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part of California’s $3.3 billion ratepayer-funded January 2007
undertaking to install 3,000 megawatts of new solar energy capacity
over 10 years is the California Public Utilities Commission’s (CPUC)
California Solar Initiative (CSI) Program. The $2.2 billion CSI, the
biggest solar program in the U.S., aims to build 1,940 megawatts of
solar energy capacity by the end of 2016.
The California Public Utilities Commission’s California Solar Initiative Annual Program Assessment,
the first annual evaluation of the program, reports the components of
the state’s landmark solar initiative are all launched, the program has
moved demand for solar energy to record levels and the program is
making steady progress toward its goals.
The report covers CSI
only and not the California Energy Commission (CEC)-administered new
homes program or the publicly-owned utilities’ solar investments.
One
thing up front: Yes, California has the sun. The results of its
initiative so far show what can be done if a state has a great resource
and a serious commitment to put it to work. That resource does not have
to be sun. It could be wind or water or geothermal or biomass. That's
the variable in the equation. The constants in the equation are
commitment and hard work.
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The
California solar market has grown rapidly since CSI kicked off. Both
yearly new solar installations and cumulative installed capacity are
moving toward CSI’s targets (defined in California Senate Bill (SB) 1,
the establishing legislation).
4 Key highlights of the CPUC report:
(1)
California now has 515+ megawatts of installed solar photovoltaic (PV)
capacity at ~50,000 utility customer sites, 226 megawatts installed
under the CSI Program. (Non-CSI Program solar PV capacity was installed
under the CEC, utility and prior solar programs.)
(2) New installed
solar capacity in California nearly doubled in 2008 over 2007 (from 81
megawatts to 156 megawatts), a marked increase from the 30-to-40%
yearly growth rate before CSI.
(3) CSI could generate a similar
level of new installed capacity in 2009, despite the economic downturn.
78 megawatts of new capacity were installed through May.
(4) The
solar market is growing outside CSI as well: (a) Solar PV and
Concentrating solar power plants are approved and preparing; (b) CPUC
recently approved a Southern California Edison (SCE) 500 megawatt
distributed wholesale solar PV project for existing rooftops. (c) Solar
adequate to meet the state’s Renewable Electricity Standard (RES) is in
the works.
As a result of federal and state tax credits and
despite the dreadful downturn in the larger economy, California’s new
and cumulative installed capacities are at record levels following
consecutive record-setting years in 2007 and 2008. California
businesses and homes are on track to install as much as 156 megawatts
of new solar energy generating capacity in 2009. There are 22,000+ CSI
solar applications for pending and installed systems that will
eventually account for 373 megawatts of installed capacity. 1,444 new
solar applications were filed in May 2009, the most ever for a single
month.
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COMMENTARY
Despite
CPUC’s impressive record of achievement and the obvious way the
intiative has driven the growth of solar energy in the state, CSI has
critics. The main complaint – as has been the case with New Energy
incentives around the world – is that non-New Energy users (and in
California that's primarily nonsolar users) who are customers of the
utilities that fund the incentive programs are essentially paying for
something they do not get.
This criticism of the program is not
factual. First, while utility ratepayers are subsidizing solar systems
they do not own, they are getting an overall power system that does not
generate as high a level of greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs). Also,
whenever the owners of the grid-connected solar systems are generating
more energy than they are consuming, those electrons flow back into the
transmission system and become a fraction (albeit at present a very
tiny fraction) of the electricity all ratepayers consume.
To
put it bluntly, by subsidizing New Energy ratepayers pay for cleaning
up their own spew, thereby making their own and their children's world
a little healthier place to live. So the answer to the "what's in it
for me?" crowd is "you're helping to clean up your own mess, why should
i be the one who cleans up after you?"
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More about California’s record solar energy capacity growth under CSI:
(1)
Most of the pending applications are for residential systems, although
non-residential systems ((commercial, governmental and non-profit
instititution buildings) account for more megawatts because they tend
to be bigger than residential systems.
(2) CSI has installed 226
megawatts of new capacity, 13% of its 10-year goal, and has another 147
megawatts, 8% more of the goal, pending. PG&E is farthest along
toward reaching its residential and non-residential targets.
(3) CSI
Program data shows the average cost of solar PV systems tracking
slightly downward: In 2008, average residential and small commercial
systems were $9.41/watt, down from $9.84/watt in 2007. Average large
commercial systems were $8.14/watt, down from $8.41/watt in 2007.
(4)
During 2008, CSI-installed solar systems had a "peak-hour capacity
factor" of 0.75, meaning that 75% of all installed solar capacity was
performing at the peak hour. CPUC intends to expand its gathering and
assessing of this kind of performance tracking data going forward.
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(5)
As part of CSI’s goal to create a self-sustaining solar industry, the
Program has trained 5,800+ solar industry professionals, as of June
2009. As a result, Program Administrators PG&E, SCE, and the
California Center for Sustainable Energy have made considerable
progress at decreasing application processing time.
(6) CSI’s financial incentives are designed to:
(a)
- reward higher performing systems. In terms of rewards: CPUC’s program
has authorized $544 million in incentives for installed projects which
have total system costs of over $1.967 billion.
(b) - decline as
program demand grows. In terms of incentives declining and demand
growing: Between 2007 (year 1) and 2008 (year 2), the rate of incentive
decline varied but ranged between 9% and 22% and averaged 15%, better
than the average rate of decline of comparable projects. The solar
market continues to generate new demand and to install new capacity
despite the declining CSI incentives.
(7) CPUC’s CSI Program
Evaluation Plan will continue to assess the program throughout its
10-year lifetime. A preliminary impacts report and other assessments
are expected later in 2009 and 2010.
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CPUC has been equally successful at getting other components of the CSI program going:
(1)
The Single-family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH), adopted by the CPUC in
November 2007, was launched in December 2008. SASH rules were published
in May 2009 and the program already has 15 applications. More are
expected.
(2) The Multi-family Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) was
adopted by the CPUC in October 2008, and began accepting applications
in February 2009. It had 23 applications as of May 2009. With MASH,
CPUC authorized “Virtual Net Metering (VNM)” on a pilot basis. VNM
allows MASH program participants to install a single solar system to
supply electricity to common and tenant areas of a low income
multifamily residence and allocates solar credits to the utility bills
of both building and tenant accounts.
(3) The Solar Water Heating
Pilot Program (SWHPP) began in July 2007, and has had 211 applications
for solar hot water systems in the San Diego region. CPUC is reviewing
the results of the pilot program and considering a $250 million
statewide SWH subsidy program to displace natural gas water heaters.
(4)
The Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment (RD&D)
Program was adopted by the CPUC in September 2007. It just got its
Administrator and released the first grant solicitation for PV grid
integration in June 2009.
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The CPUC report concludes with 3 recommended modifications of the CSI program:
(1)
Consider expanding the CSI Program beyond the 3 major investor-owned
electric utilities (PG&E, SCE and SDG&E) to CPUC-regulated
small and multijurisdictional investor-owned utilities.
(2) Consider raising the net metering cap to bring in more customers.
(3)
Consider expanding the low income housing eligibility requirements to
increase the households participating in the SASH Program.
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QUOTES
-
Molly Sterkel, CSI supervisor, report project manager: "CSI is a bright
spot that shows how government support for renewable energy is
working…[Even in a weak economy] customers are deciding to go solar in
record numbers, and that's amazing."
- Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger: "The results of today's report demonstrate what I
pictured for this program five years ago…My vision of powering
California homes and businesses with the sun is creating green jobs,
lowering energy costs for thousands of Californians and reducing
greenhouse gas emissions."
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-
Adam Browning, executive director/co-founder, Vote Solar Initiative:
"You often hear about the programs that fail…Here is a program that is
literally doing what it was advertised to do. That's a good story."
-
Mindy Spatt, communications director, The Utility Reform Network: "The
good news, of course, is that we're getting more solar in
California…The bad news is that the benefits may not be flowing equally
for all the ratepayers who are funding the program."
- Strekel:
"When customers decide to go solar, they help avoid the need for new
power plants, which benefits all customers, not just those who have
gone solar."
posted by Herman K. Trabish
Report issued on success of California's solar program
Tracy Seipel, July 1, 2009 (San Jose Mercury News)
