Great news for Californian 1BOG members! In early October 2009, Governor Schwartzenegger signed a bill that requires utilities to pay for extra electricity that consumers feed back into the grid. That means, if your home solar panels produce more electricity than you’re using, your local utility will pay you cash or assign credits that you can redeem when needed.
What does this mean?
1) California is helping more people take the plunge to go solar by not just saving money on electricity, but paying cash for the power they generate
2) For people who already have solar panels, this bill discourages wasteful consumption of energy. Knowing that their extra energy will not be “lost” to the utility, solar home and business owners will conserve resources and be compensated fairly.
Under current net metering rules, give consumers a credit on their monthly bill that can be used to offset higher energy consumption at other times of the year — like the winter months. But at the end of the year, any leftover credits are zeroed out. When AB 920 comes into effect, utilities will either pay homeowners for the extra power, or they will roll the credit over to the next year. Rates will be determined by the California Public Utilities Commission, and will likely be below retail.
Authored by Assembly member Jared Huffman, the AB 920 bill, known as the California Solar Surplus Act of 2009, goes into effect January 1st, 2010. Creating a fair incentive structure within California’s solar market is a huge plus for California’s environment and economy and an important shift toward more pro-solar legislation in the future.
April 23rd, 2010 at 1:26 PM
I filed a protest to the applications filed by the utilities to set the rate for surplus electricity pursuant to AB 920. Happy to provide anyone with a copy.
don@donricketts.com