The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) this week finished parts of its community solar program that solar advocates continue to describe as “unworkable and doomed to failure.”
“California remains committed to providing clean energy options for all customers,” said CPUC President John Reynolds. “Our decision ensures that competitive community solar programs grow responsibly, balancing affordability, equity and grid reliability.”
AB 2316, which was signed into law in September 2022, required large utilities serving more than 100,000 customers to create and implement programs that “enable ratepayers to directly participate in off-site electric generating facilities that utilize eligible renewable energy sources,” such as community solar. In 2024, the CPUC rejected a proposal from solar advocacy groups that would support community solar in the state, instead increasing decision-making power owned by local utilities. State lawmakers then tried to pass a new bill last year intended to strengthen and expand the original framework for California’s community solar + storage program, which, among other things, ensured affordability for low-income customers. So is the state currently ruling on AB 1813which would make further changes to the community solar program that are supported by industry advocates.
Yesterday’s CPUC vote implemented the community solar program as written, without support from solar advocates. CPUC concluded that the state’s community solar program will utilize the existing CPUC Renewable market adjustment rate (ReMAT) pricing structure, which would “ensure that non-participating customers do not pay more on their electricity bills than the avoided wholesale cost of the electricity generated.”
“Today’s vote is a doubling down on failures. In the midst of an affordability crisis and rising energy rates, the CPUC has once again handed the keys to the utilities — the same utilities that have worked for years to ensure community solar never gets built — and called it a program,” said Derek Chernow, executive director of Californians for Local, Affordable Solar and Storage (CLASS). “California taxpayers are drowning in electric bills. The Legislature passed AB 2316 four years ago with clear directions to deliver a workable community solar and storage program. Instead, the CPUC has produced a program that has had zero projects built, squandered $250 million in federal Solar for All funding, and is now being reauthorized in essentially the same package.
“Taxpayers in more than two dozen other states are saving money through programs that California refuses to build. Every month of delay is another month. Families, renters and small businesses in the Central Valley and across the state are going without promised relief. The Senate must pass AB 1813. It’s the only path to a program that actually works.”
