California regulators proposed reducing the
discounts people who install home solar panels
and storage systems get on their energy bills,
meaning it will take more time — a decade — to
recoup the costs of installation.
California’s wildly successful 26-year-old
program to get more people to put solar panels
on their homes has been at the center of a
fierce debate between the state’s major utilities
and the solar industry and the California Public
Utilities Commission’s proposed reforms have
been highly anticipated.
Current incentives allow residential solar
customers to sell whatever energy they don’t use
back to power companies at the retail rate for
power, usually resulting in a big discount on their
energy bills. Power companies say the savings
are now so great that solar customers no longer
pay their fair share for the operation of the overall
energy grid.
Major utilities, the solar industry, consumer
advocates and environmental groups all
submitted their own ideas for potential
reforms. The CPUC’s proposal doesn’t gut the
financial incentives as much as wanted by the
utilities, Pacific Gas & Electric, San Diego Gas &
Electric and Southern California Edison.
The program known as net metering program
launched in 1995 with the goal of boosting
solar adoption in the famously sunny state.
California now has more than 1.3 million
residential solar installations, more than any
other state, according to the solar industry.
That number will only grow because since 2020
all newly constructed homes in California must
have solar panels.