SACRAMENTO, California — A rooftop solar proposal introduced in the Assembly on Wednesday night opens a new front in the struggling industry’s fight against investor-owned utilities at the California Public Utilities Commission.
Assemblymember Damon Connolly’s A.B. 2619 would direct the CPUC to reconsider the rooftop solar reimbursements it slashed by about 75 percent last spring. The bill would direct the agency to make sure reimbursements are big enough to drive a doubling of rooftop generation by 2045 in accord with state renewable energy goals.
The proposal reflects lawmakers’ efforts to re-prioritize rooftop solar, which the state bolstered for years with its “million solar roofs” program and other initiatives. Coming on top of another bill to halt the CPUC’s restructuring of electric rates, A.B. 1999, Connolly’s proposal also highlights lawmakers’ claims that they’ve ceded too much policymaking power to state agencies.
Utilities have long claimed state policies forced them to overpay for solar power that people generate at home and feed back into the grid, saying they can get the power cheaper from large-scale installations.
