Hi everyone, Tesla recently sent me a new contract with a credit off the purchase agreement for SREC. This is new for california homeowners who are going solar this year. Does any CA Tesla solar panel owners know about this? I emailed my advisor and was told that CA customers are REQUIRED to transfer their renewable energy credits to Tesla. Does anyone have any experience with this? Can we opt out of it? I want to be able to manage my own credits. Thank you!
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
SREC for California homeowners
- Thread starter eliang3118
- Start date
Thats new. let us know if you get more info. I looked into this previously and CA did not have a marketplace or any way for homeowners to participate in this, but that was prior to this year.
I may well be wrong about this, but I believe that it is in principle possible for an individual homeowner to get credit for SRECs. Apparently the way to do this is to register with the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System which will track your generation. Then it is up to the individual to find a buyer. It is my belief that the costs of setting up an account with WREGIS is likely to exceed the value of any credits you could sell. California is not short of solar power and I think the SRECs are nearly valueless here. It may make sense for Tesla to use the SRECs if the costs they incur can be spread across many MWh of generation.
Looking at their website (WREGIS Home) seems to back up all of this, including the $50 annual fee (more if the install exceeds 30 kW.) Between that and the apparent lack of a marketplace (compared to those of us out east who register for free and have a few options for brokers who sell them, like SRECTrade) it does seem to make it more difficult for a user and it may make sense to take what Tesla is offering. At the least, the apparent lack of an easy-to-use market makes it harder to assess the value of the credits if kept.
The other item of note is that if using the new Tesla inverter, it is possible that would not be sufficient for reporting production. Most (all?) states around here where SRECs are in place require the meters to meet an ANSI standard, and it seems the Tesla inverter has not yet been certified. While it is hopefully just a matter of time (and not something that requires a hardware change,) it appears to be a reason why Tesla has been insistent about buying out the SREC credits in newer installs. This may be what OP is running into now. The WREGIS website also does suggest there are cases where registration itself if required, but I don't know anything about those rules or to what installs they might apply, and it doesn't seem like that would prevent the owner from being the one who registers.
Maybe Try OhmConnect. Not sure if extra power is sellable that way in their marketplace.
I used OhmConnect a few years ago. It did not pay for renewable generation but it did provide incentives for reducing consumption when the grid was stressed.
nevian
Member
Does anyone know if it makes sense to keep SREC rather than collect the credit from Tesla? I live in Southern California - 35 panels
This (SREC for california) seems to be very newly available. Maybe you can provide more information about this? Is keeping them even an option? Where would you propose selling them?
nevian
Member
yes, I called today to confirm that it is OPTIONAL though Tesla kept insisting they "preferred" to keep it. I wouldn't know where to begin with trading this SREC. I tried opening an account just now at SRECtrade.com and was denied because minimum residential size is a lot larger than my system:
We do not currently accept systems under 100kW for this state. However, if your portfolio of assets is greater than 100kW please contact us for more information at [email protected].
For individual systems smaller than 100kW please subscribe to our blog for news regarding future expansion of our services to projects of that size.
nevian
Member
it's kind of sh*tty that we're having to commit to a contract where we might be giving up something that might benefit us. we don['t have hte information, we don't know what' sgoing to happen. this sucks.
nevian
Member
Most of us know what they are "solar renewable energy credits", but in CA they were not available to residential homeowners. It frankly doesnt make sense for them to be available to residential homeowners in this state, as there is no longer any need to "drive solar adoption" in this state. We have plenty of solar. the issue we have in california is what happens when the sun goes down, not demand during the day.
My expectation is that SRECs in CA should be virtually worthless unless they somehow get to be sold across the country somewhere.
We are encountering the same problem and are looking for answers to this. We submitted order for solar installation and the contract included a credit of about $400 for signing over the SRECs. Now I am fine giving it away but the terms of the SREC in Schedule B seemed extremely unconscionable because it states "If you fail to comply with the obligations set forth in Section 3 within 30 days after Tesla’s written notice to you, and that failure results in any disruption in the production of Environmental Attributes or Tesla’s ability to claim, transfer, or otherwise make use of the Environmental Attributes, Tesla will have the right to invoice and collect from you an amount equal to Tesla’s direct, actual damages resulting from such disruption. In no case, however, will you be liable to Tesla under this REC Agreement for amounts in excess of the REC Credit."
Section 3 basically states that you'll be fully responsible for the rest of your solar life to Tesla for maintaining internet connection, sign SREC related paperwork within 7 days whenever is required by Tesla, etc.
We are looking to purchase the system, but now we feel like we will be on the hook to Tesla for the rest of our solar panel life. Spoke to the advisor and it's either accept or go somewhere else. That seems very harsh and incredibly abusive. Is there anything we can do about this? Thanks in advance.
Section 3 basically states that you'll be fully responsible for the rest of your solar life to Tesla for maintaining internet connection, sign SREC related paperwork within 7 days whenever is required by Tesla, etc.
We are looking to purchase the system, but now we feel like we will be on the hook to Tesla for the rest of our solar panel life. Spoke to the advisor and it's either accept or go somewhere else. That seems very harsh and incredibly abusive. Is there anything we can do about this? Thanks in advance.
I did some researching on the SRECs for California home owners after seeing info on another forum and then finding this thread here.
What I found was that the marketplaces that accept CA RECs require about a 100KW system or larger, so immediately disqualifies homes. In addition, you have to have your panel meter changed out to a "Revenue Grade Meter" which costs a lot, and the WREGIS site to get your RECs requires a $75/yr cost so that makes it too expensive for a normal home already, and the CA SRECs only sell for $10-15 each. Which means, taking the lower amount there since solar is only going to become more common and thus worth a lower value you would need to sell 8 RECs a year just to meet the basline cost of getting them. That means having a minimum of 7-8kW solar panel system on the home, but again it is disqualified since the marketplaces want 100kW systems.
So while it is technically possible to sign up for these, you can't actually sell them yourself as a home user in CA. You can sign them over to Tesla for the upfront $400 credit, but then you have to pay $75 a year to WREGIS which means after 5 years you are losing money forever there after, plus you are already in the negative just from the panel meter cost of installation. I dont really think Tesla can hold anyone to this as their credit doesnt cover initial cost and has a negative cost very soon after the system is active, and is hard to even get approved as a home user to begin with.
This seems like it should be more of a business installation contract, but even at that a measly $400 is not worth doing at all.
What I found was that the marketplaces that accept CA RECs require about a 100KW system or larger, so immediately disqualifies homes. In addition, you have to have your panel meter changed out to a "Revenue Grade Meter" which costs a lot, and the WREGIS site to get your RECs requires a $75/yr cost so that makes it too expensive for a normal home already, and the CA SRECs only sell for $10-15 each. Which means, taking the lower amount there since solar is only going to become more common and thus worth a lower value you would need to sell 8 RECs a year just to meet the basline cost of getting them. That means having a minimum of 7-8kW solar panel system on the home, but again it is disqualified since the marketplaces want 100kW systems.
So while it is technically possible to sign up for these, you can't actually sell them yourself as a home user in CA. You can sign them over to Tesla for the upfront $400 credit, but then you have to pay $75 a year to WREGIS which means after 5 years you are losing money forever there after, plus you are already in the negative just from the panel meter cost of installation. I dont really think Tesla can hold anyone to this as their credit doesnt cover initial cost and has a negative cost very soon after the system is active, and is hard to even get approved as a home user to begin with.
This seems like it should be more of a business installation contract, but even at that a measly $400 is not worth doing at all.
Also, given that the original post of this thread is 2 years old and we haven't heard anything about big legal battles with Tesla vs homeowners over this, I assume Tesla isn't pursuing it at all and knows it is something a homeowner cant do. I highly doubt the typical CA homeowner reads the contract and follows through on anything relating to SRECs.
Sorry, I cant edit this into my last post. Dont have the edit capability as a new user.
Sorry, I cant edit this into my last post. Dont have the edit capability as a new user.
Similar threads
