Under this initiative, you’re allowed to sell excess solar electricity to the utility company during the day (at a profit). And at night, you can buy back the electricity you need from the grid (at a cost). At the end of every billing cycle, you’re only responsible for the net difference in electricity sold and bought.
We like the California net metering program because it makes it much easier for your solar panels to pay for themselves. The average payback period in California is about 9 years (and about 4 to 6 years with Sunline Energy).
The other great thing about this incentive is that the entire electricity grid becomes virtual storage for the clean energy that your panels create during the day. This is a huge blessing because solar batteries are crazy expensive.
Fortunately, solar storage is becoming cheaper and cheaper by the day – largely thanks to a $5 billion investment from Tesla. And pretty soon, solar batteries will be within easy financial reach of average homeowners throughout the country.
Why Utilities Hate Solar Batteries and the California Net Metering Program
Net metering is great. And once solar batteries become mainstream, the green revolution will be unstoppable.
And utility companies know this.
This is why they’ve been fighting tooth and nail to get rid of net metering. Fortunately, they have failed time and time again. And just recently, we learned that the utility campaign against solar batteries is also losing steam.
You see, Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric, and San Diego Gas & Electric believe that if homeowners have affordable storage technology, they’ll be able to buy electricity from the grid and then sell that same energy back into the grid at a profit. In other words, the major utility companies believe that people like you will try and “game” the system.
This is why they’ve tried to erect exorbitant fees on solar PV systems that use batteries. Were talking about $1,400 to $3,700 per system.
Thankfully, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) isn’t buying this ridiculous argument. And it has introduced new legislation that exempts solar PV systems smaller than 10 kW from paying these absurd battery interconnection fees. Systems larger than 10 kW will have to pay a little bit of money – but no more than $600 per installation.
A Huge Victory for San Diego Solar (and Solar in General)
This recent move by the CPUC is a pretty major victory for solar. And it signals the eventual demise of monopolistic utility companies who continue to generate electricity from dirtier forms of energy (i.e. oil, gas, and coal).
Our relationship with the big utilities isn’t adversarial. They have a great opportunity to lead the solar revolution and invest in resources that help the planet and customers simultaneously. And there is still time for them to change course and do what’s right.
But in the meantime, we’re not waiting around. And neither should you. California is ideally suited for solar energy. We have the sunshine, the incentives, and increasingly expensive grid electricity.
If you want to take advantage of this perfect storm of opportunity, contact us today for a free solar consultation. We’re 100% confident that you’ll be impressed with what we have to show you. And it costs you absolutely nothing to get started.
