California’s CPUC solar program is a voluntary program that offers financial incentives to residents and businesses to install solar energy systems. The California Solar Initiative (CSI) is the state’s program for renewable energy and energy conservation. The CSI is a mandatory program that offers rebates to qualifying residents and businesses up to $0.15 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) of your solar energy produced and $0.02 per kWh of your exported solar energy.
Most residential solar systems use the National Renewable Energy Laboratory's (NREL) solar resource data to estimate the solar potential of a property.
California’s solar incentive programs are called CEC (California Energy Commission) programs. California’s CEC programs are available to homeowners, businesses, and property owners who want to install solar. Through CEC programs, homeowners can apply for a solar energy loan or lease to help finance the cost of solar panels.
These estimates are based on the amount of sunlight hitting the roof, typically in the form of kWh/day.
The California Solar and Energy Conservation Act of 1974 created the California Solar Energy Commission (CSEC), which is California’s official energy regulator. The CSEC oversees the creation and maintenance of the California Solar Initiative (CSI), a voluntary program that offers rebates and incentives to people who install solar energy systems. The program’s goal is to meet California’s goals for energy generation through solar energy, with the goal of having 1.5 million solar roofs by 2020.
Solar potential is expressed as a kilowatt-hour per square foot (kWh/ft2).
The California Solar Energy Commission (CSEG) defines CPUC solar as the kilowatt-hour output from a solar energy system that is registered with the commission. The commission also provides a feed-in tariff incentive program, which is a rate for solar energy generated by your home that the commission subsidizes. You can learn more about the commission’s solar programs here.
If you want to compare different solar systems built on the same roof, you need to convert the solar potential into kilowatts per panel (kW/panel).
California’s Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program is a voluntary program that allows solar energy producers to earn credits for the energy that their solar energy systems produce. The amount of solar energy produced by your property determines how many SRECs you can earn. The more solar energy produced, the more SRECs you can earn. For example, if you have a 5KW system installed on your home, you will receive 5 SRECs for every 1kW of energy produced.
This is known as solar panel output.
California’s Solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program is a voluntary program that allows you to earn money for the excess solar energy you produce over your home’s energy needs. This means that in addition to the energy you use in your home, you can sell the excess energy you produce back to the grid through the SREC program.
By comparing the solar panel output of two different systems, you can determine how much more energy your system will produce over the life of the panels.
CPUC solar is a program run by the California Public Utilities Commission that was created to help ratepayers find a way to meet their electricity needs through solar power. Under the CPUC solar program, you can purchase solar panels and lease them for 20 years.
These two values are often expressed as a ratio, known as the relative performance ratio (RPR).
The CPUC solar incentive program was created to offset the cost of electricity provided by solar energy systems installed on your home or business. Solar energy systems produce clean, renewable energy without using the limited supply of natural resources like water, oil, or natural gas.
Conclusion
The California Energy Commission’s (CEC) Solar Program oversees state-mandated programs designed to increase the use of solar energy in California. Through the Solar Program, the CEC oversees the creation, expansion, and maintenance of California’s clean energy programs. The CEC Solar Program supports three primary solar programs: CEC Solar Program, California Solar Initiative, and Solar Aggregation.
Related Links
Does California have a free solar program?How can I get free solar panels in San Diego?