NY TIMES: California Reduces Subsidies for Homes With Rooftop Solar

The decision, which would reduce the incentive for homeowners to install solar panels, could influence other states to make similar changes.

By Ivan Penn

California regulators voted unanimously on Thursday to significantly reduce how much utilities have to pay homeowners with rooftop solar panels for power they send to the electric grid — a decision that could hurt the growing renewable energy business.

The five members of the California Public Utilities Commission said the existing payments to homeowners through a program known as net metering amounted to an excessively generous subsidy that was no longer needed to encourage the use of solar panels. Under the proposal adopted on Thursday, compensation for the energy sent to the grid by rooftop panels will be reduced by about 75 percent for new rooftop solar homes starting in April.

LA Times Editorial: The new plan to slash rooftop solar incentives is better — but still too extreme

BY THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD

Nearly a year after announcing a plan to gut California’s successful rooftop solar incentive program, state regulators have released a revised version that does away with some of the most extreme provisions pushed by the state’s big monopoly utility companies. So it may be tempting to view the California Public Utilities Commission’s latest proposal as a reasonable middle ground.

That would be a mistake.

NY Times: California Regulators Propose Cutting Compensation for Rooftop Solar

It’s the second attempt by the state Public Utilities Commission to change how people are paid for the excess energy their solar panels send to the grid.

By Ivan Penn

For a second time in less than a year, regulators in California moved on Thursday to roll back the compensation that homeowners receive from utilities for the excess electricity their rooftop solar panels send to the electric grid — payments that power companies and some consumer groups have argued hurt poor and low-income households.

The new proposal from the California Public Utilities Commission would cut the benefit for almost all new rooftop solar customers by about 75 percent starting in April. Under current rules, households that send excess power to the grid receive credits on their utility bills that are equivalent to retail electricity rates. The system of credits is known as net energy metering.

LA Times: California pushes a new plan to cut rooftop solar incentives

BY SAMMY ROTH

California is poised to reduce payments to homes and businesses that go solar for clean electricity they supply to the power grid — a landmark shift in how the state promotes a crucial technology for fighting climate change.

The Public Utilities Commission’s proposal would keep the payment rates higher — at least for a few years — than a previous plan that faced sharp criticism from the solar industry and climate activists.

But it could still have dramatic ripple effects in the burgeoning rooftop solar market as the Golden State struggles to phase out planet-warming fossil fuels while avoiding blackouts and keeping electricity bills from spiraling out of control.