San Diego's Demand for Solar Energy Skyrockets

As a result of Assembly Bill 327, passed in 2014, the rules of solar will be changing for future investors of renewable energy in California. There is a maximum capacity of solar that can be installed by property owners under current favorable conditions in each of the state’s investor-owned utility territories, and San Diego Gas and Electric will be the first to hit its cap.
 
The billing arrangement that provides solar owners full retail credit for the energy they put on the grid, called net energy metering, is ending. Property owners who install a solar energy system prior to the cap being hit will receive 20-years of grandfathering protections under the current attractive full-retail credit program.
 
“We have never seen such a great demand for solar in the eleven years we have been operating in San Diego,” said Daniel Sullivan, founder and president of Sullivan Solar Power, whose company far exceeded 2015 projections even in early winter months.
 
Industry experts suggest that the cap for net-energy metering will be hit sometime between December of this year and early 2016. In order for property owners to get grandfathered in to current rules, their projects must be installed and energized. 
 
“Given changes that will be coming next year and favorable conditions right now, there has never been a better time to go solar,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA).
 
Next year, solar incentives will become less attractive on a national level as well. The Federal tax credit for solar currently covers 30 percent of a project’s cost but is ending in 2016 for residential properties, and will be reduced to 10 percent for commercial property owners.
 
“Those who wait to go solar will not receive the same sweet solar deal that has always been available in our region,” said Sullivan, “The opportunity to be grandfathered into net metering is creating unprecedented demand, a solar gold rush.”
 
Sullivan Solar Power