Some so-called environmentalists talk the talk, but when it comes to walking the walk they are mostly hot air. I fall into the category of doing what you can as it makes practical sense. I've been gauging the practicality of going to rooftop solar on my house for a couple of years and finally decided to get an expert opinion to strengthen the analysis. By word of mouth, I learned about local Burlingame solar guy Steve Pariani. He's really local; born and raised here and lives in town. His company is Solar Pro Energy Systems. After giving him my electricity usage and having him use satellite imagery to assess my roof's solar capacity, it appears to be a reasonable investment–not great like buying some Reddit-hyped stock, but OK. Unless the "equity police" in Sacramento and the monopoly utilities misguidedly screw things up.
I have a clear southern exposure–very few trees on that side–and a decent amount of square footage. There is room for 25 panels that would generate 8.5 KW for a one-year total of 12,871 kWh–the equivalent of driving 10,000 fewer miles per year! As with any big investment–and this is definitely a big one–there are risks. Steve has walked me through the technology and I don't find that to be much of a risk. But with hacks like Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez of San Diego pushing bills like AB 1139 to make the investment LESS attractive, you never know. You would think with all of the growing pains on the California grid and the pressure to move to even more electricity usage (banning natural gas, EVs, etc) nobody would mind some Californians putting up major capital investments to generate additional juice, but you would be wrong. Here is one example that Calmatters published. AB 1139 died last week at the deadline, but you can bet the woman behind the idea to make Uber and Lyft drivers full-time employees (which many of them didn't even want) will be back next session. The tougher battle may be with the CPUC. As the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA) writes about the threat to Net Energy Metering
Whether we are talking AB 1139 or the IOU NEM-3 proposals, the utilities are trying to outright kill rooftop solar and storage in California, protect their monopoly, and grab more profits for themselves. It doesn’t matter the forum; the impact of the attack are the same: kill rooftop solar in the country's number one market.
The CPUC NEM fight is going to be harder to win politically for several reasons. First, it takes place at a little-known state agency with limited opportunity for public engagement. Second, there are only five decision makers at the CPUC, all political appointees, and, unlike in the state legislature, none have stepped forward (yet) to champion distributed generation. And third, if the utilities "own" the legislature, getting the Speaker, the Chair of Energy Committee, and the Chair of Appropriations Committee to back AB 1139, just think of how much they have captured the CPUC.
I'm going for it and hoping the sun shines brightly and the Legislature and/or the CPUC don't screw it up. Common sense is in short supply these days which makes my decision much more of a gamble than I would prefer. So much for real environmentalism. Here's local small businessman Steve Pariani.
Leave a Reply