The 2009 California legislative session ended last fall with some important solar business left undone. State law currently caps the amount of net metered solar systems at 2.5% of utility system peak load–a serious impediment to long-term solar growth. Without net metering, solar customers won’t see their meter roll backwards, and California’s growing rooftop solar market grinds to a halt. AB 560 (Skinner), which would have raised the cap to 5%, made it through the Assembly and all Senate policy committees before being derailed by a fight over a tangential licensing provision. The session ended, painfully, with a cloud hanging over solar’s future growth in California.
Well, now is the time to finish the job. AB 560 has now become AB 510, and it picks up where we left off in the fall: in the Senate. The licensing issue has been resolved to the satisfaction of stakeholders. Text of the new legislation here (pdf).
UPDATE: Legislation in print, here (pdf).
And if you want to get involved, action alert here.
Time to get this done, already.
