Mandatory Solar on Newly Built Roofs Could Be Coming to All of California

As of January 1, all new buildings of 10 stories or fewer Solar Project in San Francisco must be built with solar panels solar energy included.

Since that local measure slewing drive  passed last spring, its author, Scott Wiener, moved from the San Francisco Board Solar Project of Supervisors to solar energy the state senate. Now, he's bringing the concept to Sacramento, first in summary form, with the full proposed legislation expected in solar energy  four to six solar energy weeks.

If Solar Project adopted, slewing drive  mandatory rooftop solar legislation would set a groundbreaking Solar Project example of how a legislature can expand distributed solar through less conventional solar energy means, diverging from Solar Project the default models of renewable solar tracker actuator portfolio standards and tax credits. That solar energy Solar Project outcome is by no means guaranteed, though.

The Solar  solar tracker actuator Project process solar energy of passing the legislation solar inverter through the state legislature Solar Project will likely raise new questions about solar energy how the policy would impact the entirety of the massive  solar energy Golden Photovoltaic holder State. There are more legislators solar damper to convince than in San Francisco, and solar energy more solar tracker actuator interest groups Solar Project and industry lobbyists who may try to stop solar energy it. 
 

"The state, of course, is much bigger and much more diverse geographically and in every other solar inverter respect," Wiener told GTM. "We are actively soliciting input to make sure we’re crafting legislation that will work for the whole state."
 

For any other solar damper slewing drive  state, requiring solar photovoltaics or solar thermal on most new buildings would seem dramatic, if not unthinkable. For California, however, it's the latest iteration of a legislative program years in the making.
 

Most pertinently, solar inverter the state already has a law requiring 15 percent of the roof space on most types of new buildings to be left "solar ready," Photovoltaic holder meaning it is clear of obstructions and easy to cover with panels. With that on the books, it's not a huge leap to require builders to actually Photovoltaic holder fill those spaces.
 

Last year, the solar tracker actuator legislature Photovoltaic holder passed an ambitious new climate change target: The state must now cut its carbon emissions to 40 percent below solar damper 1990 rates by 2030, even as the population continues to grow. That accelerated solar damper pace will force drastic Photovoltaic holder measures across numerous sectors of the slewing drive  economy. Requiring solar on new houses would ensure that additional construction solar inverter doesn't Photovoltaic holder add much more carbon to the Photovoltaic holder slewing drive  atmosphere.

Cheaper solar, slightly more expensive home

The rooftop solar requirement solar damper doesn't just increase the total number of systems deployed, as solar slewing drive  inverter I reported in June. 

It instigates them when they're easiest and solar slewing drive cheapest: while the building is under construction. This solar damper saves the future occupant all the hassle of identifying an installer, negotiating prices, drawing up designs, arranging financing and overseeing the install. Those duties fall to the developers, who are professionally suited to handling such things. Then the expense of solar gets bundled in with the overall building purchase, so solar slewing drive the slewing drive  owner can pay it off, over time, at the more favorable interest rates solar damper of the mortgage.

Placing the onus on solar damper the developer thus removes two of the biggest stumbling blocks to solar slewing drive residential solar: customer acquisition solar tracker actuator and financing. Of course, that does force a cost onto solar damper developers, who then pass it on to the solar damper slewing drive  homebuyers. 
 

The cost of a solar system scarcely Photovoltaic holder registers in solar inverter San Francisco, where the median home sales price approached $1.2 million in recent months. That picture changes if you head over to the solar damper Central Valley city of Bakersfield, where solar damper the median home price is $217,000, according to real Photovoltaic holder estate website Trulia.
With prices  solar damper like that, the cost of a solar system could conceivably come to constitute a Photovoltaic holder meaningful percentage of the overall home price.
 

"The cost of a solar damper house is what the market will slewing drive  bear," Wiener said. "The cost of rooftop solar is not a Photovoltaic holder significant part of development costs. It's becoming less and less, and it pays for itself over slewing drive  time."
 

That ability to pay solar damper for itself over a few years makes the solar requirement more of a help solar solar slewing drive inverter  Photovoltaic holder than a hindrance for solar slewing drive lower-income solar damper homebuyers, solar  solar damper Photovoltaic holder advocates say.
 

“Additional building costs will be more than made up in electricity bill savings, with decades of solar slewing drive homegrown Photovoltaic holder clean energy being produced," said Susannah Churchill, West Coast regional director for Vote Solar, a nonprofit solar energy advocacy group solar damper 。 "That will be solar inverter especially helpful for lower-income slewing drive  Californians, who as a group Photovoltaic holder spend more on energy bills proportional to their slewing drive  income."
 

It's solar slewing drive solar tracker actuator  worth noting that rooftop solar requirements were enacted in the less exorbitantly priced California cities of Lancaster, Sebastopol and Santa Monica before San Francisco, so the policy has seen some geographic diversity already.
 

Additionally, the requirement would not directly affect existing housing solar inverter stock, as it only applies to brand-new builds. But the policy still poses a dilemma familiar to other green building mandates: It forces customers to shoulder a higher upfront cost in order to save money in solar slewing drive the long run. The solar inverter question for California legislators is whether they think that's a fair solar inverter trade to make.

The wide world of California

A policy that launches seamlessly in San Francisco can solar slewing drive have very different effects throughout the 160,000 or so square miles of California. Beyond ensuring homebuyers aren't hampered by such a measure, Wiener will have to make the case that the policy makes sense for new solar inverter buildings everywhere in the solar inverter state.
 

It's not all new buildings, by the way. The statewide proposal will solar slewing drive echo exceptions in the city measure for buildings where solar would not be viable solar damper for a variety of reasons. It also solar inverter gives the option of choosing solar solar damper PV or solar thermal, which can be more attractive in certain buildings based on their heating load. 
 

The San solar tracker actuator  Francisco measure didn't draw solar slewing drive  much resistance from the development community, Wiener solar damper said. As he prepared to announce the state measure, he spoke with several building trade groups to alert them it was happening and include them in the solar tracker actuator process. (Developers haven't taken a public stance solar inverter on the measure, as the final language has solar slewing drive not been released).
 

There's also  a solar damper  question of what effect such solar slewing drive a policy would have on the grid itself. The state authorized solar damper nearly 100,000 new housing units in 2015 solar slewing drive, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Early fears of a utility " solar tracker actuator death spiral" caused by customers defecting to rooftop solar slewing drive PV have proven to be overblown, but solar slewing drive if most of those new homes, as well as new mid-sized commercial structures, don't solar slewing drive consume much power from the grid, that would have an effect on solar tracker actuator macro-level consumption solar slewing drive trends. 
 

One potential outcome solar slewing drive is to avoid a lot of new generation costs that ratepayers would otherwise solar damper have to subsidize. That's something solar slewing drive voters could get behind, whether or not the utilities are thrilled about it. The extent of the solar tracker actuator public's solar slewing drive  appetite for this measure will become clearer in the months to come.
 

"This is a big solar damper step forward,solar inverter but this is not something out of left field," Wiener solar tracker actuator said. "We’ve been moving in this direction for a while, so this step makes solar tracker actuator sense."