Articles for Solar Incentives

Column: If Gavin Newsom is a climate champion, why did he just crush community solar?
6 months, 3 weeks ago

Column: If Gavin Newsom is a climate champion, why did he just crush community solar?

LA Times  

After months of outcry, the California Public Utilities Commission voted Thursday to approve a solar energy program that critics are sure will fail spectacularly, making it impossible for many people to access an innovative global warming solution. All of which brings us back to Thursday’s vote by the Public Utilities Commission, which dealt with “community solar.” Community solar projects are …

Energy Climate Utilities California Commission Public Newsom
Opinion: Here is one way California can end its rooftop solar wars
11 months, 1 week ago

Opinion: Here is one way California can end its rooftop solar wars

LA Times  

California needs to accelerate rooftop solar deployment, not constrain it. Because California has long been a leader in rooftop solar policy, the commission’s decisions may be imperiling rooftop solar elsewhere: Last month, Hawaii instituted similar cuts to its incentives. Without incentives, though, it doesn’t make financial sense for most Californians to install rooftop solar, meaning we all get less of …

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Column: How I learned to stop worrying and love rooftop solar
1 year ago

Column: How I learned to stop worrying and love rooftop solar

LA Times  

As global leaders celebrated a hard-fought agreement to triple the world’s renewable energy production and transition away from fossil fuels, an attorney for the state of California was in a San Francisco courtroom Wednesday, defending a decision by appointees of Gov. I don’t buy the argument made by some rooftop solar advocates that those net metering critics — and academic …

Energy Climate Change Benefits Clean Energy Climate Solar California
Column: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar
1 year, 2 months ago

Column: California needs to get its act together on rooftop solar

LA Times  

Government officials in California and the rest of the country should be doing everything they can to support clean energy. In theory, a strong community solar program could help make up for cuts to “virtual net metering” — the solar incentive program for apartment dwellers, schools and farms that’s currently on the chopping block at the utilities commission. From Edison’s …

Community Energy Climate Solar Utilities California Public
The revolving door at public utilities commissions? It’s alive and well
1 year, 6 months ago

The revolving door at public utilities commissions? It’s alive and well

LA Times  

This story originally published in Boiling Point, a newsletter about climate change and the environment. Heern found 25% of those commissioners — whose decisions could make or break the planet’s climate — had previously worked in the utility or fossil fuel industry, compared to 19% with an environmental background. Although Heern noted that having previously worked for a utility can …

Energy Climate States Democratic Public Newsom Electric
Two weeks until California slashes rooftop solar incentives
1 year, 8 months ago

Two weeks until California slashes rooftop solar incentives

LA Times  

This story originally published in Boiling Point, a weekly newsletter about climate change and the environment. It’s been nearly a decade since California lawmakers ordered the state’s Public Utilities Commission to revamp a rooftop solar incentive program called net metering. Gavin Newsom’s appointees on the Public Utilities Commission, who said one of their goals in lowering incentive payments for standalone …

Energy Climate Change Clean Energy Climate Water Power Utilities
California just slashed rooftop solar incentives. What happens next?
2 years ago

California just slashed rooftop solar incentives. What happens next?

LA Times  

California sharply reduced incentive payments for rooftop solar power Thursday, taking a sledgehammer to a program that helped 1.5 million homes and businesses put solar panels on their roofs and made the state a leader in fighting the climate crisis. Solar installers and clean energy activists call that argument flawed, saying the technology’s benefits — including less air pollution in …

Energy Climate Change Climate Power Solar Utilities California
California pushes a new plan to cut rooftop solar incentives
2 years, 1 month ago

California pushes a new plan to cut rooftop solar incentives

LA Times  

California is poised to reduce payments to homes and businesses that go solar for clean electricity they supply to the power grid — a landmark shift in how the state promotes a crucial technology for fighting climate change. In a written statement, the Affordable Clean Energy for All campaign — which is funded by the three monopoly utilities — said …

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Should California slash solar incentives? We took a survey
2 years, 11 months ago

Should California slash solar incentives? We took a survey

LA Times  

Yajaira Villanueva of Temecula, an employee of the solar company Freedom Forever, attends the “Save Our Solar Jobs” rally at Grand Park in Los Angeles on Jan. 13. When California gets it wrong, others will get it wrong, too.” Nicole H.: “I invested $40,000 to do the responsible thing, and I’m providing excess solar energy to my neighbors! If they …

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California proposes big changes to rooftop solar incentives
3 years ago

California proposes big changes to rooftop solar incentives

LA Times  

California officials want to slash payments for rooftop solar power, saying the changes would help the state achieve 100% clean energy while keeping the lights on, preventing electricity rates from rising and encouraging people to install batteries. Walker Wright, vice president of public policy at San Francisco-based Sunrun, the nation’s largest rooftop solar installer, was similarly displeased, saying in a …

Energy Climate Change Clean Energy Changes Solar California Energy Storage
Should California make solar more expensive? Inside the climate justice battle
3 years, 1 month ago

Should California make solar more expensive? Inside the climate justice battle

LA Times  

Parakeets and lovebirds were chirping in Marta Patricia Martinez’s frontyard as a crew of solar installers climbed onto her roof. “We will fall horribly short of our clean energy goals if we kill the rooftop solar market,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Assn. Building lots of rooftop solar “makes it easier and cheaper.” …

Energy Justice Climate Solar Utilities California Democrat