and to increase the financial incentives for low-
income households to participate.
“We are focused on affordability for everyone,” said
Matt Freedman, staff attorney for the group.
The solar industry and its allies, including
some environmental justice and clean energy
organizations, said regulators should be looking
for ways to boost incentives for California residents
to buy solar panels, not decrease them.
Bernadette Del Chiaro of the California Solar
and Storage Association, which represents 700
businesses involved in the industry, said the
state should also make it easier for people to
buy solar storage systems alongside the panels.
As more people build storage systems, the
utilities will need to spend less on new power
plants or transmission lines, she said. But it also
means they’ll have fewer customers relying on
them for energy.
“Utilities are really threatened now by batteries,”
Del Chiaro said. “They’re really putting up a big
fight to try to slow this market down.”