This change in net metering could doom California’s Solar boom

California has pledged to go 100% renewable power by 2045. However, relentless lobbying by the Big 3 utility companies could take the Golden State in a direction dramatically opposed to its clean energy goals and the solar aspirations of its residents. California’s large utility companies are opposed to the fact that rooftop solar panels enable homeowners to go solar, harness, and utilize the power they need for their household, on their own premises. Apart from federal tax credits, net energy metering, or NEM, made it possible and efficient for over a million homeowners to set up solar panels and become energy independent.

NEM is the central solar policy and incentive on which the residential solar industry has been built. In my experience, many solar customers, especially from middle- and lower-income households, see NEM as the single reason it made economic sense for them to go solar—something policymakers promised to protect.

What does NEM make possible? Everything. NEM enables California homeowners to earn energy credits for excess solar electricity they can send to the grid when their solar panel systems generate more power than needed, typically in the summer months. These credits can be used to offset energy costs that homeowners incur when their solar panels generate less power than they need, usually in the winter, and let them benefit from their solar systems and remain energy independent through the year. Changes to the state’s NEM policy could be catastrophic for the solar customer.

The proposed modified NEM version 3.0, which is heavily supported by the big energy lobby, will result in Californians losing as much as 75% of the value of their energy credits, making solar power less economically viable than before. Utility companies also propose to make homeowners pay extra monthly charges for the benefit of going solar. These changes to NEM could result in new legislation that makes homeowners dependent all over again on large-scale solar projects that add costs and increase household expenses on top of already being charged the highest utility rates in the country. With California plagued by wildfires, power blackouts, and high temperatures caused by climate change, energy independence has never been more important. The proposed legislation on NEM takes power away from regular people and puts it back in the hands of the big utility companies, wiping out decades of work of previous California lawmakers. Almost 70% of Our Solar Energy Partners customers are middle- and low-income earners, looking to stretch every dollar and conserve household income for the family instead of spending on hefty power bills. We’ve seen firsthand how NEM has empowered so many lower-income homes, small businesses, and struggling community institutions to move toward energy independence through rooftop solar panels on their property.

With the addition of 10 million electric vehicles by the next decade, the state has already shown they want everyone involved. That means homeowners, too. Not just big energy companies and large-scale solar farms. In the last decade, the state of California has paved the way for a domestic solar revolution, with almost half the solar systems in the U.S. installed here. California’s solar future belongs to everyone, and every home should be able to harness this power for long-term energy savings and independence.