California — Thank Governor Newsom for Clean Energy Leadership
Thank the Governor and the CPUC for keeping California a leader in clean energy!
What you need to know:
We’d like to share with you some good news for the future of clean energy in California and ask you to take a moment to thank Governor Newsom for his leadership in helping stop a proposal from the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) that would’ve been disastrous for solar and storage.
As a reminder, the proposal from the CPUC on net metering (NEM 3) would’ve imposed a tax of $60/month or more on customers of PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E, just for having solar on their roof. The NEM 3 proposal would’ve also reduced the amount of time an existing solar customer can stay on their original NEM tariff, previously set at 20 years.
Thousands of Californians spoke out against the solar tax, and last week the CPUC approved a new version of NEM 3 that supports the continued growth of clean energy in California.
The new NEM 3 Decision issued by CPUC President Reynolds changes NEM compensation such that the credits reflect the value of energy for reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The new Decision encourages solar customers to add batteries to capture excess solar generation and move the state forward in its journey to 100% clean energy. Importantly, the revised proposal does not penalize solar customers with a monthly fee, and maintains the 20-year contract for existing NEM customers.
Thus, during spring afternoons when energy from the grid comes mostly from inexpensive, GHG-free renewables, NEM credits will be very low, in order to encourage customers to store their solar energy for use later use. On summer evenings when grid energy is generated by dirty fossil plants, NEM 3 customers will be compensated at nearly $3/kWh (about 10 times the retail rate) to encourage reducing emissions by sending clean energy back to the grid.
While the new NEM Decision makes it less attractive for customers to install stand-alone solar, customers who install solar paired with storage will still be able to largely offset their own energy use without punitive fees or penalties. And the addition of storage to solar arrays will move the state closer to 100% clean energy, as well as create new benefits for customers, the cleantech economy, the electric grid and the environment.
At this time, we feel it’s appropriate to thank Governor Newsom and the new CPUC leadership for abandoning the solar tax and facilitating a more reasonable NEM proposal.
Using the tools above, send a message to Governor Newsom and the Public Utilities Commission, thanking them for being clean energy leaders and stopping the solar tax. Then, tweet your appreciation using the hashtag #SaveSolar.
