By Tom Molanphy : thebaycitybeacon – excerpt
Although Governor Newsom outlined some broad possibilities for PG&E’s future, California legislators seem unwilling to simply wait around for the latest edition of post-bankruptcy PG&E. Instead, advocates for smaller, local, and more dependable energy sources have seized this crisis as an opportunity.
Introduced on February 13 by State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-SF), SB 288, the Solar Bill of Rights, would “enable greater deployment of customer-sited distributed energy resources (DER) by recognizing that all Californians have the right to generate and store their own renewable electricity without undue interference from their local electric utility.”
Weiner announced SB 288 with co-sponsor Senator Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) on the steps of the state capitol in Sacramento. “No matter where in California you live, no matter what your income, no matter what the quality of the air that you breathe,” Weiner said, “You should be able to save money and help save the planet by using solar, energy storage, and other ground-breaking clean energy technologies at home and at your place of work.”
Although the latest draft of the bill is clear on demands and fuzzy on enforcements, Weiner and Nielsen emphasized the practical (and rare) bi-partisanship of the legislation; it’s a bill that can help homeowners in San Francisco as much as agribusinesses in the Central Valley. “Agriculture depends on the sun,” Senator Nielsen said. “And with the use of solar, the agricultural community here can be even more efficient.”…
Susannah Churchill, California Director of Vote Solar in Oakland, believes the bill will address three critical issues: delays from utilities in connecting to the grid businesses and residences that use solar energy; improper fees for that connection and use; and a clarification of the right of state residents to store and capture their own energy…
Beyond the fees, there’s the question of how much businesses and residences with solar who put energy back into the grid should be compensated for that energy. According to PG&E’s website, “Compensation for excess energy changes depending on state regulations. The price is set by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and usually the energy is priced at $0.03-$0.04 per kilowatt hour (kWh).” The Solar Energies Industries Association estimates that 6,084,000 California homes have solar panels, and that 19% of the state’s electricity comes from solar…
PG&E has gone through bankruptcy before and come out mostly unchanged. But if and when the utility corporation reemerges this time around, the energy market could be dramatically different. SB 288 joins the mandate for rooftop solar panels on all new single-family homes starting in 2020, as well as SB 100, which targets 2045 as the year California energy will be carbon-free. Earlier this year, San Francisco joined Berkeley, Hayward, Richmond and Oakland and declared a “climate emergency” to reduce carbon emissions…(more)
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