California regulators have proposed sharply lowering subsidies and adding new fees for home solar users, rattling a solar industry that was benefiting from the wildly successful program to help customers go green.
Residential solar customers would get a lower credit for their excess electricity sent to the grid based on the value of the energy costs avoided by utilities, according to a proposed decision issued Monday by a judge at the California Public Utilities Commission. In addition, rooftop solar users would have to pay a new grid-connection fee that would average $40 a month.
The changes are intended to prod customers to install batteries that can store energy along with solar arrays to help California deal with electricity shortages in the evening when solar production fades, requiring the use of expensive natural-gas generators, Commissioner Martha Guzman Aceves said in a Monday interview.