Solar California

If you live in California — or know someone who does — this message is for you.

States have been called the laboratories of democracy. Programs that might be great often need to prove themselves locally, before being adopted on a national level. They need a track record. For decades, California has frequently been the nation’s environmental laboratory. The Clean Air Act, to name just one example, was born in LA.

Solar California

The Golden State has been a pioneer in developing solar policies to power the nation with clean, renewable energy. One of the most successful programs to speed adoption of solar in California is net metering. It’s a simple, but potent, idea. It allows people with solar systems to be credited for the excess electricity they produce and send back to the grid.

But there’s a catch: net metering has a cap. Once net metered customers supply 2.5% of utility peak load, new solar systems owners aren’t compensated for excess electricity.

AB 510: Raising the cap

Now, there’s a bill pending in the California Senate to raise the cap on net metering to 5% and help keep solar growing: AB 510.

The California-based Vote Solar Initiative has created a Web page that makes it easy for California residents to sign a petition online and have it sent immediately to their Senator.

If you’re a California resident, it only takes two minutes to support clean, renewable energy. All you have to do, is go here and sign in.

Please do it right away. Don’t let the sun set on solar power and the green jobs that come from it.

Rhone Resch, head of the Solar Energy Industries Association

It turns out, Resch is not a member of Congress and no committee will decide the fate of this bill.

While Resch’s document is enumerated like the Bill of Rights, it has far more in common with another early American document: the Declaration of Independence.

Write it off as a rhetorical flourish or a good sound bite if you will, but read the document and you’ll quickly recognize that Resch is as serious as Thomas Jefferson was when he drafted his “Dear George” letter to the King of England.

The phrase “Energy Independence” generally refers to an America free from addiction to foreign sources of energy. But if the phrase has a domestic side — Resch’s document embodies it.

Solar Bill of Rights

To secure a policy environment that allows solar energy to compete and empowers consumers to choose, Rhone Resch declared today, October 27, 2009, in the City of Anaheim, California, a Solar Bill of Rights:

We declare these rights not on behalf of our companies, but on behalf of our customers and our country. We seek no more than the freedom to compete on equal terms and no more than the liberty for consumers to choose the energy source they think best.

1. Americans have the right to put solar on their homes or businesses. Restrictive covenants, onerous connection rules, and excessive permitting and inspections fees prevent too many American homes and businesses from going solar.

2. Americans have the right to connect their solar energy system to the grid with uniform national standards. This should be as simple as connecting a telephone or appliance. No matter where they live, consumers should expect a single standard for connecting their system to the electric grid.

3. Americans have the right to Net Meter and be compensated at the very least with full retail electricity rates. When customers generate excess solar power utilities should pay them consumer at least the retail value of that power.

4. The solar industry has the right to a fair competitive environment. The highly profitable fossil fuel industries have received tens of billions of dollars for decades. The solar energy expects a fair playing field, especially since the American public overwhelmingly supports the development and use of solar.

5. The solar industry has the right to equal access to public lands. America has the best solar resources in the world, yet solar companies have zero access to public lands compared to the 45 million acres used by oil and natural gas companies.

6. The solar industry has the right to interconnect and build new transmission lines. When America updates its electric grid, it must connect the vast solar resources in the Southwest to population centers across the nation.

7. Americans have the right to buy solar electricity from their utility. Consumers have no choice to buy clean, reliable solar energy from their utilities instead of the dirty fossil fuels of the past.

8. Americans have the right, and should expect, the highest ethical treatment from the solar industry. Consumers should expect the solar energy industry to minimize its environmental impact, provide systems that work better than advertised, and communicate incentives clearly and accurately.

Gov. Schwarzenegger at 2008 Climate Summit

Owners of medium-sized commercial solar generators will be paid a premium for any extra power they send into the grid under two new laws signed on Sunday by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod

SB 32, introduced by Senator Gloria Negrete McLeod, requires utilities to pay 15-17 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity produced by solar-panel generators ranging from 1.5 to 3.0 megawatts. (Previously, the arrangement was capped at 1.5 MW.)

The other new law, the California Solar Surplus Act (AB-920), was introduced by Assemblymember Jared Huffman. This bill now requires utilities to pay for power generated, but not used, by commercial solar generators. Before winning a seat in the California Assembly in 2008, Huffman was a senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC).

Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have granted the tariff only to generators located within the state.

Download Packet Here

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