California is considering a rooftop solar policy that’s a loser regardless of your politics
Plans to make putting panels on homes more expensive would hurt the state and the country
I’m grateful for my parents on a daily basis. They are kind, generous and loving people. However, when it comes to politics we don’t always see eye-to-eye. They generally support conservative candidates and lean toward conservative policies. I tend to be more progressive in my outlooks.
But if there’s one policy we can agree on, it’s rooftop solar. My parents, who live in the Los Angeles area, put panels on their roof a few years ago. In part, it was a practical choice. With incentives, such as getting money back for the electricity they put into the electric grid (known as net metering), rooftop solar has made financial sense. But it also offered another positive: They saw it as an investment into their community as they know they are giving power back to their neighbors.
For me, their rooftop solar is a point of pride for what it does for the climate and environment. Solar energy reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which must be cut in the United States by at least 80% by 2050 in order to avoid climate change’s worst impacts. A shift to solar also diminishes air pollution as it lowers the amount of coal and gas we burn for electricity. From 2007 to 2015, better air quality from wind and solar energy prevented an estimated 3,000 to 12,700 premature deaths.
Beyond that, rooftop solar delivers another important benefit in the renewable energy sector — it doesn’t take up any new space. Utility-sized solar farms impact our natural world. As the U.S. government points out, these projects can affect “native vegetation and wildlife in many ways, including loss of habitat; interference with rainfall and drainage; or direct contact causing injury or death.” This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t devote land to create these important energy hubs, but if we can be judicious about how and when we use them, that’s a huge victory.
Rooftop solar helps in this process. In California, putting panels on the roofs of homes and other buildings has the potential to meet more than three-quarters of the state’s electricity demand, according to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory. This limits the need to devote large plots of land for solar arrays.
While energy policy might not be the most intimate subject to bond over, my parents and I currently have reason to agree even further on this subject. In December, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which oversees policy on solar throughout much of the state, announced a proposal that would kneecap rooftop solar. The commission is calling for a solar fee averaging $57 per month, which would be the highest penalty for putting panels on roofs in any state. It would also gut the compensation people like my parents get for providing energy to the grid.
Whether it’s for the reasons that motivated my folks or the ones that are at the top of my list, rooftop solar is a win-win — so much so that California reached a nation-leading one million solar panels on rooftops in 2019. Tragically, as we’ve seen when other states have disincentivized solar panels, that number could quickly plummet if this CPUC plan goes into force. For example, when Nevada regulators increased the cost for rooftop solar in their state, adoption rates nosedived by 47%. When public outcry forced the state to reverse course, panel installations once again spiked.
Luckily, CPUC’s plans aren’t written in stone yet. There are a number of ways Californians can make their voices heard, from getting on social media to calling Gov. Gavin Newsom, who still has sway over the final policy. For my parents and every other Californian — let alone American — I hold out hope that the state will pull the plug on this ill-conceived plan and replace it with one that allows rooftop solar to keep growing.
