A huge power outage just happened. Utilities keep attacking solar & storage. State officials stand aside. What’s wrong with this picture?
We have four take-homes from this week’s PG&E power outage: Outage take-home #1: Our electrical grid is fragile. Solar and battery storage should be a key strategy to move us forward These two articles frame the issue well: From Fast Company Magazine: To keep the lights on during California’s blackouts, people are using solar power “Between the solar and the…
SMUD trying to kill solar on new homes
The Sacramento-area utility, SMUD, is back with another anti-solar proposal. The once cutting edge public utility is now pushing to gut the state’s new plan to put solar panels and batteries into new home construction. SMUD’s “alternative” plan instead locks new homeowners into being 100% dependent on SMUD for at least twenty years, and denies thousands of new homeowners and…
Good news: Cities can’t tax your solar thanks to state lawmaker action
State lawmakers took a stand for your right to make solar energy by ensuring local governments can’t tax your solar. Background: local governments often charge taxes on services like cable and electricity. They’re called Utility Utilization Taxes (UUT). A few years ago, state lawmakers correctly recognized that you should not get taxed for the solar energy that you make and…