California Continues Its War On Solar To Please Investor-Owned Utilities

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Both investor-owned utilities in California are intentionally making an attempt to decelerate neighborhood and rooftop photo voltaic or state regulators merely are adopting restrictions that put limits on neighborhood and rooftop photo voltaic that simply occur to work out that manner. Final yr, the California Public Utilities Fee, with the lively assist of the state’s largest investor-owned utilities, eviscerated the existing net metering regulations. The brand new plan, often known as NEM 3.0, slashes the quantity the utilities need to pay their rooftop photo voltaic prospects by 75%.

In June, government editor Zachary Shahan wrote“California has seen massive growth across its solar power sector — utility-scale solar, commercial solar, and residential solar have all boomed in the past decade plus. However, the utilities have been on a mission to squeeze out the little guys (distributed solar energy) for years, and after achieving quite a success on the residential side with Net Metering 3.0, they have moved on to limiting growth of community solar — via their essentially captured regulatory commission, the California Public Utilities Commission.”

You would possibly suppose these two developments can be a sufficiently big reward to the investor-owned utilities, however you’ll be incorrect. One of many justifications given for the NEM 3.0 rule was that it might encourage folks to put in residential storage batteries together with rooftop photo voltaic. That will enable them to utilize the power saved in their very own batteries when power costs are excessive. Actually, utilizing that basically “free” electrical energy can be way more financially rewarding than the mere pittance they’d obtain from the up to date web metering scheme.

Residential Photo voltaic & Battery Set up License

However now, Canary Media stories the California Contractors State Licensing Board, which has authority over licensing for building contractors, has issued a revision to its guidelines that might have vital penalties for purchasers who wish to set up batteries to again up their rooftop photo voltaic programs. The choice successfully bars a few of the state’s photo voltaic installers who maintain a C-46 contractor licenses from being allowed to put in or guarantee residential battery programs. The brand new rule has been accredited by the state Workplace of Administrative Regulation and is about to enter impact later this yr.

Final month, California photo voltaic business and environmental justice teams filed a lawsuit difficult the choice. They argue that the CSLB didn’t ​“disclose and analyze the full scope of the rule’s economic impacts — especially on small solar businesses,” — or ​“identify reasonable alternatives to this extreme action,” which they warn may put a whole lot of contractors out of enterprise.

Although photo voltaic contractors with C-46 licenses have been putting in batteries along side rooftop photo voltaic since 1982, CSLB’s choice would restrict that activity to electrical contractors who maintain a C-10 license. Most of the state’s hundreds of photo voltaic and battery installers do maintain this second sort of license. About 450 C-46 contractors may very well be prevented from doing this work and that in flip may sluggish the tempo of putting in residential storage batteries, which the CPUC mentioned was one of many causes for the NEB 3.0 coverage within the first place. In line with Canary Mediaa scarcity of licensed electricians is already inflicting backlogs for shoppers making an attempt to put in electrical automobile chargers, improve house electrical panels, and conduct different work in California.

The CSLB justified this proposal on the grounds that it might enhance the protection of battery programs being put in in properties and companies. However an unbiased evaluation that the CSLB commissioned from the College of California at Berkeley Middle for Labor Analysis and Training to review the protection of batteries discovered no cases of fires, hazards, or different hurt to shoppers within the 100,000 initiatives accomplished within the state up to now by photo voltaic contractors with C-46 licenses.

The Future Of Residential Photo voltaic In California

CSLB Chair Diana Love defended the coverage by peering into the long run and figuring out that nobody can predict the long run. “We’ve got local weather change, we’ve got fires, we’ve got climate circumstances that might probably occur sooner or later, and we have to defend shoppers, she mentioned. Opponents argue the brand new coverage has nothing to do with security. As an alternative, they level out that the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities — Pacific Gasoline & Electrical, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gasoline & Electrical — have been pushing for this ruling since 2018 and have been preventing insurance policies that assist customer-owned photo voltaic and battery programs for years.

The California State Affiliation of Electrical Employees has additionally been calling for the revision. That coalition {of electrical} unions consists of the Worldwide Brotherhood of Electrical Employees (IBEW) Native 1245, the labor union representing employees of PG&E, the state’s largest utility, which has lobbied in opposition to rooftop and neighborhood photo voltaic insurance policies.

“Since 2018, the three investor-owned utilities with IBEW 1245 have been working to strip away the ability for solar contractors to install batteries,” mentioned Bernadette Del Chiaro, government director of the California Photo voltaic and Storage Affiliation, a commerce group representing photo voltaic contractors and a celebration to the lawsuit difficult the CSLB choice. ​“They would love to strip away the ability of solar contractors to install solar as well, but they feel they can’t quite win that. So the next best thing is to strip away the ability to do batteries, and that essentially cuts the solar contractor off from solar.”

Electrical employees unions really feel in another way. ​“This doesn’t impact those in the industry from doing the work, it just requires them to have the proper license,” mentioned John Doherty, enterprise supervisor at IBEW Native 6 in San Francisco. ​“The average citizen should be the beneficiary of strict regulations by the state for who’s doing work, and what kind of work, and the risk involved.”

However the photo voltaic business and environmental teams suing the CSLB argue that the brand new guidelines will unfairly punish a whole lot of small companies which have been safely putting in solar-battery programs for years with out incident. The CSLB choice bars C-46 photo voltaic contractors from putting in batteries alongside current photo voltaic programs. It nonetheless permits them to put in batteries as a part of a brand new photo voltaic system, however with a serious catch. In line with Bernadette Del Chiaro, the brand new rule would stop these contractors from being allowed to supply warranties for the battery work they do, which can make it not possible for them to draw new prospects. Would you purchase a brand new automotive with out a guarantee? In fact not, don’t be foolish.

“If you’re doing home improvement contracts, by law you have to warranty your work for 10 years,” she mentioned. That shift wouldn’t solely undermine photo voltaic contractors’ potential to put in new initiatives, however probably threaten their potential to service or keep already put in initiatives, since that follow-up work would void the prevailing guarantee, she mentioned.

Doherty responded, ​“The majority of contractors doing this work are already C-10 license holders,” together with at the very least 2,300 companies working within the photo voltaic and battery subject. ​“The argument the C-46 contractors have been making for years is, this is a great career. Well, it’s not a great career if you’re only trained to install solar panels.” The plaintiffs within the lawsuit argue that “CSLB’s own license exam requires solar contractors have extensive knowledge of the California Electrical Code and other relevant rules and regulations to safely perform battery work.”

The 2 sides additionally dispute how a lot the choice will hurt the state’s photo voltaic contractors. Throughout the CSLB’s April board listening to, Love said that ​“most C-46s have a C-10 certification, and we’re only talking about, according to the last study, 400 contractors” who lack that certification that might be topic to the brand new regulation.

Daniel Kammen, a professor on the College of California – Berkeley who has suggested the U.S. authorities on power coverage, mentioned in a letter to CSLB., “Prohibiting C-46 contractors who currently install and maintain battery energy storage systems from continuing to do the types of projects that they have already been doing in California will threaten jobs and slow the pace that new storage projects will come online. Moreover, it won’t be easy for solar contractors to get a C-10 electrical license and continue their business, and it won’t be easy for solar workers to become certified electricians, or even possible for many.”

A Basic Case Of He Stated, She Stated

Doherty questioned whether or not acquiring the required license was as tough as opponents implied. ​“They can have a qualified person on their license to get a C-10. They can have an employee as a responsible employee for the license to bridge that time,” he mentioned. However Del Chiaro argued that the scarcity of C-10 licensed electricians will make taking these steps tougher than electrical unions make it out to be. ​“IBEW is plenty busy. There’s a shortage of electricians in California and elsewhere,” she mentioned. ​“They’re not clamoring to climb onto roofs and into closets and attics.”

She additionally identified that it’ll take an excessive amount of time for C-46 license holders to finish the required coaching to obtain the C-10 license. In the event that they’ve been doing photo voltaic and batteries for 7 to 10 years and have been working for a C-46 contractor, they’re not eligible to take a seat for a C-10 check. They’ve to depart that firm, work for a C-10, and do this work for 3 to five years, she mentioned.

A examine the California Photo voltaic and Storage Affiliation commissioned from Beacon Economics final yr discovered that the brand new rule may block $120 million in photo voltaic initiatives from shifting ahead within the first yr of its implementation and result in $53 million in decreased main financial exercise within the state from stopping these initiatives. These prices gained’t be counterbalanced by any advantages, Beacon’s report discovered, as a result of no file of any ​“fire and/​or economic loss” from an improperly put in battery has been submitted to the file within the choice. ​“Thus, Beacon was not able to find any economic damage that the CSLB’s rule would prevent.”

Representatives of labor unions unaffiliated with electrical employees have echoed the criticism concerning the new rule. “Our main mission is the protection of the consumer,” David De La Torre, secretary-treasurer of Laborers Worldwide Union of North America Native 261, mentioned at a listening to in April. He and one different member of the CSLB board, which totals 15, voted in opposition to the choice.

La Torre famous that the Berkeley Labor Middle report didn’t cite any cases of defective set up throughout the complete state. ​“I don’t think the data is there. It doesn’t support the necessity to regulate, to confine the installation of (batteries) to a C-10 … I think we’re overreaching a little.”

The Takeaway

It’s not possible to glean the motivations of those that sit on boards just like the CSLB. Are they good-hearted residents whose solely curiosity is in defending the neighborhood? Maybe, and but the coordination wanted between the CPUC and the CSLB, coupled with the timing of all these new insurance policies, actually helps the notion that there could also be extra sinister motives at work. Possibly 450 house photo voltaic installers will not be an enormous deal in a state as giant as California, however this ruling appears to fly within the face of expertise.

Possibly it’s only a case of creeping credentialism. Boards must justify their existence and they also often make new insurance policies simply because they’ll, which then require technicians to get new coaching to allow them to adjust to the brand new coverage. It makes the board members really feel helpful. Far be it from us to counsel a public board would bow to the desires of a company, however you’re actually free to attract that conclusion if you want.