California

California State Solar Overview

California has the largest solar market in the U.S. and has been a longtime champion of solar because of the many economic and environmental benefits it provides, including billions in local investment. Solar supplies more than 25 percent of California’s electricity today, but it must play a bigger role if the state is to reach climate and energy goals.

California Policy Priorities & Recent Highlights

• To ensure the economics of investments in solar + storage were not significantly impacted, SEIA and other stakeholders successfully advocated for a reasonable fixed electric charge applicable to all residential customers. We continue to engage in the next round of the proceeding to ensure that the charge does not unreasonably escalate.
• SEIA is working to enable faster interconnection for DERs and utility scale projects both through legislative efforts and at the PUC in proceeding R.24-01-018 (Energization).
• To better enable solar + storage customers to monetize their investments, SEIA is prioritizing efforts on dynamic rates for each of the investor-owned utilities.
• SEIA continues to advocate for significant improvements to the CPUC’s avoided cost calculator tool, which will be used to determine the benefits that distributed solar provides.
• SEIA is prioritizing efforts to create a functional community solar program in California to take advantage of state and federal funding opportunities.
• We continue to advocate for a flexible and scalable PV recycling program for solar systems through the legislature.
• We are working to ensure California conforms to federal tax law to take full advantage of the IRA investment tax credits for transferability and direct pay by advocating for a legislative fix.