Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward (D-San Diego), who in 2022 authored a bill to create a more effective community solar program, said the state needs to double its annual solar installation rate to reach that goal and is not on track to do that using only large utility-scale solar farms and individual rooftop arrays.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need mid-scale community solar,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
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Energy and climate experts agree California must add much more clean energy to its grid, some 6 gigawatts by 2032, the California Public Utilities Commission said in a new plan last week. Above, solar panels at Extra Space Storage in Pico Rivera.<\/p>\n
(Kayla Bartkowski \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
He and a coalition of environmental groups, solar developers and the Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer advocacy group, worked to put his 2022 law into effect. They coalesced around requiring utilities to pay community solar developers and customers for the electricity they feed to the grid using the same formula they use for people who install rooftop solar. <\/p>\n
But in May 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission decided to go with a late-in-the-game proposal backed by the state\u2019s investor-owned utilities to pay community solar at a lower rate.<\/p>\n
The agency, along with its public advocate\u2019s office, argued that crediting solar developers at the higher rate would raise bills for customers who don\u2019t have solar, who would still have to shoulder the cost of grid maintenance. It\u2019s similar to the argument they\u2019ve made to cut incentives for rooftop solar.<\/p>\n
The new program relied on federal money, including the Biden administration\u2019s Solar for All, to sweeten the deal for developers. But the utilities commission spent very little of the $250 million available under that grant before the Trump administration tried to claw it back last summer, and now it is held up in litigation. <\/p>\n
At a legislative oversight hearing last week, Kerry Fleisher, the commission\u2019s director of distributed energy resources, blamed the loss for the new program\u2019s failure to launch. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a tremendous amount of uncertainty in terms of the Solar for All funding that was intended to supplement this program,\u201d Fleisher said. \u201cThat\u2019s part of the reason why this has taken longer than normal.\u201d She said the commission still plans to release a program in the next several months. <\/p>\n
Ward, the San Diego lawmaker who wrote the community solar bill, called the program \u201cfatally flawed\u201d in an interview.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s now considering a bill to bring the community solar program more in line with what he initially envisioned \u2014 higher incentives, requirements for battery storage, and compliance with state law that mandates new houses be built with solar. <\/p>\n
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