At the end of 2022, the California Public Utilities Commission approved a plan that reduced the savings homeowners and businesses can earn from installing rooftop solar panels. Last month, the CPUC cut incentives even further for solar battery system owners.
Bernadette Del Chiaro, Executive Director of the California Solar & Storage Association, told KNX News Chief Correspondent Charles Feldman these changes have dealt a major blow to the solar industry.
“California is supposed to be a clean energy leader. Instead, with this decision, we have become a clean energy job killer,” she said. “Our solar market is down 80% overnight, and we've just shed about 17,000 good working jobs from around the state.”
Even though Del Chiaro said solar is still a great investment, especially as electricity rates continue to rise, consumers aren’t buying solar panels at the same rate because they get drastically less payback for using them.
State officials have said that the incentives mostly benefited wealthy households that were able to afford the expensive panels (not to mention buying a home in the first place), while driving up electric bills for lower-income households.
But Del Chiaro called that argument “quite laughable,” saying the incentives weren’t hurting the poor – they were hurting utility companies.
“Utilities don't like it because it cuts into their profits,” she said. “That's why they got the Public Utilities Commission to really gut the market, to protect themselves.”
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Del Chiaro is hopeful that the solar market will rebound in the next four to five years, saying “There’s always a way for the utilities to sort of keep a good idea down, but they can’t keep it down for long.”
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