THE CALIFORNIA SOLAR INITIATIVE:
The California Solar Initiative is part of the Go Solar
California campaign and builds on 10 years of state solar rebates offered to customers in California's
investor-owned utility territories: Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and
San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E.) The California Solar Initiative is overseen by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Since 1998, rebates for small solar energy systems were managed under the Emerging Renewables Program (ERP) at the California Energy Commission. In 2001, a second
program that covered rebates for larger systems--over 30 kW--was assigned to the California Public Utilities
Commission (CPUC) through the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP).
In August 2004, Governor Schwarzenegger affirmed his support for solar energy, and announced the
Million Solar Roofs program.
In January 2006, the CPUC collaborated with the Energy Commission to develop the framework of
the California Solar Initiative Program through 2016.
In January 2007, the State of California launched Go Solar California, which included two new
solar incentive programs, with slightly modified program requirements compared to the older programs. The Energy
Commission provides incentives to energy efficient new home construction under the New Solar Homes Partnership. All other facilities in
investor-owned utility territories receive rebates from the CPUC-administered program, the California Solar
Initiative.
The new framework also included a major shift in the way solar incentives were calculated - away
from a system that funded solar incentives based only on nameplate capacity and towards one where incentive levels
are based on performance factors such as installation angle, tilt, and location. This performance framework ensures
that California is generating clean solar energy and rewarding systems that can provide maximum solar
generation.
The CPUC developed the program rules for the California Solar Initiative through a public rulemaking process. Among the major policy decisions made by the CPUC's rulemaking were
how to organize and adjust the incentive levels, how to provide performance based incentives, how to require
metering, and how to develop program rules in the form of a Program Handbook. The rulemaking also decided issues
related to low income solar program development, marketing and outreach, research, development and demonstration
(RD&D), program measurement and evaluation, and the Self Generation Incentive Program, which provides incentives to wind and fuel cells.
For information on the regulatory process governing the CSI proceeding, click here.
There is also more history of solar in California, available here.
The California Solar Initiative Offers:
The California Solar Initiative offers financial incentives for solar installations based on the
expected performance of a given solar installation. The expected performance is derived from the size of the solar
array, and also takes into consideration the angle and location of the system installation. For larger systems, the
incentive is based on the actual performance of the system over the first five years.
The incentive level available to a given project is determined by currently available incentive
in each utility territory for each customer class. The CSI was designed so that the incentive level decreases over
ten steps, after which it goes to $0, as the total demand for solar energy systems grows.
The CPUC divided the overall goal of 1,750 megawatts by the ten declining steps. Each step has
megawatts allocated to each Program Administrator and customer class, residential and non-residential (a
combination of commercial and government/non-profit). Once the total number of megawatts for each step is reached
within a particular customer class, the Program Administrator moves to the next step and offers a lower incentive
level for that class. Therefore, high commercial demand in SCE's territory will not lower the incentive level
offered to PG&E's residential customers, and so on. Figure 1 offers a visual explanation of the increasing
megawatt installations and decreasing incentive levels over the life of the program. The orange box in each
"Incentive Step Level" represents the available megawatts at that incentive value. The yellow box represents the
cumulative installed megawatts as the program proceeds through the steps.
WITH DESCRIPTIONS
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