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Regulatory complexities are thwarting innovation and keeping electricity bills for the majority of Californians far too high, writes Ardi Arian, CEO of Renewable America.
Ardi Arian is founder and CEO of Renewable America, a developer of solar and energy storage projects in California.
In one of the wealthiest states in the country, it is unacceptable that millions are struggling with their utility bills. The average overdue utility balance in California is $1,120. The good news? Policymakers have a solution sitting on their desks.
Community solar plus storage gives the majority of Californians who rent or lack suitable roof space the ability to subscribe to small-scale solar projects. To date, Community Choice Aggregation, or CCA, has been one of the only options for these Golden State residents to access clean energy.
With CCAs, a locality buys power from greener electricity sources for its residents. Low-income residents get a 20% discount on their electricity bills, everyone else pays the same rate, and more clean energy gets developed. The greatest long-term growth opportunity for clean power resources in California is these CCA programs.
Today, 25 CCAs serve over a third of the state’s electricity consumers, including the majority of communities closer to the coast. But it is egregious that nearly two out of three Californians lack access to a CCA. Regulatory complexities are thwarting innovation and keeping electricity bills for the majority of Californians far too high. California desperately needs more functional, affordable energy policies.
New community solar and storage legislation, AB 1813, would go a long way toward bridging California’s energy affordability gap, opening community-scale clean energy access to all Californians.
With a workable community solar policy in place, Californians in every part of the state could choose to subscribe to a local solar project and receive a credit on their utility bill. On average, community solar subscribers save $200 a year on their utility bills, with higher savings for low-income households. No roof or equipment is required, and no commitment or long-term contract is needed. And over half of new solar projects developed at the community level would be required to serve low-income customers.
A statewide community solar and storage program is good for our aging grid, too. Instead of connecting to giant transmission lines that require costly upgrades on lengthy timelines, these projects plug into the local energy infrastructure near homes and businesses — the distribution grid.
The distribution grid is significantly underutilized, and many distribution circuits already offer immediate hosting capacity. A recent study found that adding community solar and storage projects to California’s distribution grid would obviate the need for a staggering $2 billion in transmission and distribution upgrades. With a sizable community solar and storage program, Californians would save $6.5 billion on energy costs.
AB 1813 is designed to save all ratepayers money, even if they don’t subscribe to a community solar project. It includes smart guardrails with individual project deployment caps, as well as an overall deployment cap. A recent poll found that 80% of Californians support community solar, alongside a broad coalition of stakeholders — from the homebuilders’ association, to environmental justice groups, to ratepayer advocates, to developers like me.
Community solar and storage legislation is broadly supported because it’s common sense and serves all Californians. AB 1813 passed the Senate Energy, Utilities & Communications Committee on June 16. The full Senate should pass this bill on its next floor vote, and Gov. Gavin Newsom should sign it, to give Californians access to clean energy that we deserve.
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Get the free daily newsletter read by industry experts
The Southwest Power Pool service aims to help data centers and other large loads get online quickly, but they can have their service cut when grid conditions are tight.
Hyperscalers want their data centers online and utilities want to provide interconnections, but experts say both are still looking for common operating guidelines.
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