CSI: Examining California's Ambitious Solar Program

[jpak]

http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=47853

As the California Solar Initiative (CSI) moves into its fourth month, solar businesses in the state are still figuring out how to maneuver through the changing industry landscape and handle some of the issues that have arisen from the state-wide program.

The goal of the CSI is to install 3,000 megawatts (MW) of commercial and residential solar systems in California within a decade. But many in the solar business community are worried that issues such as Time-of-Use (TOU) rates reducing the financial payback of solar systems and the accuracy of the Expected Performance Based Buydown (EPBB) rebate calculator will hinder the industry's ability to sell and install that much capacity.

Glenn Harris, Managing Director for SunPower Consulting, LLC, has monitored the program closely and worked on educating the industry about how the CSI will impact businesses. SunPower Consulting has already hosted a few workshops on the CSI and will be hosting a webinar series titled "CSI Business Perspectives" at the end of March.

"It's been interesting to watch the first three months of the program and see how the residential and non-residential segments are coming to life," said Harris. "Commercial sized systems are in hyper-application mode and residential systems have basically come to a halt."

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[GliderGuider]

1. Something similar has happened up here in Ontario

Our provincial government's much-promoted Standard Offer Contracts that were supposed to pay citizens a premium to generate their own electricity and feed it to the grid turned out to be obstructionist greenwash. Big power good, small power bad seems to be the attitude. The plan threw up so many regulatory, contractual and technical roadblocks that it hasn't been worth anyone's while to participate. As a result the uptake of residential PV has been drastically hindered.

There's a critical review of Ontario's SOCs here on The Oil Drum.

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. Oooh I am really sorry to hear that