CCSE fighting for future of California Solar Initiative

August 15, 2013 | By Barbara Vergetis Lundin

Rebates for residential solar power from the California Solar Initiative (CSI) are winding down -- almost four years early -- as officials and regulators statewide wrestle with how to continue support for consumer-scale solar and the California solar industry, according to the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE). Customers of the state's investor-owned utilities (Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric) and municipal utilities qualify for cash back incentives for their solar installations through the California Solar Initiative. The CSI rebate program began in 2007 and was supposed to be a 10-year program.

CCSE administers the CSI program for the California Public Utilities Commission in the SDG&E service territory and is the only non-utility organization in the state to do so.

Solar has become so popular in the San Diego region that CCSE ran out of funding for residential PV systems in early 2013, however, rebates for commercial installations remain available although at rates 20 percent less than when the program began. So far, the CSI program in San Diego has awarded more than $48 million in residential rebates and $108 million in non-residential rebates for more than 127 MW of total solar generation capacity. Statewide, CSI has incentivized more than 1,544 MW of solar with about 200 MW remaining to reach the program's goal of installing 1,750 MW.

"While the support provided to the solar industry by the CSI program's monetary incentives are clear, the program's indirect, non-incentive benefits (including consumer protection, the availability of information and data, streamlined permitting and grid connection and low-income access to solar) have been equally important to the success of California's distributed generation solar market," said Sachu Constantine, CCSE policy director. "Even with this tremendous success, a large potential market for residential and small commercial solar will continue to exist long after the program's monetary incentives are exhausted. Of California's 7.8 million single-family homes, only 2 percent have solar electric systems."

Without further funding, the residential portion of the CSI cannot continue in the SDG&E or Pacific Gas & Electric service territory in central and northern California. The state's largest utility provider, Southern California Edison, has funding to continue residential rebates.

The CSI program currently collects data on the installation and performance of solar systems throughout the state that is critical to policymakers, regulators, industry officials and other stakeholders in making decisions related to solar power generation and will be needed in the future to provide transparency in the solar marketplace, as well as a way to measure and verify various aspects of solar system load and impacts on the state's utility grid.

The CSI program has improved municipal processes for permitting solar installations and for interconnecting systems to the utility grid, but much work remains to assure consistent processes across districts and service territories with coordination at the statewide level.

CCSE concludes that a robust, centrally administered statewide program to facilitate distributed solar generation is the most efficient way to deliver services to customers and the solar industry after the CSI program ends. Without a strong statewide effort, disconnected and inconsistent processes and efforts could result in a degraded market for residential and small-scale commercial solar market and undermine California in achieving its ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction goals.

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http://www.fierceenergy.com/story/ccse-fighting-future-california-solar-initiative/2013-08-15