SACRAMENTO, California — After months of debate and two postponed votes, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) voted this month to update incentives for owners of apartment buildings, schools and businesses that install solar panels. But environmental and solar experts say these changes are a step in the wrong direction.
“Basically, you don’t get as much money for your solar as you used to,” said Anthony Wexler with the Air Quality Research Center at UC Davis.
This means changes in the credits owners get for generating power.
Critics said these new changes hurt apartments, schools, farms and businesses selling solar power to the grid and overall reducing incentives to use solar.
“It means we’re generating less renewable energy and so therefore putting more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is what we don’t want to do,” said Wexler.
Last December, homeowners with solar panels were impacted when the commission reduced payments to single-family homes that sell excess power from newly installed solar panels.
“People don’t do it as much," said Wexler. "It hurts the solar industry, and it means less renewable energy is generated and that’s just bad for climate."
Commissioners said the changes are needed to reverse what they call unfair subsidies.
In a statement, the CPUC said, in part, the decision, "strengthens consumer protections for rooftop solar customers... and implements a new law that mandates fair wage requirements for construction workers on certain solar and storage projects."
Solar advocates said under the new rules, customers would be paid about 80% less per unit of energy they sell.
“It's very counterintuitive, and it runs opposite of what California should be doing and says it's proud of itself doing in terms of being a leader on climate change," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association.
California has mandated solar on new homes and apartment buildings, schools and other commercial buildings.
“We are sort of mandating this technology that promises to save average everyday consumers real money while solving climate change," said Del Chiaro. "But the public utilities commission really under pressure from utilities like PG&E just stripped away many of the benefits that onsite rooftop solar provides.”
The reduced incentives take effect immediately for new solar customers. Older units will be gradually phased in over the next two decades.
The commission also said existing rates would remain the same for customers enrolled in affordable housing programs.
