WATCH: Regulators cast more clouds over California solar market
California regulators are poised to shake up the solar market for the state’s apartments, schools and farms.
An administrative law judge is proposing changes that critics say make the economics of investing in solar projects unappealing.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) rewrote the net energy metering (NEM) rules for solar on single-family homes last year and could do the same for bigger complexes that have one solar array with multiple metered hookups.
Canary Media: Can California pull off its clean energy ambitions? (Podcast)
On The Carbon Copy podcast this week:
California is at a crossroads. The state already has nearly 1.8 million rooftop-solar systems, 5 gigawatts of batteries and 1.6 million electric cars. But it is also facing some serious challenges.
The list is long: controversial policy changes, extreme weather threats and backlogs — lots and lots of backlogs.
It is facing serious delays in interconnecting utility-scale solar and storage projects, which is keeping fossil-gas-fired power plants open that were supposed to shut down years ago. And that’s not even counting the gigawatts of offshore wind, geothermal power, long-duration energy storage and other clean, firm resources called for in the state’s long-term plans — none of which have been built yet.
This week, Jeff St. John, Canary Media’s director of news and special projects, sits down with three prominent people who are trying to move the state forward:
State Senator Josh Becker
Grid Alternatives Bay Area Executive Director Arthur Bart-Williams
California Solar and Storage Association Executive Director Bernadette Del Chiaro
This conversation was recorded live at Canary Live Bay Area.
LA TIMES: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar
BY SAMMY ROTH, COLUMNIST
Government officials in California and the rest of the country should be doing everything they can to support clean energy.
In a world racked by increasingly dangerous heat waves, fires and storms — not to mention startlingly deadly air pollution — it’s hard to go wrong throwing money at climate-friendly energy sources that can replace climate-disrupting coal, oil and gas.
So when the California Public Utilities Commission proposed this summer to slash incentives for apartment dwellers, schools and farms that want to install solar panels — a vote is scheduled for next week— I was immediately skeptical.