Statement from Derek Chernow, Western Regional Director for the Coalition for Community Solar Access (CCSA), on the California Public Utility Commission’s (CPUC) proposed decision on the future of the state’s community solar program:
“The CPUC had a significant opportunity to take a major step forward today to position California as a national leader on community solar deployment. Unfortunately, this proposed decision misses the mark entirely and will make it impossible to ensure equitable access to renewable energy plus storage projects that maximize benefits to low-income communities and further environmental justice. Scaling community solar capacity is key to impacting as many low-income customers as possible.
The proposed decision’s assertion that CCSA’s Net Value Billing Tariff (NVBT) conflicts with federal law manages to both misinterpret federal law and our proposal, and ignores precedent that has been set by states deploying community solar for more than a decade. Just this February, the Department of Energy (DOE) itself reaffirmed the Federal Government’s significant commitment to rapidly deploying third-party developed community solar, challenging the community solar industry to meet a target of 20 gigawatts (GW) of community solar by 2025, enough energy to power 5 million households and create $1 billion in energy savings for subscribers. Private developers, operating under similar models to the NVBT, have installed more than 6.6 GW of community solar capacity in more than a dozen states across the country.
The nation simply cannot meet the Department of Energy’s clean energy and equity goals without a truly scalable community solar program in California, and California cannot do its part with this proposed decision.
Once CCSA and our diverse and broad coalition of supporters review the full proposed decision and its more technical elements, we will be issuing a full press release on the matter.”
CCSA is a national trade association representing over 125 community solar developers, businesses, and nonprofits. Together, we are building the electric grid of the future where every customer has the freedom to support the generation of clean, local solar energy to power their lives. Through legislative and regulatory advocacy, and the support of a diverse coalition — including advocates for competition, clean energy, ratepayers, landowners, farmers, and environmental justice — we enable policies that unlock the potential of distributed energy resources, starting with community solar. For more information, visit https://www.communitysolaraccess.org and follow the group on X (Twitter), LinkedIn, and Youtube.