Guest column: Meeting California’s climate goals requires accelerating rooftop solar
We Californians are rightly proud of our role in fighting climate change and protecting the environment. It is a record of accomplishment we have earned, collectively, over decades. Our greatest environmental challenge — making our state carbon-neutral by 2045 — is one we can meet if the current generation of leaders adopts the all-hands-on-deck, all-of-the-above approach to clean energy this moment demands.
That is why the new net metering policy being prepared by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) must be crafted in a way that accelerates — not stifles — the growth of residential solar and energy storage. Even as we strengthen the grid, promote renewable energy at utility scale, and find ways to make the distribution of rooftop solar more equitable, we cannot afford to make it too expensive for middle- and working-class families to go green.
This is particularly important as our state copes with extreme heat and power shutoffs. Distributed solar coupled with battery storage builds more resiliency into our strained system, helping to prevent wildfires and protect California communities against their worst impacts. As the state experienced rolling blackouts in August 2020, distributed solar and batteries stepped in to provide more than 300 megawatts of critical power to the grid — the equivalent of a polluting gas-fired power plant — preventing the blackouts from getting worse.
I am confident we will find the right policy path forward. Why? Because California has never shied away from a challenge, and we are not about to start now.
I saw this firsthand during my time in Sacramento. We knew we had a carbon emissions problem — both in California and around the country. We did what Californians do best: we got to work and we got things done.
Together, we passed Assembly Bill 32, which made California the first state in the nation to place multi-sector caps on greenhouse gas emissions. We passed Senate Bill 32, which required enormous cuts to carbon emissions. And we passed historic emissions standards for cars in 2002.
None of this was easy. In fact, the auto industry sued over our emissions law. But we won. More than that, in 2009, when President Barack Obama announced national rules to cut emissions from vehicles, they were based on what we did here in California.
By working together, we made our air cleaner and our communities healthier. Moreover, because of the size of our state’s economy, we set the national standard that industries must meet to be economically viable.
Today, we face a similar moment. As we confront record heatwaves, wildfires and extreme weather events caused by climate change, California is leading the nation in the transition to a 100% clean energy future for all. In fact, we briefly hit that target earlier this year.
But to do this on a consistent basis will require consistent leadership and responsible decision-making. We have a long road ahead of us, and we cannot afford to take any steps backward. Fortunately, the path is clear.
In March, the California Air Resource Board (CARB) mapped out a series of bold but realistic scenarios for meeting our carbon neutrality goal. All four modeled scenarios showed that both residential renewables and utility-scale renewables need to quadruple to meet our state’s ambitious target. California’s move to electric vehicles will only further up the demand for available clean energy.
The CPUC has a responsibility to all Californians to keep this in mind as it crafts its new net metering policy for residential and commercial solar systems. The CPUC’s new net metering policy will determine how many consumers will be able to afford to convert to rooftop solar in the years ahead.
Part of this debate has centered on whether the state should be prioritizing utility-scale renewable projects that can provide clean energy to large groups of customers, or residential solar installations that allow individual homeowners to harness the sun. In confronting the climate challenge, the answer needs to be yes to both. Now is not the time to be taking options off the table.
Yes, California should be pursuing investments in utility-scale solar farms — like the ones in Riverside County that the federal government gave the thumbs up to last year. Like other states, we must also make community-based solar projects available in more neighborhoods. But we must not slow the pace of rooftop solar deployment.
The CPUC must advance a plan that enables residential and commercial solar to thrive without pitting these local solutions against large-scale solar projects. Expanding both must be part of California’s policy toolkit.
The world looks to California for leadership. How we craft our clean energy policies at home will shape climate action around the globe. It’s critical we get this right.
Fran Pavley, who served two terms in the California State Senate and three terms in the Assembly, is Environmental Policy Director for the USC Schwarzenegger Institute.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Meeting California’s climate goals requires accelerating rooftop solar
