New California rules would crush rooftop solar for renters

[Think. Again.]

Jeff St. John 28 August 2023
Full Article: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/new-california-rules-would-crush-rooftop-solar-for-renters

A proposal to drastically cut solar’s value for apartments, schools and farms could undermine California’s climate and energy equity pledges, opponents say.


(Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images)

California is on the verge of drastically undermining the value of shared solar systems for renters — and solar groups and environmental justice advocates are crying foul.

The policy changes set forth in this month’s proposed decision from the California Public Utilities Commission would essentially eliminate financial incentives for property owners to install rooftop solar in shared settings, such as schools, farms or multifamily dwellings.

The new rules would put solar power out of reach for California’s nearly 17 million renters, who have been largely locked out of the state’s residential rooftop solar boom, these groups say. It would also break a pledge from the CPUC to protect low-income communities from the major changes to the state’s solar net-metering rules the agency imposed last year, they warn.

Pushback to the proposal, which could come up for a vote by CPUC commissioners next month, has been fierce. More than 100 community and environmental justice groups sent a letter to the CPUC and Governor Gavin Newsom demanding changes to a proposal they warned would ruin the economics of in-progress multifamily solar projects that could serve an estimated 100,000 renters in the state. Over 150 local elected officials signed a similar letter decrying the proposal as ​“fundamentally unfair,” as it would ​“force tenants, schools and farms to buy all of their power from the utility even when it is generated on their own rooftop or field.”

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Full Article: https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/solar/new-california-rules-would-crush-rooftop-solar-for-renters