What the Bill Does
SB1 is the largest solar energy legislation ever introduced in the United States. It provides several years of incentives to help Californians install one million solar energy systems on homes and businesses by 2018. This solar energy will create 3000 megawatts of new clean power--the equivalent of roughly 25 peaking power plants--and prevent the release of 50 million tons of heat-trapping gases. The bill:
- Creates a multi-year program of consumer financial incentives, which would save homeowners and businesses thousands of dollars on the cost of installation.
- Allows homeowners and businesses to get credit from their electric utility for the excess power produced by their solar panels, shortening the payback period of their solar investments.
- Jump starts the new solar home market by giving new homebuyers the option to go solar, with a goal of putting solar panels on half of all the new homes built in California within the next 10 years.
Given California's sheer size and the amount of sunshine we enjoy, these three steps could make the solar industry self-sufficient and competitive with conventional energy (i.e. subsidy-free) within a decade. This is because market growth brings economies of scale to the industry, ultimately slashing the cost of solar power for all Californians to enjoy.
Supporters
The bill has bi-partisan support from more than 200 California groups and businesses. Even Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) weighed in to support this latest effort to make California the world's third major solar "economy" following Germany and Japan.
Economic Benefits
A group of expert solar advocates and outside economists compiled what is arguably one of the most comprehensive analyses of the many benefits of solar electric energy. This analysis by Americans for Solar Power concludes that the use of solar PV provides numerous benefits, which can be worth as much as 22.4¢ per kWh. These economic perks include avoidance of transmission costs, generation capacity operations and maintenance costs, generation and transmission and distribution losses and distribution costs, as well as the value of fossil fuel price hedge, deployment ease and speed, grid support, health benefits, avoided nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions and the value of avoided water use.
Additionally, a recent study by scholars at UC Berkeley predicts that 18,000 jobs per year would be created by 2017 by the passage of SB1.
The opponents of this bill argue that California can't afford to provide incentives for solar energy. But when all the costs of our dependence on fossil fuels are taken into account, the truth is that we can't afford not to.
