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California Utilities Plan All Out War On Solar, Please Read And Help

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How PG&E and other California utilities are trying to kill rooftop solar!​

How you can help: Make a public comment at an upcoming CPUC. Or write a letter via email to the CPUC. We have fact sheets and instructions how to make a public comment or letter. If interested contact me at [email protected]

On one side: Current and future rooftop solar consumers in the nation’s leading solar state. On the other, the state’s big three investor-owned utilities — PG&E, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric.

The utilities have petitioned the state Public Utilities Commission to slash by more than half the credit they must pay customers for excess energy generated by rooftop solar panels. They also want to charge new rooftop solar customers nearly $70 a month just to hook up to the grid.

The PUC will hold hearings on this petition beginning July 26. The final decision, due by the end of the year, could cost solar ratepayers millions, essentially destroying the rooftop solar market in California.

How PG&E and other California utilities are trying to kill rooftop solar
 
If you enjoy your solar, if you appreciate not having an outrageous electric bill for using the sun’s rays, and if you don’t want corporate greed to affect your pocketbook, you MUST send a message to your Governor Newsom today. The energy monopolies are doing everything they can to destroy rooftop solar and NEM, and we have to stop them. →act.solarrights.org/petition
Screenshot 2021-07-06 144628.jpg
 
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Excuse my ignorance and my reductio ad absurdum question:

Let's wave our magic wand, and in my fantasy the amount of privately-owned, personal use rooftop/canopied/ground-mounted solar panel installations grew so that average daily demand is halved statewide.

With a sharp decrease in demand, what would happen to the public utilities? With a surfeit of private electricity dumped onto the grid for others daily, how would this affect the operation of an electrical utility? Add in battery storage and I can see an industry that will struggle to survive under the current (pun intended) rules.

It seems to me that this scenario is what these utilities fear. There will always be a need for public utilities. There is not a need for the anachronistic business model any longer. The utilities have become lazy and want to massage the system to ensure substantial profitability with minimal risk into perpetuity. Equally lazy is the legislature who don't want to piss off businesses and constituents in their districts. They want to keep the old system in place and do not want to risk developing an alternate method to determine the utility tariffs and other changes to the Public Utilities Code of the State of California.
 
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Stop the Utility Profit Grab The Energy Show Podcast​

Lots of great information and the reason we need to defeat CA Utilities Profit Grab
Utilities invented their Big Lie to convince the public that they are the good guys, only trying to protect ratepayers. BS.
  1. Did your electric rates go up because of rooftop solar? No — they went up because of high transmission costs and ridiculous utility executive salaries.
  2. Are our wildfires caused by rooftop solar? No — the deadliest fires have been caused by inadequate transmission line maintenance.
  3. Will paying utilities more money solve your home and business blackout problems any time soon? No — the fastest and cheapest way for you to get reliable power is with your own backup system.
Specifically, California’s three monopoly utilities want to:
* Add monthly fixed charges to solar customer bills,
* Reduce solar reimbursement rates,
* Eliminate annual net metering, and
* Change net metering grandfathering for existing solar customers.

The only way to stop this utility profit grab is for homeowners and businesses to call out this Big Lie!

Take action now:
* Contact the Solar Rights Alliance at Stand up for your right to make energy from the sun!
* Contact the California Solar and Storage Association at CA Solar & Storage Association
 
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Great read: The Environmental Case for Rooftop Solar Energy report. Environment California's new report finds that keeping rooftop solar growing can protect more than 148,000 acres of open space - roughly half the size of LA. Spread the word Stand Up for Solar

Get 200,000 public comments to the Governor, asking him to keep solar growing and to reject the Utility Profit Grab. More than 30,000 people have already done so. Now we must step it up. Folks can use the Save California Solar online petition, host their own, collect comments on paper - whatever works for you.
 

Cal Matters: Public utility commission is working against California’s climate goals. 350 Bay Area Executive Director Laura Neish authored a scathing opinion piece in Cal Matters blasting the CPUC for biasing their decision-making criteria against rooftop solar and in favor of large-scale renewable energy.


Our Goal: Get 200,000 public comments to the Governor, asking him to keep solar growing and to reject the Utility Profit Grab. More than 30,000 people have already done so. Now we must step it up. Folks can use the Save California Solar online petition, host their own, collect comments on paper - whatever works for you.
 

SF Chronicle: How PG&E and other California utilities are trying to kill rooftop solar

Meanwhile, Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook authored a piece in the San Francisco Chronicle highlighting the real motivation for the utilities' proposal to kill rooftop solar: preserving their massive profits from the long-distance power lines. Local solar reduces the need to spend as much money on long-distance power lines, which is good for reducing wildfires, blackouts, and rate hikes, but terrible for utility profits.

We must then mobilize our supporters to make phone calls to the Governor - by the hundreds, every week, through the summer and fall. As with the above, use the Save California Solar phone tool, or organize your own phone action days. NEXT WED and each WED afterwards, lets flood the Gov's phone
 

Consumer group releases fact sheet: Rooftop solar benefits all Californians

The consumer group CALPIRG released a new fact sheet summarizing how rooftop solar benefits all consumers, whether or not they have solar. Spread the word!!!
Get 200,000 public comments to the Governor, asking him to keep solar growing and to reject the Utility Profit Grab. More than 30,000 people have already done so. Now we must step it up. Folks can use the Save California Solar online petition, host their own, collect comments on paper - whatever works for you.
 
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Consumer group releases fact sheet: Rooftop solar benefits all Californians

The consumer group CALPIRG released a new fact sheet summarizing how rooftop solar benefits all consumers, whether or not they have solar. Spread the word!!!
Get 200,000 public comments to the Governor, asking him to keep solar growing and to reject the Utility Profit Grab. More than 30,000 people have already done so. Now we must step it up. Folks can use the Save California Solar online petition, host their own, collect comments on paper - whatever works for you.
Californians, as Lee says abaove, please make calls to Gavin Newsom's office: 916-445-2841
 
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I think this is fair. PG&E has invested tons of money on distribution and generation and doesn't need thousands of private solar panels supplying power during the day and then suddenly quitting as soon as the sun goes down just when thousands of households crank up the usage for the evening. They have the right to charge a fee for taking excess power we generate. And if we don't like it, I guess we can buy Tesla storage batteries to soak up the extra, though my three aren't able to soak up much.

If we're depending on PG&E to make it worth it to own solar, we're in the wrong game.
 
I think this is fair. PG&E has invested tons of money on distribution and generation and doesn't need thousands of private solar panels supplying power during the day and then suddenly quitting as soon as the sun goes down just when thousands of households crank up the usage for the evening. They have the right to charge a fee for taking excess power we generate. And if we don't like it, I guess we can buy Tesla storage batteries to soak up the extra, though my three aren't able to soak up much.

If we're depending on PG&E to make it worth it to own solar, we're in the wrong game.
So you are in favor of the utilities making more billions, I do not buy into the if you have solar the utilities need to charge you more. If someone would control these monopolies we would not be in this position.
 
I think this is fair. PG&E has invested tons of money on distribution and generation and doesn't need thousands of private solar panels supplying power during the day and then suddenly quitting as soon as the sun goes down just when thousands of households crank up the usage for the evening. They have the right to charge a fee for taking excess power we generate. And if we don't like it, I guess we can buy Tesla storage batteries to soak up the extra, though my three aren't able to soak up much.

If we're depending on PG&E to make it worth it to own solar, we're in the wrong game.
The utilities’ proposal would create the nation’s highest fixed charges for solar customers while slashing net metering payments. The changes would severely hamper the state’s solar market at a moment when the state must accelerate clean energy deployment to meet its climate and energy goals. PG&E's proposed $86 per month hookup fees will make them billions. In addition their proposal does away with grandfathered contracts. People who have spent money in order to do the right thing for climate had to make calculations that the system would be affordable. This changes all the rules on the consumers.

Energysgae: Mid-day on the hottest days of the summer is an ideal time for solar panels, which produce near their maximum output under those circumstances. As a result, not only does solar help reduce overall demand for electricity on the system, it also helps to reduce electricity use when the grid needs it most, easing the overall stress on the grid and reducing prices for all consumers throughout your state or region.
 
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I think this is fair. PG&E has invested tons of money on distribution and generation and doesn't need thousands of private solar panels supplying power during the day and then suddenly quitting as soon as the sun goes down just when thousands of households crank up the usage for the evening. They have the right to charge a fee for taking excess power we generate. And if we don't like it, I guess we can buy Tesla storage batteries to soak up the extra, though my three aren't able to soak up much.

If we're depending on PG&E to make it worth it to own solar, we're in the wrong game.
since i installed PV in december, 2018, i have made around 45,000kwh, (45 megawatt hours) and used 1/2 -2/3 for all electric house and phev.
i pay $21.69/month connect fee and sell my excess at 2.3cents and buy at night at 8.6cents (appx)

i, and a lot of other rooftop solar are disrupting a once steady, 100+ year old revenue stream of the utilities BUT they don’t have to build new plants, or expand and they see distributed, aggregated solar and VPP’s as their death knell.

the utilities time is passing and inevitable
 
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It Wed and time to flood CA Gov Newsom phone lines: Californians, please make calls to Gavin Newsom's office: 916-445-2841. Leave him a message:
Here is a sample script you can use:

“My name is ___ and I live in ____. I am calling to ask Gov. Newsom to oppose the utility profit grab to kill rooftop solar. He needs to tell the CPUC to stand up to the utility falsehoods and keep rooftop solar growing so that millions of working and middle class and low income people can get solar.”
 
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Four ways you can help Save California Solar​


1) Submit a public comment to Governor Newsom and the CPUC.
30,000 people have done this so far, and our goal is 200,000 by August. Here are some resources from Solar Rights Alliance - feel free to use this language or come up with something else that works better for you.
2) If you are part of an organization, join this opposition letter [link to letter].

3) Sign up to testify at an upcoming CPUC meeting. Here are instructions


4) Get your local City Council or County Commission to take a position against the utility proposals and in favor of keeping solar growing. Here is a resolution adopted by Santa Cruz County that can serve as a model.
 
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Electrek Green Energy Brief: Charging an electric vehicle with rooftop solar in the US is cheaper than using grid power or public chargers. So why is the CPUC trying to kill the rooftop solar industry? Because of the CA Utility Profit Grab.

If home rooftop solar is used to charge an electric car in the US, it costs just $415 annually, compared to $662 on grid power at home annually, and $1,058 annually with a public EV charger, according to a study conducted by consumer solar panel installation reviews website SolarReviews. The study also found that it costs up to $1,260 annually to fill a gas car’s tank.

A typical solar EV charging setup includes rooftop solar panels, a central string inverter that combines DC output of the solar panels to AC, and a level 2 EV charger. SolarReviews estimates that five solar panels are needed to charge an EV.

According to the US Department of Transportation, the average American drives about 13,500 miles per year or about 40 miles per day. See the breakdown comparison in the article. https://electrek.co/2021/07/15/egeb-heres-how-much-it-costs-to-charge-your-ev-with-rooftop-solar/
 
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Not sure where they pulled the cost to fill up for 1 year using gas, if you do the math and assume you drive the 13,500 miles a year and get 25 miles to the gallon with gas at $4.25 per gallon that is close to $2300 per year.
In 10 years, 135,000 miles that makes $23,000. The price of gas alone makes pretty much any car more expensive than a Tesla.