On September 8, the City of Solana Beach became the second jurisdiction in the Golden State to approve a resolution standing up for rooftop solar, sending a strong message to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which will be making a decision later this year on changes to the net energy metering policy in California.  The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a similar resolution earlier this year. Net energy metering is a billing arrangement between rooftop solar producers and their energy providers that credit customers with the excess energy they send back to the grid and debits customers for energy taken from the grid.  This agreement is what has allowed solar to become increasingly accessible to working-class families, small businesses, cities, schools and nonprofit organizations. 

The resolution urging the CPUC to make changes that will keep solar growing sustainably while expanding solar access to low-and-moderate income communities was approved unanimously by the Solana Beach City Council members in a 5-0 vote after hearing public comments overwhelmingly in support of passing the resolution.  Local organizations Climate Action Campaign, SanDiego350 and CleanEarth4Kids joined the Hammond Climate Solutions team along with residents from Solana Beach and the Solar Rights Alliance in calling in to make public comments, letting the Solana Beach City Council know they were in full support of the resolution.  Many others submitted written comments in support of the resolution. 

The only comment that wasn’t emphatically in support of the resolution was unsurprisingly from a San Diego Gas & Electric employee, and the other speakers addressed SDG&E’s disingenuous equity arguments, which council members acknowledged were passionately and accurately relayed. 

“SDG&E and Sempra are trying to mislead the public by citing studies that lack credibility to eliminate rooftop solar, a cost-effective, proven solution that reduces climate racism in California and slows the climate crisis, which often impacts communities of concern first and worst - all of this is to increase their profits,” said Tara Hammond, Hammond Climate Solution’s founder and CEO, “Don’t be fooled by their greenwashing campaigns and disingenuous concerns about equity and raising rates.  It’s proven that rooftop solar reduces rates for all ratepayers and is a net benefit to society.”

In the resolution, the City of Solana Beach “urges the CPUC to strengthen NEM to expand access to all households, particularly of low-and-moderate income; expand access to other clean energy technologies that pair with solar, such as batteries; ensure that the solar installations continue to grow in order to meet State and City climate goals; and exclude provisions set forth in the investor-owned utility companies’ proposal such has high monthly fixed fees, and reducing or eliminating credits for sharing electricity with the power grid.” 

The success of rooftop solar relies heavily on a strong net energy metering, and drastic changes that are being proposed by California’s three investor-owned utility companies have the ability to completely disrupt solar adoption across the state.  Slowing down the transition to clean energy means that we will continue to need more dirty energy to meet our needs which will not only further exacerbate the climate crisis but also climate injustices caused by dirty energy, mainly fracked methane gas.  Beyond the environmental benefits clean energy provides, rooftop solar reduces rates for all ratepayers (estimated by Vibrant Energy to the tune of $120 billion for Californians), strengthens the energy grid when paired with storage, provides local green jobs and reduces the risk of wildfires. 

The decision to approve the resolution comes right after President Joe Biden’s administration released a blueprint to produce 45 percent of the nation’s electricity through solar energy by 2050 as a critical part of the effort to fight climate change.  Meeting this goal will require the U.S. to install an average of 30 GW of solar capacity per year between now and 2025 and 60 GW per year from 2025-2030.  If the utility companies are successful in making drastic cuts to net energy metering in California, the nation’s top solar state, meeting this ambitious goal will likely not be possible. 

As the net energy metering proceeding is heating up at the CPUC during the current proceeding where a proposed decision is expected in November and a final decision is expected in January, more organizations and elected officials are publicly coming out in support of a strong net energy metering that will keep rooftop solar growing. 

Just last month, San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo released a letter he sent to Governor Gavin Newsom and the CPUC commissioners stating “Please protect NEM. Drastic changes by the California Public Utilities Commission will negatively impact customers, perpetrate environmental injustices, accelerate the climate crisis, and shatter California’s clean energy industry.”  Last week Business for Good San Diego released a letter supporting net metering.  Many San Diego organizations are a part of a statewide coalition of 347 organizations ranging from small business to equity to climate advocacy groups representing a true grassroots movement, which recently issued a statement of support to protect rooftop solar in California. 

With the City of Solana Beach leading the way for Southern California, local activists and organizations are pushing for other cities in the region to adopt similar resolutions and send a strong message to commissioners.  Tomorrow, the San Diego Community Power Community Advisory Committee will vote on a net energy metering letter, and on Monday the City of Chula Vista will discuss the future of net energy metering at its Sustainability Commission meeting. 

Other cities and organizations are expected to speak out as well since the stakes are so high.  Ending rooftop solar would impact regional Climate Action Plans’ 100 percent clean energy targets and local community choice energy programs while taking away future opportunities for San Diegans to go solar and exacerbating the climate crisis. 

For latest information and up-to-date calls to action, visit our net metering toolkit. 

As California, America’s leading solar state, continues to evaluate its future solar agreement (net energy metering), it is important to acknowledge the current gaps in adoption of clean energy technologies. Although rooftop solar has become increasingly accessible to low-and-moderate income households in recent years due to a decrease in solar prices, increased financing options and an attractive current solar agreement known as net energy metering 2.0, there are still a number of barriers to adoption. The state has said that California needs to triple the amount of rooftop solar in order to meet our climate goals and that will not happen if we don’t include solutions for our communities of concern. 

1. Overcoming the barrier of homeownership through on-bill financing, community solar and incentives for multifamily solar

The primary barrier to the adoption of solar is home ownership and in order to overcome this barrier, we need to be creative and rethink the traditional financing structures for solar. Thankfully, other states have already addressed this barrier successfully and have developed innovative financing structures that allow renters to receive the benefits of solar. The first strategy is on-bill solar financing which ties re-payment for solar and energy efficiency upgrades to the meter, rather than an individual. Hawaii has successfully created the Green Money $aver program (GEM$), which is the first on-bill financing program that requires no upfront cost or credit check which are two other large barriers to adoption. Renters will enjoy an estimated 10 percent reduction on their utility bill at no upfront cost to the tenant or property owner and the credit can be transferred to the next renter. Another innovative way to overcome the barrier of homeownership is community solar, where renters can subscribe to a portion of a community solar project which will then credit against their utility bill, saving them money and letting them get their energy from clean sources. While California has excelled as the nation's number one solar state, we have fallen behind in our ability to enact legislation that supports community solar projects. Finally, the market for multifamily solar, which makes up about 30 percent of California’s housing market, cannot be ignored. Previous statewide incentive programs played a huge role in rapidly accelerating adoption for single family homes but the adoption for multifamily hasn’t had as much success. The Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (“SOMAH”) program is addressing this barrier by providing incentives for multifamily affordable housing that can cover the entire cost of the system. The program is funded through state cap-and-trade funds and has a billion dollar budget over the next 10 years. 

2. Addressing cost barriers through upfront incentive payments 

Another large barrier is high upfront costs for rooftop solar for cash purchases or for portions of state rebates and the 26 percent federal tax credit. California has put billions of dollars behind incentive programs that offer rebates for going solar, however rebates are usually distributed once the system has been installed and interconnected and usually after a lengthy application process, leaving homeowners and property owners to pay the costs for installation and permitting before they ever see a rebate check. Offering upfront payments for incentive programs can eliminate this barrier altogether. Since incentive programs for single family homeowners are beginning to sunset, it's important to also consider no upfront cost financing to address this barrier moving forward, especially for the multifamily sector. Jurisdictions could offer bridge financing programs to address this barrier, which some philanthropists and foundations are currently working to address on a smaller level. 

3. Mending relationships and lack of trust in communities of concern through partnerships with community based organizations

While many solar companies have good intentions, the solar industry has created a barrier because of the lack of trust they have created in communities of concern, which has been plagued by misinformation about solar programs and issues with some less than reputable contractors. Those few bad apples have given the industry a black eye and it’s hurting solar adoption in communities that could benefit from solar the most. It is extremely important that the solar and storage industry, along with program administrators, begin to repair the relationship with communities of concern by partnering with trusted community voices who can provide reliable information to community members in ways that are culturally appropriate and in native languages. The states’ Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing program has done a good job recognizing this barrier and contracts with local and statewide community-based organizations to conduct education and outreach to property owners and tenants to provide information about the program and overall benefits of clean energy. Partnering with trusted community partners, in addition to offering solar marketing materials, proposals and contracts in various languages, is a starting point to start building trust. 

4. Protecting existing solar customers from evolving solar policies

Finally, expanding access to rooftop solar will not happen when statewide legislation and changing statewide solar policies continue to threaten the investment that people have made or are considering making. Fighting for strong policies for new solar customers and ensuring that solar continues to grow is one fight, but when policies threaten the contracts that people have signed and been promised, it creates a distrust in the government and cities who have pushed for people to go solar and solar companies who promised customers their contracts would last for 20 years. The investor-owned utilities are getting bolder in their attempts to kill rooftop solar, weaponizing communities of concern in their attempts to kill rooftop solar, forcing utility-scale solar to be a main solution to meeting 100 percent clean energy targets, which would increase rates for all ratepayers. 

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Overcoming the barriers to solar adoption won’t be easy, but they are necessary in order to ensure that we are meeting local climate action plans and statewide climate goals. Hammond Climate Solutions along with partners at Protect Our Communities Foundation, Brevian Energy and the San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition, recently submitted a National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Grant with a proposal for a program that will expand solar in communities of concern using tactics highlighted earlier in this blog. Communities of concern have long been left out of the clean energy transition and its time to invest resources to accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies for communities who suffer disportionately from the effects of climate injustices and the climate crisis and are also paying a disproportionate amount of income towards skyrocketing energy bills. Learn more about the current attacks on solar and how you can help defend rooftop solar and expand equitable access to all ratepayers. 

In the earlier half of the year, local climate activists rallied to defeat California Assembly Bill 1139 nicknamed the “anti solar bill” in what seemed like a David vs. Goliath Battle, however the utility attacks on solar aren’t going anywhere soon. If you’ve been plugged into the clean energy world, you’ve probably heard about net energy metering (known as “NEM”), the agreement that allows solar customers to be compensated for the excess electricity they share with their neighbors. It is what makes the investment pay off in a relatively short period of time. 

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the entity responsible for regulating the investor-owned electric and gas utilities in California, has launched a proceeding to re-evaluate the current net energy metering program (known as “NEM2”) and to decide upon a new NEM program, which will be known as “NEM 3.0.”

A total of 17 proposals were submitted to the CPUC for consideration early this year, from parties that range from environmental advocates and climate justice organizations to solar and storage trade associations and of course, the California investor-owned utilities (IOUs). The commissioners will evaluate each proposal based on its cost effectiveness, equity, consumer protection and other guiding principles. Although the batch of proposals is diverse, there are some other factors that have the potential to derail the proceeding. 

The backbone of the proceeding is a study performed by Verdant Associates that analyzes NEM 2.0. The study is flawed in a number of ways but according to comments taken directly from the study, the study fails to take into account a number of externalities, including health benefits from reduced criteria air pollution, the social cost of carbon, out of state methane leakage and land use benefits of reduced rooftop solar as opposed to utility scale desert solar.The study also does not take into account the costs associated with providing reliability and resilience to the grid, which I think everyone can agree, is not equal to zero, as the Verdant Study indicates. Keep in mind, earlier this year the Los Angeles Times reported, How rooftop solar could save Americans $473 billion and how not installing rooftop solar could cost ratepayers $385 billion. 

Furthermore the tool being used to evaluate the cost effectiveness of each proposal is also biased against solar and actually undercuts the value of solar by two thirds compared to the 2020 version of the calculator. The Avoided Cost Calculator was developed by E3 consultants, which have contracts with the utilities and regularly put out bias materials. The CPUC has slipped this update under the radar, without thorough vetting and labeled the update as minor and despite over 7,000 public comments in opposition, the commission voted unanimously to approve the updates. 

With the odds stacked against rooftop solar, a key solution to stopping the climate crisis, reducing rates for all ratepayers and providing grid stability and resilience, it is more important now than ever to make sure we use our voices to fight against utility profits and put the focus where it should be - expanding solar access to communities of concern who bear the brunt of climate change as well as climate injustices and are spending a disproportionate amount of income on utility bills. Please visit our NEM3 toolkit for up-to-date information about the proceeding and for important calls to action.