This week, California utility regulators are scheduled to vote on a policy change that would raise the cost of solar power for apartments, schools, and farms.
Under the proposal, new solar systems installed at those locations would no longer be able to directly use power generated by solar panels on the property and sell excess power to utility companies like Pacific Gas & Electric at retail prices, as they do today.
Instead, electricity generated by those systems would have to be sold to utilities at wholesale rates — generally about 5 cents per kilowatt-hour — and then purchased back at retail rates, which typically are higher than 30 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The five-member California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on the policy this week in Sacramento.
Former California Public Utilities Commission member Loretta Lynch slammed the proposal on a recent edition of GV Wire Unfiltered.
‘The utilities don’t sleep as they’re figuring out all the different ways to increase our bills, and so we shouldn’t be sleeping in trying to fight back against that.”
