These projects can give renters and low-income homeowners a chance to go solar, but the PUC’s action limits the option.
As part of the Public Works Department’s Citywide Solar Project, solar canopies were recently installed on top of the two parking structures at the Long Beach Airport. City officials, partners, and staff celebrated the completion of the sustainable project on Monday, April 22.
The formula adopted today essentially reduces the value of distributed small scale renewable energy in the future, providing less of an incentive for new community solar projects to be built. “The foundations of a sustainable program should not be built on one-time money,” said Derek Chernow, Western Regional Director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access.
With electric bills soaring for many Californians, she also was critical of the impact of “cost shift,” the idea that the subsidies provided to community solar projects are costs borne by all ratepayers. It’s a fundamental fairness argument that the commission has applied in other proceedings, to justify reducing subsidies.
“The CPUC’s recent series of decisions threatens to unravel California’s clean energy progress,” said the Solar Energy Industries Association in a statement. “It’s past time for Governor Newsom and state leaders to reign in the commission before it inflicts more damage on customers and the state’s clean energy economy.
An aide to Sen. Josh Becker, a Menlo Park Democrat, read a letter from the lawmaker saying that experts doubt the policies will expand access to clean energy.
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