Shocker, the State of California kneecapped it's own solar renewables renaissance by bowing to corporate monopolists PG&E and SoCal Edison to destroy the excess wattage compensation that made mass solar installations possible. Gavin Newsome will never make it beyond governor as a result of this and bankrupting his own state through free college and medical care for migrants.

About Two-Thirds of California Solar Firms Have a Cash Problem

(Bloomberg) -- About two-thirds of home solar installers in California are struggling to generate enough sales to operate their businesses after the state slashed incentives for customers to buy rooftop panels, a trade group said.

The California Solar & Storage Association found that 63% of its roughly 400 members reported significant cash flow issues, Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the group, said Wednesday at the Intersolar North America conference in San Diego. Approximately 25 to 30 solar companies have either left the state or closed their business, Del Chiaro said.

“We are worried about the next two months,” she said. “We think a lot more fallout may be coming.”

Across the country, residential solar companies have struggled with slumping sales as higher interest rates make rooftop panels more expensive. In California, the biggest US solar market, the problems are more acute after a change in regulations that scaled back the amount of money homeowners earn when they sell excess electricity to the grid. Installers are cutting jobs in the state, and bankruptcies have been mounting.

Research firm Ohm Analytics, which tracks the solar marketplace, found sales dropping 67% to 85% for California’s private residential installers since the change went into effect in April.

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/about-tw...blem-1.2023322
After months of debate and two postponed votes, California’s utility regulator unanimously voted today to overhaul incentives for owners of apartment buildings, schools and businesses that install solar panels.


The new regulations are the second major step that the California Public Utilities Commission has taken in the past year to reduce power companies’ financial support for rooftop solar. In December, the commission reduced payments to homeowners who sell excess power from newly installed solar panels on single-family homes.

Still, for solar advocates, it could have been worse.

Under the new rules, apartment buildings, schools, farms, commercial strips and other facilities where multiple electric meters occupy the same site will receive significantly less money from utility companies in exchange for the excess solar energy they produce and sell back. These customers would be paid about 80% less per unit of energy they sell, solar advocates say. The rates they are paid vary depending on the season and time of day.

The regulatory overhaul was endorsed by the three investor-owned utilities affected by the rules — Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric Company.

Rewind to the summer of 2022: Single family homeowners with solar panels were paid a fixed price for any home-made solar power. The prices they received were close to the retail rate for electricity.

Last winter, the Public Utilities Commission did away with that, replacing it with a flexible rate that amounted to a massive pay cut for solar-producing single family homeowners, trimming compensation by roughly 75%. The new rate applies only to new installations, not existing solar arrays. At the same time, the commission funded $900 million in new incentive payments to single family home residents to help them purchase new systems.