that this is not going to happen. Instead, CALSSA says that it will “likely take months” for CSLB to develop the details of this restriction, which will be followed by another hearing and vote. “We are talking 2-3 years before any potential change hits the market,” stated CALSSA.

Source: https://pv-magazine-usa.com/2019/08/07/california-board-votes-to-limit-who-can-install-energy-storage/

California clears final hurdle for state's landmark solar panel mandate for new homes

By Jeff Daniels, CNBC

A requirement for new homes built in California starting in 2020 to include solar rooftop panels is now formally part of the state's building code. It follows approval Tuesday by the California Building Standards Commission of a plan endorsed in May by a state energy panel.

The action by the state building standards commission came in a unanimous 8-0 vote and makes California the first state in the nation to mandate solar-energy installations on most single-family homes as well as multi-family residential buildings up to three stories, including condos and apartment complexes. However, the solar rule has raised concerns the cost to build new homes will soar and further erode home affordability statewide.

The solar requirement is expected to add on average about $9,500 to the cost of new houses but is projected to be offset by about $19,000 in energy savings over a 30-year period, according to the California Energy Commission. Back in May, the energy policy and planning agency approved the requirement for solar panels for most new California homes built starting in 2020.

"Today's unanimous vote was the culmination of more than two years of work by SEIA, it's partner organizations and of course policy makers in the Golden State," said Sean Gallagher, vice president of state affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade association of the solar energy industry. "We hope other states will look at what California has done and consider similar policies to encourage clean and low cost solar energy."

The state has estimated that solar standards applying to most homes and many commercial structures could save California residents and businesses millions in energy costs. The new standards require solar photovoltaics on new residential single-family buildings and multifamily buildings up to three stories high.

"While per capita electricity consumption in the U.S. has increased steadily over the last 40 years, California's per capita consumption has remained flat, due in large measure to building and appliance efficiency standards," California Energy Commission Executive Director Drew Bohan said in remarks Tuesday before the building standards panel in support of the new solar mandate. "The new standards presented today will guide the construction of buildings that will continue to keep costs down, better withstand the impacts of climate change, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

The approved standards still allow new home construction to continue with some natural gas but the state is pushing to reduce gas need over time and facilitate a shift to high-efficiency electric appliances, such as heat pump water heaters.

"These highly energy efficient and solar-powered homes will save families money on their energy bills from the moment they walk through their front door," said Kelly Knutsen, director of technology advancement for the California Solar and Storage Association, an industry trade group. "Homebuyers will also have a solar plus storage option, allowing their home-grown clean energy to work for them day and night."

The California Building Industry Association estimates that only 15 to 20 percent of the single-family homes built in California have solar panel installations. At least seven cities in the state, including San Francisco, already have solar mandates of one form or another on new buildings.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/06/california-clears-final-hurdle-for-state-solar-mandate-for-new-homes.html

An Additional Fund for Solar Power

By Ivan Penn and Inyoung Kang, New York Times

California wants the sun to power homes day and night.

With a measure signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, the state has made a new commitment of $800 million for clean-energy technologies including home storage. The goal is to capture electricity generated by solar panels during daylight hours to help keep the lights on after the sun goes down.

The funds increase the state incentives set aside for energy storage to more than $1 billion. The rebate money can be used for residential and commercial systems, including for schools, farms and businesses.

“We want to make sure that everyone who has rooftop solar also has an energy storage system,” said state Sen. Scott Wiener, a San Francisco Democrat who sponsored the bill. “Once you have a rebate program that the industry knows is stable for a number of years, the industry will invest and innovate.”

According to the California Solar and Storage Association, a trade group, homeowners can expect to pay about $4,500 for the typical installed battery system. That figure is the out-of-pocket cost after a $3,500 state rebate and a federal tax credit worth $2,000.

About a third of the money has been set aside for low-income people to claim first.

The state funds the incentive program with a fee of about 50 cents a month added to utility customers’ bills.

The rebate offer follows Brown’s recent signing of another bill that mandates 100 percent carbon-free electricity in California by 2045. The effort to increase storage is seen as a critical step in reaching the carbon-free goals.

“This is a classic California nuts-and-bolts policy of how to build the dream,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the trade group.

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/us/california-today-solar-power-fund.html