© (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times) Sunrun workers install solar panels on the roof of a home in Granada Hills in 2020. (Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)California on Thursday severely cut incentives for solar roofs, ending a program that has helped 1.5 million homes and businesses install solar roofs and put the state at the forefront of the fight against the climate crisis.
The unanimous vote by the state's Public Utilities Commission follows decades of debate over a program to cut payments to solar customers for the electricity they produce. Critics say this leads to higher electricity bills for homes without rooftop solar panels, including low-income households that cannot afford them.
Solar installers and clean energy activists called the argument flawed, saying the technology's benefits, including reducing air pollution in low-income communities and protecting against blackouts, far outweigh the costs.
However, the commissioners dismissed their protest, arguing that the stimulus plan needed to be changed to keep up with the times.
They note that California receives more solar energy during the day than it needs, in stark contrast to hot summer nights when the state sometimes experiences power shortages. They said changes to the stimulus plan they approved on Thursday would encourage more people to install batteries that can store clean energy for those hot nights.
"California is ready to move into the next phase of our ambitious climate change agenda, and this decision is part of that," said Commission President Alice Reynolds. "We are building a clean energy storage center for nighttime use."
A revised subsidy program approved by the commission comes into effect in April, offering homeowners and businesses looking for installation more favorable terms to secure existing incentives for four months.
The tariffs for households and companies that already have solar power will not be reduced. And for Los Angeles Department of Water and Energy customers who choose solar power, nothing changes. The ruling only affects the tariffs paid by the state's three largest solar utility monopolies: Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric.
The companies have spent years lobbying government officials to reduce incentives for rooftop solar installations -- such as consumer advocates and some environmental groups, who agree with utilities that homes without solar power should be forced to pay higher bills as a result. what is referred to as net metering
On the other side of the debate are the solar industry and hundreds of environmental and community groups. They successfully lobbied Gov. Gavin Newsom to block the Utility Commission's earlier, more onerous proposal for solar rooftops, arguing that it was inconsistent with the state's efforts to combat growing wildfires, droughts and heatwaves due to global warming.
But climate activists still see Thursday's plan as damaging — only this time they can't get Newsom's attention.
© (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times) Gavin Newsom speaks after being sworn in as Governor of California in 2019. (Kent Nishimura/Los Angeles Times)Dozens of solar advocates made public comments before the commission voted 5-0, criticizing the agency for overlooking utilities and at times suggesting that Newsom, who appointed four of the commission's five members, was responsible.
Among those defenders of the sun is the Reverend Daniel Tam, a deacon who champions the Bishops' Commission on Climate Change, an initiative of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles. He said officials should work to ensure that solar rooftops "are as affordable as possible for all Californians, rather than hurting them for the economic benefit of a few."
“As religious leaders, we care about justice, compassion and the common good. This proposal represents none of that," he said.
A spokesman for Newsom's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The utility industry was also unhappy with Thursday's vote, arguing that the commission should further cut solar incentives. Cathy Fairbanks, spokeswoman for the Affordable Clean Energy for All campaign funded by Edison, PG&E and SDG&E, described the vote as "a missed opportunity that will result in higher rates for Californians and low-income renters."
"Current solar subsidy programs are forcing low-income families, renters, seniors and anyone who doesn't have a solar roof to fund California's most affluent solar systems," he said in an emailed statement.
The long-awaited vote is now in the rear-view mirror, what's next?
Here are six key questions to ask as California's solar rooftop industry enters a new era - and the planet continues to warm.
Will Fewer People Install Solar?
The rooftop solar industry has seen steady growth in the Golden State for more than a decade. By the end of October, California had installed about 13,500 megawatts, six times the state's largest power source, the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
The surge has been fueled by net metering, which compensates solar homes and companies for the contribution they make to the larger grid when they generate more than they use. Until now, Edison, PG&E and SDG&E have had to pay retail electricity tariffs – the same tariffs they pay for electricity from the grid.
According to the decision on Thursday, the toll rates will vary depending on the time of day and year, but will be significantly lower on average.
Solar industry officials are warning of a market crash that could leave the small installers who make up the majority of the industry struggling to survive.
Part of the problem is that it will take years for customers to recoup their large initial investment in solar panels. For Edison and PG&E customers, the Public Utilities Commission predicted a nine-year "payback period" under the new rules -- too long for many households to wait for savings, critics say.
"They think that the rest of the world is made up of wealthy consumers instead of middle and low-income people so that we can save the planet," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, California chief executive. Solar & Storage Assn., an industrial trade group.
Proponents of the new stimulus plan hope the solar industry will respond by looking for ways to lower prices, which have remained relatively flat in recent years. They predict the solar economy will look better than the commission, an idea the commissioners themselves backed on Thursday, suggesting their nine-year payback calculation is conservative.
Will more people install batteries?
The Public Services Commission hopes so. Several committee members said they support the decision to provide more solar storage in the evenings when the state currently relies on polluting gas-fired power plants for lighting.
"We made this change because of our commitment to tackling climate change," said Commissioner John Reynolds. "If taxpayers want to subsidize solar rooftops, they need to do more to address climate change and meet the needs of the electricity grid."
While solar stimulus payments will be lower most of the time, they are higher at night, particularly on summer nights when California experiences blackouts as rising temperatures increase air conditioning needs.
Homes and businesses that can store solar energy in batteries during the day and distribute it at night to help states avoid blackouts by not running polluting gas generators would be better off with rooftop solar financing.
"This is a significant improvement over the status quo," said Matt Baker, whom Newsom hired earlier this year to head the Public Defender's Office, an agency independent of the Civil Service Commission. "For solar power to move forward, we need to try to make sure we can use solar power and batteries on a Hawaiian scale."
Only 14% of Californians who installed solar panels last year also added batteries, which can push the initial investment to about $30,000. The solar industry has been working to transition to solar power and storage for several years, but installers say it's taking longer to fund battery costs and pass the energy savings on to customers.
Sunrun, the nation's largest rooftop solar installer, has a simpler setup than most. But the San Francisco-based agency still sees a problem, arguing that the utility commission should cut rates more slowly.
"The more time the industry is given to prepare, react and act, the more likely it is that we won't be looking back a year from now to see how we are slowing the clean energy transition," said Mary Powell . Sunrun spokeswoman. Managing Director.
Will the price of electricity go down?
Might not.
Fares have risen rapidly and are expected to continue. For PG&E customers, for example, the base rate for most customers has increased by about 50% over the past five years, according to data compiled by the Utility Reform Network, a consumer advocacy group. PG&E recently called for another hike that would increase monthly electric bills by at least 20% through 2026.
The price shock was caused by utility investments aimed at reducing wildfires, upgrading aging infrastructure and replacing fossil fuels with cleaner energy, and about 10% of utility investors have recouped those investments.
But critics of net metering say the program has skyrocketed energy bills by costing taxpayers $4.6 billion in annual subsidies for solar homes and businesses. Subsidy cuts will limit further rate hikes, they said.
And the less electricity prices rise, the more likely millions of Californians will replace their gas stoves and water heaters with electric heat pumps and gasoline cars with electric vehicles, key technologies for reducing climate pollution.
Mohit Chhabra, a senior fellow at the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of several environmental groups supporting Thursday's decision, said the commission's proposal "further aligns signals and incentives across the board."
Other activists reject the idea that clean meters lead to higher electricity bills, saying government officials are underestimating the benefits that rooftop solar panels bring to all taxpayers, including less need for electricity suppliers to build lines and expensive long-distance transmission.
How will this affect low-income families?
Almost everyone in the net metering debate agrees that it should be easier and cheaper for low-income families to buy solar panels and batteries. But how much the new payment system will help them remains a matter of debate.
Under the new solar regulations, low-income households participating in tariff subsidy programs will receive higher payments for solar energy fed into the grid, as will all households in disadvantaged communities and tribal areas, with last-minute changes allowed at the latest. Municipal Commission. But environmental justice activists say the higher wages are too low.
"It's not enough to expand access for low-income consumers," said Cathy Ramsey, attorney for the Sierra Club. "The targets they said were good, but their main risks were the fact that the export price has fallen so much. .
The commission's decision also mentioned a new $900 million upfront payment for the solar roof system battery. هوهو .... .... .... কিন্তু প্রণেতাদের প্রণেতাদের এখনও হবে হবে হবে মন্দার সাথে সাথে সৌর অর্থটি অর্থটি অর্থটি ।।।।।। ।।।।।।
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But for net metering? The program's reviewers insist that it does more harm than good to the bottom line.
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More construction of large solar farms -- and power lines to power those solar farms -- could also benefit another constituency: organized labor. Unions, employed by solar developers and utilities, are a powerful force, and they've pressured state officials to promote large-scale clean energy infrastructure at the expense of rooftop solar jobs that aren't typically unionized.
Mark Joseph, an attorney representing the California Utility Employees Coalition, said, "We need to raise the level and quality of jobs across our economy." To be middleweight when we can make them comfortable at middleweight.”
What is the significance of the climate war?
जीवाष्म अन्युर्ण Leaking Solar Energy on the Top of the Puzzle Offshore wind turbines, geothermal plants, nuclear reactors, energy efficiency, green hydrogen, electric cars, electric heat pumps - a combination of these and other technologies will almost certainly be needed to power the current generation of coal, oil and natural gas transform driven economy.
But solar rooftops are one of the greenest climate solutions in the country - and are encouraging increased, highly successful and cost-effective installation.
And California is considered a world leader in climate protection. যদি এখানে ছাদে স্থাপনা বিপর্যস্ত বিপর্যস্ত, এবং রাজ্যের পতনকে আটকাতে পদক্ষেপ পদক্ষেপ না নেন, তবে অন্যান্য রাজ্যগুলি পথ করতে ঝুঁকতে ঝুঁকতে।
সৌর ছাদ "কাজ যোগ করেছে, নতুন এবং গ্রিড এবং জন্য জরুরী জরুরী স্থিতিস্থাপকতা করেছে। এঞ্জেলেস 1 সৌর শহর শহর বলে এঞ্জেলেস বিজনেস বিজনেস মেরি মেরি লেসলি লেসলি
অন্যদিকে, নীতিনির্ধারকরা যদি নিয়ন্ত্রণ করতে না না, তবে এবং দেশগুলি দেশগুলি সিদ্ধান্ত বৈদ্যুতিক বৈদ্যুতিক যানবাহনে যানবাহনে নেতৃত্ব করা করা করা - 2035 সালের মধ্যে গাড়ি উপর নিষেধাজ্ঞা সহ বুদ্ধিমানের বুদ্ধিমানের কাজ কাজ
সান ফ্রান্সিসকো-ভিত্তিক ইউটিলিটি একজন অ্যাটর্নি ম্যাথিউ বলেছেন ফ্রিডম্যান, "আমাদের একটি বিশ্বের করা যেখানে আপনার 50% গ্রাহক একটি সহ সহ থাকতে, এবং লোকেদের জন্য বিদ্যুতের হার বাড়াবে।"
বৃহস্পতিবারের সিদ্ধান্ত নিয়ে বিতর্ক শেষ হয়द
একটি পৃথক প্রক্রিয়ায় নিয়ন্ত্রক, পাবলিক বিদ্যুতের বিদ্যুতের হারের বিস্তৃত পুনর্গঠন করছে করছে, খরচ রাখা, ব্ল্যাকআউট এড়ানো দূষণ আরও আরও কমানোর প্রয়াসে প্রক্রিয়াটির ফলে বাড়ির নতুন মাসিক ফি হতে পারে - এবং বেশিরভাগ অন্যান্য অন্যান্য। অথবা না.
একমাত্র নিশ্চিততা: বৃহস্পতিবারের শেষ জলবায়ু জলবায়ু সিদ্ধান্ত হবে ক্যালিফোর্নিয়ার কর্মকর্তাদের কর্মকর্তাদের নিতে।
এই গল্পটি লস অ্যাঞ্জেলেস টাইমসে প্রকাশিত হয়েছিল
