Thoughts on Solar

Some people are simply shameless, and it appears that the powers-that-be at SCE are among them. We just got this charming missive from the division at SCE that is responsible for processing Interconnection Applications:

Subject: Extended NEM Application Processing Timelines

Hello Contractors and Installers,

We are currently experiencing a high volume of new NEM applications. As a result, processing timelines are taking longer than expected. Please note, Interconnection Requests (IRs) may exceed our average processing timelines. Although most applications will be reviewed within 10 business days, some may take up to 20 business days to review.

To help mitigate this volume, we strongly recommend that you submit your application and the required documents in complete form, including all signatures and attachments. Ensuring that your applications are submitted in complete form helps us to minimize the number of touchpoints and reduce the application queue.

We request your cooperation and understanding as we work diligently in decreasing the application volume. Please refer to PowerClerk for the latest status of your application. If you have any additional questions, please send an email to Customer.Generation@sce.com.

Sincerely,

Eduyng Castano
Senior Manager of Customer Generation Programs
Southern California Edison

To deem this outrageous is to be way too kind. Gee, I wonder why there is a high volume of applications? Could it be because the bottom is dropping out of solar economics in SCE territory after the April 14th deadline? Who could have predicted that - apart from pretty much everyone who is paying attention. And how is it that SCE can unilaterally change the requirement for them to process applications? Doesn’t the CPUC have something to say about this?

The existing standard of 10 business days - two weeks on the calendar - was already a joke, but now they are saying that “some” applications could take 20 business days - nearly a month! Oh and to add insult to injury, they also raised the application fee - you know, the money that is supposed to cover application processing - by 25%! Must be nice to be able to jack the price that you are charging, while simultaneously reducing the service provided. Aren’t monopolies swell?

This is getting real folks. In an earlier post - find it here - we stated that we couldn’t guarantee NEM 2.0 for applications submitted after March 31st. But given this revision - and zero clarity on which applications might hit that 20-day limit, we need to push things up. RUN ON SUN WILL NOT GUARANTEE NEM 2.0 FOR ANY APPLICATION SUBMITTED AFTER MARCH 15! (The Ides of March indeed!)

This is a terrible way to run a business, but we have no control over the arbitrary nonsense coming from SCE. Please plan accordingly!

Short and sweet: We need you to call Governor Newsom on June 21st!

Here’s the message from our friends at CALSSA:

1. Call between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.Do not call earlier or later as you likely will not be able to get through. If for some reason you are unable to leave either a recorded message or a message with a live person and it is between 9 and 5, simply keep calling again until you do! 
   
   
2. The number to call is 916-445-2841. After you dial, a recording will ask you to press 1 to continue in English or 2 for Spanish. After you press the appropriate number, you will then need to press “6″ to speak to a representative.
   
   
3. The phone may ring many times, but eventually you shouldreach a representative for the Governor. When you do, simply deliver your message (sample script below). If no one picks up, you may be instructed to record a message, which is also totally fine.
   
   

   Sample script: “My name is __, I live in ___ and I [own a solar system/work in the solar industry]. I am opposed to a solar tax of any kind, and any other change that makes solar less affordable for working and middle class people. California should make rooftop solar more affordable for everyday people, not less. I expect Governor Newsom to take a clear public stance on this matter and show the leadership that this state deserves. Thank you.” [Feel free to use your own words!] 
   



4. After you are done speaking with someone or recording a message, please go here to let us know what happened. This is very important as we’re keeping tabs on how many phone calls we’ve generated.
   
   
5. Finally, after you have reported back to us on your call, make sure to email your colleagues or share on social media what you’ve done and ask them to do the same! There’s template language you can use below.

Thanks for your help - together we are going to win this thing!

tl;dr - Come Rally with us on June 2, at 10:30 a.m. in Grand Park, DTLA!

As readers of this blog know only too well, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) had proposed - at the urging of the investor-owned utilities (IOUs), that is SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E - a new set of rules for how solar system owners would be compensated for the energy they put back onto the grid.  In a nutshell, that proposal would have pushed the payback period for solar systems to twenty years or more!  In an epic bit of organizing, our trade association - the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA) - kicked up a ruckus that was clearly heard in Sacramento, by getting folks to sign petitions, issue public comments, testify to the CPUC for six hours straight, and two very loud, very colorful rallies in San Francisco and here in LA.  (If you missed that, you can read about the LA rally here.)

Thanks to those efforts, the original proposal was pulled back.  But that didn’t win the fight, as the CPUC is still talking about a Solar Tax that would destroy the value of rooftop solar for most Californians.

That’s why it’s time to lace up your protest shoes and attend the…

We need to more than double our impressive turnout from the last two rallies.  That means we need you!  And your kids.  And your friends.  And your kids friends - get the picture?

In case you need more detail - really, this is only about saving rooftop solar in California, so I wouldn’t think too many more details would be required but - let CALSSA’s Executive Director, Bernadette Del Chiaro, give you the Word:

On May 9, the CPUC took an unprecedented step of effectively issuing a new decision in the form of 14 questions. Those questions broke five months of silence, pulled back the curtain, and revealed what the CPUC is still thinking: tax solar and send the value of exports over a cliff. The CPUC has essentially floated a trial balloon to see how much push back they will get for proposing a solar tax (by a different name) and repackaging the solar cliff to make it sound nicer (ACC “plus”). Our job is to push back. Hard. Loud. Once and for all: No solar tax. No solar cliff. Not in California. Not now.

We need thousands of you. RSVP here.

Why June 2? For starters, because silence is acquiesce. Think about it. The State of California just floated a proposal to tax the behind-the-meter use of solar energy, again. Every day that goes by in which people aren’t reacting appropriately (i.e., freaking out), is a day in which the message back to our government is one of acceptance. That is certainly not our reality. If we could have, we would have rallied on May 10!
 
Another reason to rally on June 2 is because the CPUC has literally asked for our reaction to their “new” ideas: tax behind-the-meter solar consumption to the tune of $600 per year for the average customer (NOTE: the tax is not limited to the residential market – commercial market you could be caught up in this tragedy, too) and tie export values for everyone to the Avoided Cost Calculator which they have refused to adjust for the rising costs of natural gas, the crisis in the utility-scale market, and the demands of electrification. The CPUC has asked for our reaction by June 10. June 2 is simply the closest date to June 10 at which the CPUC is holding a meeting. The next meeting of the Commission is June 24 which would be too late.
 
Finally, there is never a good time to leave the office and come down off the roof. Collectively, we build more than 400 solar systems a day in California. That’s a lot of activity. And, with all the disruptions to supply chains along with the increased urgency due to this very campaign (ironically driving more people to solar than if they had promised to make gentle and gradual changes from the get-go), our days are busier and more complicated than ever. I get it. But what’s far more inconvenient and costly than shutting down your office for one day is closing your business or laying off half your staff in 2023 because the CPUC got NEM 3.0 horribly wrong. A stitch in time saves nine. Let’s save our market. RSPV now.
 
Finally, you might also be wondering why we should rally. Aren’t there other ways to make our voices heard? Of course the answer to that is, yes, there are many ways to make our voices heard. We are and should continue to speak out through petitions, letters to the governor, testimony that is being written by Brad now (to be submitted June 10), through media (like this question to Governor Newsom by Politico reporter last week), social media, and so much more. But to really be heard, we need to generate media attention too. We need to get on the nightly news and on the pages of the newspapers. Because when we do that, millions of voters hear our cry and we already know those millions are with us on the issue. 
 
It comes down to you reading this message and deciding to join the fray, the fun, the action. So, please join us in either Los Angeles or San Francisco on June 2. It will be worth your time. It will be fun. You’ll be glad you did it.
 
As always, email me with questions or comments.

p.s. Many people like to theorize about the likelihood of a Democratic governor in a pro-environment state harming the darling of the clean energy economy: solar. Putting aside the lack of understanding of how politics really works up here in Sacramento (hint: follow the money toward the path of least resistance), my ask to you is this: don’t leave this critical decision to political theory. Your active involvement in this campaign – most importantly joining us June 2 – will help make sure we win in reality, not just in theory. Let’s not leave anything this important to chance. Join us. 

This is up to us.  This is our fight.  Get in the game, people!  See you on June 2nd!

On February 23^rd the news broke that LG Electronics was abandoning the solar module business worldwide.  This announcement came without warning, and reverberated throughout the industry like the bolt from the blue that it was.  Here’s our take…

Long time readers of this blog are well aware of our long-standing relationship with LG.  We first installed LG modules all the way back in 2011 and have been installing them exclusively ever since.  Our biggest projects all feature LG modules.  We installed the first LG Neon modules anywhere in the world!

Over the years, we met many of the LG folks - both from here in the States as well as from South Korea.  We learned that they read this blog, and appreciated our enthusiastic support for their product.  After all, we believe that part of our job is to simplify the process of going solar for our clients.  That means identifying the best-in-class products - both technically as well as value for the buck - and bring those to our clients.  For a decade we felt confident representing LG in just that fashion.  After all, we would say, LG is huge, they aren’t going anywhere!

Until they did.

Without warning.

Leaving it to their installer base to have the awkward conversations while they simply went away.

That is no way to reward loyalty.  How LG behaved, in a word, is disgraceful.

What could they have done?  They could have put the industry on notice that if things did not improve via whatever metrics mattered, they would need to quit.  That would have sent shockwaves to be sure, but it also would have given the industry the option of rallying to LG - which some surely would have done - or make an informed decision to go in another direction.  After a decade of promotion, that was the least they should have done.

But in the end, they chose to do far less.

Disgraceful.

Life on the Solar Coaster Continues

It’s not for nothing that this industry is referred to by many as the Solar Coaster, with more ups and downs than anything one can find at Magic Mountain.  It seems that the only thing I have been writing about lately are the efforts on the policy front to shut down rooftop solar - and now this!

The only good news is that LG has said that they will continue to honor their warranty.  Hopefully they will live up to that promise.

Meanwhile… we have been doing our homework over the past month plus and have identified our new solar module partner going forward.  But that is a story for another day.

Today is a day to look back on a decade of loyalty that ended in betrayal.

DISGRACEFUL!

UPDATE: Bloomberg News makes it official - CPUC is delaying a vote on NEM 3.0 to allow more time to consider changes. Read their piece here - and check out that great sign front-and-center!

We have been reporting on the struggle with the CPUC’s Proposed Decision on Net Energy Metering 3.0 which, in its present form, would decimate the solar industry in the territory of the state’s three Investor-Owned Utilities (IOUs), SCE, PG&E, and SDG&E.  Originally the PD was supposed to be voted on during the CPUC’s January 27^th meeting, but that was quietly taken off-calendar.  Not so quiet was our response, as 325 of us spoke out against the PD (compared to only 4 who spoke in support) during the longest public comment period ever at the Commission. (You can read my prepared remarks here.)

That meant that the soonest the PD could be voted on was February 10^th - but when the Agenda for the meeting was released, the PD was nowhere to be found!  Again, with nothing being said officially from the CPUC.

Then, just today, over on investing site Seeking Alpha, came this tantalizing tidbit:

California Public Utilities Commission President Alice Reynolds reportedly has asked for more time to review and consider revisions to a proposal that would cut incentives for residential rooftop solar systems in the state.

No idea where that “report” comes from, as we haven’t been able to find any news stories on point.  Keep in mind that our marathon public comment period at the last meeting was only Reynolds’s second meeting as President of the CPUC - previously she was working for Governor Newsom.

Even without a clue as to what revisions Reynolds might be considering, the delay itself is a benefit as it gives potential solar clients more time to pull the trigger and get in under the existing NEM rules - which will certainly be better than the new rules, regardless of what revisions might come down the pike.

In any event, our collective outcry has clearly been heard, but we will need to keep the pressure on, and I’ve got just the means to do that - Call Governor Newsom!  Our friends at CALSSA have made it super easy to do just that.  Just mash that button below, and that will take you to the CALSSA Call Newsom website that will hook you up.  It’s fast, simple, and effective.  So don’t delay, mash away!  And watch this space!