Posts Tagged: solar energy

A high-energy debate erupts over California’s solar power

Roof top solar panels on rooftops in a Southern California neighborhood. (Photo: Simone Hogan, via Shutterstock)

by JOSHUA AALCIDES posted 02.02.2022

Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger championed an effort to install a million solar energy systems throughout the state. Fifteen years later, lured by incentives, there are more than 1.3 million solar rooftops that produce enough electricity for millions of homes across California. But a sharp debate is brewing among energy experts, the utilities, consumers and labor interests about fairness of the original program, called “net metering.”

Flawed ‘net energy metering’ system needs to be fixed

Workers install solar panels on a southern California home. (Photo: Joseph Sohm, via Shutterstock)

by DEBORAH HOWARD posted 04.06.2021

OPINION: All Californians deserve not only a clean energy future, but assurance that the programs we invest in will achieve this goal equitably and at the least possible cost. This is particularly important for seniors living on a fixed income and working families already struggling to make ends meet.cThis is why it is critical that reforms are made to the state’s rooftop solar subsidy program called Net Energy Metering (NEM).

A major solar energy player leaves some customers seething

Illustration by Quentin Lueninghoener, FairWarning.

by ELI WOLFE, FairWarning posted 05.01.2020

This sounds too good to be true, was one of Brenda Ortiz’s first thoughts when a salesman showed up at her front door in Riverside County in October 2018. He was with Vivint Solar, Ortiz recalled him saying, and was working with her local utility, Southern California Edison, to find people who qualified for free solar panels.