This February, following several weeks of industry outcry, public protest, and political leader involvement, California’s Net Energy Metering (NEM) 3.0 was successfully delayed. NEM 3.0 was an anti-rooftop solar proposal that slashed the value for homeowners and sweetened the pot for the major investor-owned electric utility companies in California.
As originally proposed, NEM 3.0 would have cut the payments made by utility companies to rooftop solar owners for exporting their excess PV production back to the grid. EQ Analysts said the proposal would lead to a 57-71% overall reduction in solar savings for homeowners.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently presented revisions, and the revised NEM 3.0 remains a utility-friendly, homeowner-unfriendly proposal. The revision includes new structures that cut home solar value, including a “glide path”, non-bypassable charges, and a tariff to boost community solar.
The newly-introduced “non-bypassable charges” would add $0.05/kWh to a customer’s bill, whether or not they own solar. These charges would apply to the electrons generated by the customer’s rooftop solar array and delivered to their own homes. Regulations make it very difficult, or even illegal, to disconnect from the grid entirely in many areas in California.
The revisited NEM 3.0 is met with heavy opposition from environmental groups, workforce and labor groups, solar industry advocates, and Californians who support personal choice and oppose electric utility monopoly. These groups are now organizing a rally to submit public comments to Governor Gavin Newsom and the CPUC.
Image: CALSSA
Image: CALSSA
The “Don’t Tax the Sun” rally is planned for 10:30 am on June 2. It will take place at Grand Park, Los Angeles, and the CPUC Building in San Francisco. RSVP links to the event, organized by the California Solar and Storage Association, can be found here.
Additionally, public comment can be submitted to the CPUC online by June 10th, by following this link.
What’s at stake?
California’s rooftop solar industry represents over 1.4 million homes, small businesses, and other structures topped with PV. The state accounts for 50% of rooftop solar installations in the United States, and of the 230,000 people employed in the solar industry, as many as 68,000 jobs are supported by the state’s rooftop solar business. The proposal is expected to do significant damage to this industry, which is largely made up of small businesses and local employees.
Based on California’s clean energy goals, as much as 28.5 GW of rooftop solar needs to be installed through 2045, according to Environment California. If all this capacity were instead installed on land, 148,000 acres would be needed to support it, an area about half the size of Los Angeles. Rooftop solar directly mitigates energy sprawl, the increase of land use dedicated to producing electricity.
Last month, Regulators from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) released a comprehensive report outlining the state’s path to carbon neutrality, and chief among the recommendations was support for solar, specifically rooftop solar. The NEM proposal is in direct contrast with CARB’s recommendations, said Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook.
“It is imperative the governor reject the plot by utilities to undermine one of the main pillars of CARB’s roadmap to ensure renewable energy is the dominant source of electricity in the state. Anything less would send a clear signal that felonious, corrupt companies like PG&E can decelerate California’s progress in addressing the climate crisis,” said Cook.
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My rooftop solar system allowed me to turn off my natural Gas fan forced furnace and use all electric heat. it also allowed me to use my Airtight wood stove less this past winter. Cleaner Air and less Fossil fuels with rooftop solar in California under NEM-2.0. With Natural Gas prices being 70% higher this year compared to last year, some people will want to install a wood burning stove to cut heating costs but what if they install solar panels instead? NEM-2.0 allowed that, NEM-3.0 would discourage that and lead to more air pollution from wood smoke not less. Fan forced gas furnaces are extremally inefficient compared to gas fired power plants that convert heat to work more efficiently. When a utility has the name GAS in its title like Pacific GAS and Electric or San Diego GAS and Electric, you know they make a big portion of their profits from Natural GAS sales weather to homes or their own power plants. The least we can do is make sure the most efficient use of that fossil fuel is used rather than the most inefficient.
There is huge oilfields west of Bakersfield along Route 33 if you drive throug , you will see well pumpheads nodding up down .. About half of them is not active probably because of depletion.. etc..
The oilfields are huge thousands of acres where you can put solar instead.. Replace the well pumps where they are depleteed over the years, all of them will be replaced with solar..
Why leave the oil infrastructure rusting ?/ Cut them down and recycle the valuable steel etc..
It is hot and sunny there most of the year.. it is devoid of wildlife already..
In adidtion, we can require the oil companies to clean up the depleted oil fields to make way for solar they can put there for themselves if they want to or turn around to sell to investors.. Last time I hear the oilfields is only 1/10th of its heyday.. it is depleted out already1
Calling utilities corrupt isn’t helping. I’ve got solar in Florida but without the portion of the grid and power plants that Duke builds, maintains and operates, I’d be in the dark at night. And batteries to power my home would require a larger PV array to charge them and additional battery $$$$torage capacity to carry me through several dark stormy days, or worse, a prolonged outtage due to hurrricane damage. I opted for a $3,000, 16kW natural gas powered Generac as a much more cost effective alternative to $30,000 worth of power walls.
So think carefully how utility responsibilities sustain profitability for their investors who financed building it in the first place, and how to balance revenue from ALL customers served by it, especially revenue lost from NEM solar customers.
Realize that your energy credits for use at night came from your neighbors who consumed and paid for YOUR EXCESS SOLAR during the day as it flowed over your utility’s wires from your house to theirs, via path of least resistance. Nothing is free, including solar photo-electrons.
Your only alternative without your own batterie$$$$ would be to run an extension cord from your house to theirs through separate meters, automatic transfer switches, etc. and bill them yourself.
Good luck figuring out how to pay for that one.
Besides, Crazy-Cali would soon tax that solution after making you upgrade it to prevent setting the woods on fire…and insure it for $million$ just in case!
Did you even read the article? NEM 3.0 would increase fees with “non-bypassable charges” to everyone, from every source, whether they owned solar or not. That means if you had your thrifty 16KW gas powered Generac running to power your own house, you’d be getting charged for that too. Don’t know why you’re defending the utilities, yes they are corrupt, and the fact that this bill is passing in “crazy cali”, (arguably the greenest state in the nation) , just highlights how much power these utility monopolies have over the legislators. Yes this is very much a utility friendly, home owner un-friendly proposal, and in direct opposition to the goals of california itself. The CPUC should be ashamed of themselves.
I don’t understand how you admit, that the utilities are charging people full price for the EXCESS SOLAR produced by your neighbors, while paying less than .a fraction of a percent of that back to said neighbors, and that somehow hurts you? It hurts PG&E, because they’re running out of excuses to raise your bill. That’s why they’re trying to kill solar.
The fact that someone completely off grid, using their own energy sources whether it be solar, generator, whatever, will now have to have a meter put on their house so the utilities can charge them for their own power that they invested in to produce, THAT should make you sick.
If the power cannot be read by the “Smart meter” like what happens when there is a power failure and you switch your transfer switch to generator, they cannot tell how much you used so cannot charge you. This is only to go after grid-tied inverters from wind and solar. But since everyone will pay 5 cents more, including the poor, how do they justify the claim that rooftop solar customers are cost shifting the cost to the poor if they do this? My solar roof generates at tiers one, and I have to buy back the power at tier two that is 9 cents higher than tier 1 for both regular and peak hours. June 1 thru September 30 peak tier 2 rate is 51 cents per kilo watt hour on C-TOU-C- solar customer tariffs and this would add another 5 cents to that. 56 cents per kilo watt hour to cook the evening meal and watch TV if you use more than 10 kilo watt hours per day and most people use 20 kilo watt hours or more per day. The national average is 13 cents per kilo Watt hour. Turning your main braker to “OFF” and power your home from behind that and the only fee will be the $10.00 per month “meter Fee” they charge everyone. You can still turn it back on so any city that does not let you leave the utility will see you are still connected and paying your $10.00. How did people live in America before electricity from utilities? If we had invented solar panels in the 1880s, there would have never been utilities or a nationwide grid system. We would not have needed one.
Looking at NREL’s #s suggests utility scale solar at 1/4th the installed cost of rooftop and 30% higher capacity factor than fixed tilt systems will provide PV power to most of America’s 130-million homes vs 5-million (4%) with rooftop arrays. That’s the best way to Green up power with the least amount of Greenback$.
Giddy off-gridders are what’s sustaining rooftop solar, that’s now being marked up (despite lower panel and inverter costs) on last ditch sales before ITC’s end in 2004.
My nat gas generator only runs a few hours per year, and 5 days during our longest blackout in tbe past 5 years. No way to justify battery backed PV at $5,000/kW with sufficient capacity to start my heat pump’s 40A 240Vac circuit with other loads present. That would require three Power Walls. Crazy!
Shove off costs to non-solar customers AND tax payers is what’s dampening NEM-PV enthusiasm since FETCs of 30% were created in 2005. Doubt they’ll be extended after 2023.
Ongoing 10% ITC’s for C&I and utilities will encourage large scale solar at lowest costs to everybody (aka, ALL TAXPAYERS) and PV savings will pass on to Walmart, Facebook and Utility customers.
Rooftop Solar doesn’t directly lower costs of food, insurances, city utilities (water, sewer, trash) and cable bills or fuel at the pump…all much greater concerns for the average non-solar AND solar household. Electric bills have been taking a back seat to those since 2019.
The deregulation panacea hasn’t done much to lower utility rates either. Add-on transmission and distribution losses and associated costs increased them in many states, especially where alternative providers were limited.
Rooftop solar was a necessary seed to plant to grow our PV industry. Sadly, it along with many of our others, it was outsourced to give it affordable growth at the cost of American jobs.
At 80, my 9.5kW system will outlive me, while its payback savings keep me smiling. But better investments are needed to offset ALL my monthly bills.
Suggest acquiring high yield stocks, bonds and Savings Series I-bonds paying 9.65% with nothing to install, especially for those with an old, shaded roof, or no roof at all if you rent or own a condo in a tower of toilets.
It’s perfectly understandable why those folks don’t want to shoulder any more rooftop NEM-PV subsidies when an increasing share of Utility Scale Solar will be flowing to their homes at lower rates, with nothing to install, maintain or insure. 😜
Good comments. Since 2007, when I saw nothing being done by utilities to increase their share of grid tied solar and wind power but instituting a 5-tier billing system that I ended up in tier 5 every month, I knew I needed to do something to lower my utility bills plus provide green solar power for my home. A lot has happened in 15 years. The utility raised its tier one prices by 280% from 12 cents per kilo watt hour to 34 cents per kilo watt hour and that soured a rash of rooftop solar being installed. Solar roof top installations prices dropped from $8.00 per watt to $3.00 per watt installed. Tesla developed it’s all in one Tesla Solar Glass Roof that integrates the solar into a lifetime valued roof so roofers cannot blame solar panel installers for leaky roofs. East Bay Community Energy now supplies my home with 100% renewable energy for the same price as PG&E but is still overpriced because they can charge the same as PG&E and need to give away $52 million is excess profits to charities and hospitals in Alameda County.
I am also 15 years older than when I first started installing my off-Grid Solar panel system as a hobby being a retired Inside wireman. Because of all the work required in replacing batteries and washing solar panels, at my age of 75, I decided to replace my worn-out roof with the Tesla Solar Glass Roof and start cutting back on my off-grid system. In California, where utility prices are higher than most other states, installing a solar roof or a good quality roof with solar on top still pays for itself over the long run and it is green. if the utility gave the homeowner one kilo watt hour for every two kilo watt hours pushed back onto the grid, the lower cost of solar panels would allow the homeowner to just install more active solar tiles or panels on their roof to make up for the discount that the utility could get for infrastructure. Charging a month fee to own solar would just push everybody off-grid like I did originally, 15 years ago, but with longer lasting, no maintenance, batteries.
Maximizing my IRA with growth and value mutual funds also helps with the rest of the monthly bills and, like you, I would also recommend someone interested in solar, first maximize their IRA contributions then consider solar as icing on the cake. It takes Green to be Green. Thank you, Dave, for sharing. Live long and prosper.
Move to Florida. Warmer water temps at the beaches for openers. No state income tax. Lower fuel prices and electric rates less than half of CrazyCali’s.