Community Solar in California

Background

Since 2007, California has dedicated over $1 billion towards low-income and community renewable energy programs. The state’s low-income rooftop solar, low-income multifamily solar, and community solar programs have resulted in over 13,365 approved projects and 430 MW of solar capacity online or in process. The Single-family Solar Homes (SASH) Program was launched in 2007 and the Multifamily Affordable Solar Homes (MASH) Program a year later to focus on low-income and affordable housing solar incentives. New versions of the programs focusing on customers in disadvantaged community (DAC) census tracts were launched in 2015 with the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program and in 2018 with the DAC Single-family Solar Homes (DAC-SASH) program. A suite of community solar programs were also launched during this time period for general market customers (the Green Tariff Shared Renewables program) and for low-income renters in DAC census tracts (DAC Green Tariff and Community Solar Green Tariff).

Proceeding A.22-05-022 began in May 2022 and included the legislative directives of AB 2316 (Ward, 2022) and AB 2838 (O’Donnell, 2022), which required the Commission to review its existing customer renewable energy subscription programs including DAC Green Tariff, Community Solar Green Tariff and Green Tariff Shared Renewables programs.

This proceeding reviews program goals, budget, capacity, design, implementation, and consumer protections and explores new authorization for the Commission to allow the IOUs to terminate their GTSR programs. It also evaluates whether these programs achieve the specified goals of AB 2316 and whether to modify the programs as necessary. Lastly, it considers whether to adopt a new community renewable energy program. 

Current Proceeding Events

How to Participate in this Proceeding

Visit the CPUC's brochures webpage to find information on what happens in a proceeding, informal and formal participation, making public comments, participation at hearings and workshops, the CPUC's Intervenor Compensation Program, and ex parte communications with CPUC decisionmakers.

Official filings are posted on the A.22-05-022 docket card.  To be notified of new documents, sign up for the proceeding's service list here.

Community Renewable Energy Subscription Programs

Subsidized Programs

The DAC Green Tariff enables income-qualified, utility or Community Choice Aggregator (CCA) residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof to benefit from a pool of grid scale clean energy projects and receive a 20 percent bill discount. The program is modeled after the existing Green Tariff portion of the Green Tariff Shared Renewables Programs and is available to customers who meet the income eligibility requirements for the CARE and FERA programs. The program has a capacity cap of 158 MW and has enrolled over 23,000 customers to date.

The Community Solar Green Tariff enables utility and CCA residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof to benefit from a local solar project and receive a 20 percent bill discount. The communities work with a local non-profit or government sponsor to organize community interest and present siting locations to the utility or CCA; the sponsor can also receive an incentive for its efforts. The program has a capacity cap of 41 MW and is anticipated to begin enrolling customers in 2024.

Market-Rate Programs

The Green Tariff Shared Renewables program enables utility customers to receive 50 to 100 percent of their electricity demand from renewable sources. The program has two components: the Green Tariff (GT) component and the Enhanced Community Renewables (ECR) component.  Through GT, a customer may pay the difference between their current generation charge and the cost of procuring 50 to 100 percent renewables.  With ECR, a customer agrees to purchase a share of a community renewable (typically solar) project directly from a developer, and in exchange will receive a credit from their utility for the customer’s avoided generation procurement. The GT and ECR components have a combined capacity cap of 600 megawatts (MW) statewide.

Other Community Renewable Energy & Low-Income Solar Programs

Disadvantaged Communities Single-family Solar Homes (DAC-SASH): Enables income-qualified homeowners in DACs to receive no-cost rooftop solar installations.

Renewable Energy Self-Generation Bill Credit Transfer (RES-BCT): Enables local governments, including tribal governments, school districts and universities to share generation credits from a system located on one government-owned property with billing accounts at other government-owned properties.

Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH): Provides incentives for solar energy photovoltaic systems for multifamily affordable housing.

Virtual Net Energy Metering or Virtual Net Billing Tariffs (VNEM or VNBT): Enables property owners to share benefits of an onsite renewable electrical generation facility with their tenants and common areas on a single eligible, contiguous property.