The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) unanimously voted on December 15th to make drastic changes to the state’s rooftop solar rules.
Key details
- Most consumers who get solar after April 2023 will see an average 75% reduction in the credit they receive for sharing their extra energy with the grid – from an average of $.30/kWh to about $.08/kWh.
- Churches, schools or businesses who go solar after April 2023 will see an even bigger reduction in the solar credit.
- The proposed changes will affect new solar users starting April 2023.
- Protections for existing solar users will remain in place with no changes (NEM1 or NEM2) for twenty years from the date their system turned on.
- There is no solar tax in the CPUC’s final decision.
How this proposal will harm solar
- When other states and localities made similar cuts to the solar credit, solar adoptions plummeted by half or more.
- That’s because these deep cuts shrink the monthly savings from solar. That extends the length of time it takes to pay off a solar investment to longer than most people can afford.
- The CPUC’s proposal will nearly double the length of time it takes for a solar investment to pay back.
Utilities will now be able to make a 4x profit off of their customers’ solar energy, even though the utility spent nothing to produce that energy.