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. California has over 49,000 MW of installed capacity and solar supplies more than 31 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

• Dynamic Rates Applications (A.24-12-008 and A. 24-09-014) – These proceedings will address dynamic rate proposals of two of California’s largest investor-owned utilities. SEIA’s participation will be directed towards ensuring that the adopted rates allow for the enhancement of the value of solar and storage investments for all customer classes.
• Integrated Resources Proceeding (R.20-05-003) – While this proceeding has been ongoing since 2020, a significant portion of 2025 will be spent on the development of a Reliable and Clean Power Procurement Program aimed at establishing a programmatic approach to required procurement for all load serving entities under the jurisdiction of the California Public Utilities Commission. SEIA’s participation will advance the interests of solar and storage in this procurement program.
• Fixed Charge (R. 22-07-005) – As the implementation of the residential fixed charges adopted in 2024 will have major impacts on incentives for new customers to go solar as well as impact savings for current customers, SEIA will work in this proceeding to deter increases in the fixed charge and to find alternative rate designs which will serve to lower bills and enhance electrification.
• Community Solar (A. 22-05-022) – SEIA will continue its effort at the California Public Utilities Commission to help fashion a program that allows Californians to benefit from community solar and is workable for the developer community. Concurrently, SEIA will be working through other avenues, such as the California Energy Commission, to have policies enacted that will enhance the value of in- front- of- the- meter distributed solar resources to the electric grid.
• Avoided Cost Calculator – 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.
• PV Recycling– We continue to advocate for a flexible and scalable PV recycling program for solar systems through the legislature to enable California to both recycle in state and move panels out of state to legitimate recyclers.
• Tax Conformity – We are working to ensure California conforms to federal tax law to take full advantage of federal investment tax credits for transferability and direct pay by advocating for a legislative fix. We are currently supporting SB 203 from Senator Padilla which works to address this issue and allow ratepayers to see the benefits of affordable energy projects.
• Interconnection – SEIA continues to advocate at the CAISO for improvements to their recent IPE process and follow up on how those changes play out for solar developers in the state.