Letters to the Editor: Edison CEO on why California rooftop solar rules must change
From the Sacramento Bee: “The decision by the Public Utilities Commission, which will require rooftop solar installations in California to be certified by a third party as having less than a third of a watt of power generation capacity, is a blow to rooftop solar adoption and poses new and substantial hurdles to the growth of renewable energy in the state.”
This decision, which essentially will drive all new solar installations off the roof of our state for good, is absurd. It will kill the rooftop solar industry and kill the growth of an important energy source in California. In my opinion, this arbitrary, unjust and unreasonable (because of its arbitrary nature) decision is just the beginning of an ” energy war” in California that will be won by the energy producers.
We’ll see. The real losers aren’t the rooftop solar manufacturers but the owners of homes with solar panels set to be destroyed.
The real winner will be California. And the only people benefiting for now is the public.
— Steve, Sacramento
This letter was published in the June 1 edition. For a PDF of the current issue, click here.
By: Sarah L. Vollmer
The California Energy Commission has made a few missteps in its attempt to make the public safe for solar power, and solar power is still not the safest thing on the planet. These decisions have no place in this growing but very necessary renewable energy source for California. They have to change!
One of the missteps is the proposed rule change on rooftop solar that has caused a lot of uncertainty about whether or not this will change solar’s role as a viable source of renewable energy in the state. Although it has been hailed as a step toward solar power reliability, the proposed rules will make it difficult or impossible for homeowners to have solar panels on their rooftops.
This rule change was made in response to a California Public Utilities Commission decision that required energy companies to install third party, or “certified,” solar modules on rooftops before they would be allowed to deliver power to homes. The commission’s decision found that if homes were allowed to install solar panels, energy companies would not be able to charge higher rates, and could not increase the amount of energy their grid-connected solar panels could generate
