Thoughts on Solar

Three years into an ambitious ten year plan to install 3,000 MW of solar power on California rooftops, the State of Solar in California is surprisingly good - despite a difficult economy.  The California Solar Initiative covers that portion of the program under the auspices of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and involves the three Investor-Owned Utilities in the state - PG&E, SCE and SDG& E.  The CPUC issued its Annual Program Assessment last week.   The CSI program, which is targeted to install some 1,940 MW of solar by the end of 2016 is already 42% of the way there.

More highlights from the Assessment after the break.

• CSI Incentives have Economic Leverage - For every dollar spent on incentives, there has been another $2.62 invested in solar power systems from other sources.  The CSI incentives have leveraged an additional $5.06 billion in other capital investments.
• System Costs are Declining - using inflation adjusted data, costs for systems smaller than 10kW (i.e., most residential systems) have fallen by 15% from January 2007 to December 2009.  For larger systems, system costs declined by nearly 10% over the same period.
• Backlog in Projects - Completed projects make up 20% of the goal while pending projects (i.e., projects for which a rebate has been reserved but the project is not yet complete) account for another 22%.
  • There are some concerns that this is not an accidental condition.  We will have more to say about this in a future post.
• 2010 is the Strongest Year Yet - In just the first six months of this year, nearly 300 MW of project applications have been received by CSI and nearly 60 MW has already been installed.  April of this year saw the highest MW total for new applications of any month in the program - over 134 MW.
• Solar Systems Work - for both the grid and their owners:
  • California has over 600 MW of solar power connected to the grid at nearly 65,000 customer sites.
    • But here is an eye opener - 598 MW of that is installed in IOU territory - only 11 MW is installed in publicly owned utility territory!  (I.e., the so-called “Muni’s” which include LADWP, PWP, BWP & GWP!)
  • In 2009, CSI projects generated more than 390,000 MWh of energy - three times the amount produced in 2008.
  • Based on a review of actual performance data, both large and small CSI-funded systems are performing above estimates and solar customers rank their systems at a ‘9′ on a scale from 1 to 10 for system performance satisfaction.

It would be nice to see similar analysis coming from the Muni’s - which up until now tend to keep their data to themselves.  That too is grist for another post.

Yesterday we reported on the Stakeholder’s meeting that is being held next Monday, December 7, at the MTA HQ building. This is an important update meeting on the County’s progress toward implementing an AB 811 program for LA County and its member cities that will greatly facilitate funding for solar projects.

Today we are reporting on the Cities that we have been able to identify as potentially attending the meeting. Is your City on the list? Find out after the jump.

Here is the list of Cities that we have been able to identify so far (we will update this list if we learn of more participants):

• Claremont
• Culver City
• Lancaster
• Lomita
• Long Beach
• Los Angeles
• Malibu
• Monrovia
• Palmdale
• Palos Verdes
• Santa Clarita
• Santa Monica

That is it!  Pretty pathetic – there are 88 incorporated cities in LA County - the above list accounts for 12 of them.  (There are also two Government Associations listed, the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments and the South Bay Cities COG.)

Why does this matter?  As we understand the program, if your city does not adopt a resolution of participation, YOU, as a potential solar customer, will not be eligible to participate in the program - and thereby cutoff from a low-cost source of solar financing.

Frankly, there is no excuse for any city not to participate.  So contact your city manager and find out why your city is not represented.  Better yet, insist that they have someone attend this meeting and get with the program!

Assembly Bill 811 authorizes cities and counties to create a funding mechanism for property owners to add solar (or other energy efficiency measures) to their property without any upfront cost.   Instead, the loan is paid back through an assessment on the owner’s property tax bill and is paid back over twenty years.

Los Angeles county is developing an umbrella program to implement an AB 811 project throughout the county.  The initial funding for the program is to come from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (the Stimulus bill).  You can follow LA County’s progress by checking out their AB 811 website. 
UPDATE: (9/14/2011) the AB 811 website is no longer available.  However, in its place you can visit the Energy Upgrade website for information about energy-efficiency rebate programs in LA County.

This is a great opportunity for home owners to add solar with no upfront cost and a low interest loan paid back over twenty years!

Don’t be left out - make sure that your City is signed up to participate in the program.  We anticipate that the first loans will be made available next spring.