Last month, the California Solar and Storage Association (CSSA, a trade association for companies in the solar industry) called to ask me if I could drive up to Sacramento to provide testimony against Senate Bill 1088 and I said yes. SB 1088’s goal is to “reduce the risk of devastating wildfires by requiring electric utility companies to upgrade infrastructure, hardening the grid to be more resistant to extreme weather and bringing it into compliance with new safety standards.” So, why would I want to testify against that? Why would anyone be against it?
The answer to those questions gets to the heart of how legislation works and how we, as informed citizens, need to pay closer attention to the details, the fine print, and the nitty gritty than we wish we had to. The underlying reason is that it is the nature of for profit companies (and most human beings for that matter) to be self-interested. This proposed legislation would affect utilities greatly so they paid close attention to it and wanted to ensure the bill, if enacted into law, would be fair to the utility companies. Their lobbyists worked to shape the wording of the bill in ways that would reduce their liability for wildfire damage. Understandable. Unfortunately, the wording of this bill was also shaped to include some clauses that were decidedly anti-solar (and anti-innovation and pro-monopoly). But how did anti-solar language end up in the bill? Lauren Navarro from the Environmental Defense Fund explains it in her article, “California bill aimed at wildfires effectively bans clean energy that may help prevent them.”
Fortunately, this anti-solar wording did not go unnoticed this time. Thanks to vocal opposition organized by organizations like the CSSA and the Solar Rights Alliance among others, Senator Bill Dodd amended the language of the bill before it was voted on by the State Senate.
I was one of the voices in Sacramento that day. I was pretty annoyed and shocked that language limiting the rights of regular solar panel owners to share their energy with the grid would sneak its way into a wildfire safety bill. If you’re a solar PV panel owner or you own battery a backup system, you should be pretty annoyed, too.
How can you, as a solar panel owner, stay informed about similar threats to solar in the future? Obviously, you’re not going to pay hundreds of dollars to join a trade association — you are just a homeowner. Well, there is an organization for you and I urge you to join it: The Solar Rights Alliance.
The Solar Rights Alliance, a new nonprofit group dedicated to defending everyone’s right to choose solar, is helping unite solar owners like you to fight back against efforts by utilities to slap solar owners with higher fees, impose more red tape to install solar, and cut the credit for giving energy back to the grid.
We hope all of our customers will join. It doesn’t cost anything and there’s no catch. It’s really quick — just give ’em your name and email.
As a member of the Solar Rights Alliance, you will stay up-to-date on policies that may impact your solar investment and will be alerted to actions you can take to defend your rights (such as writing to your state and national representatives).
There are over 700,000 solar homeowners in California. Together, you are a powerful force. When lawmakers and regulators hear from people like you (not just solar companies), it helps them understand why solar is so important for our families, our communities, and our country.
Since this is a blog and since very few people will ever read this far down, I want to share some philosophical musings on the general subject of investor-owned utility monopolies (“IOUs”) and their enigmatic stance toward clean energy. It is easy to paint the utilities as the big bad guys. They are often accused of publicly claiming to be pro-solar while privately or secretly working against the interests of solar. They are accused of publicly claiming to be ultra-concerned about safety while privately or secretly putting profits against the interests of safety (e.g. deferring gas pipeline upgrades leading to catastrophic fires). They are criticized for giving huge pay packages to executives while not doing enough to curb rate increases that disproportionately affect the poor. What can we do as citizens to help our utilities align their profit interests better with clean energy interests? How can we push utilities toward the kind of infrastructure investments that will facilitate the faster adoption of new, clean energy technologies and the more efficient use of DER (distributed energy resources)? What can be done to get us all out of this “us vs. them” mentality with the big power companies? 99.9% of us absolutely rely on the big power company to be there for us at all times. We depend on them for so much — as we are all reminded the moment the power goes out. It would be nice to find a way to have a less adversarial relationship with them; one in which we are all working towards a common goal. In the meantime, as solar panel owners, the least we can do is stay informed.
For additional reading on the topic of DER, visit Distributed Energy Resources 101: Required Reading for a Modern Grid.