Wednesday, September 18, 2013

California: Tell Governor Brown - Sign SB 43

For those of you in California and representatives of national organizations, now is the time to encourage Jerry Brown to sign the new shared solar bill SB 43.  Below is a letter from Vote Solar that your organization can send to the Governor's office to let him know your position.

The process at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) will be very important in determining the particulars of how the bill is implemented, including how projects will be chosen, marketing to low income participants, and how generation will be placed close to load.  In particular, we'll need to encourage the CPUC to allow participants to choose the particular project they would like to subscribe to, so that it can be a true solar gardens program.

many thanks,

Joy

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DATE

Governor Jerry Brown
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814


SB 43 (Wolk) – SUPPORT, Your Organization


Dear Governor Brown:

On behalf of Your Org, I write to express our strong support for SB 43 and urge you to sign the bill into law.
 
SB 43 is an innovative renewable energy program model that expands consumer access to renewable energy, providing customers of SCE, SDG&E and PG&E with the ability to invest in offsite renewable energy projects and receive utility bill credits without shifting costs to non-participants. It extends the economic and environmental benefits of renewable energy to the large percentage of Californians who currently are not able to site renewables on their own property, including renters, people whose homes are shaded or poorly oriented, businesses who lease, and space-limited public entities. A recent Vote Solar analysis[1] indicates that this program would create more than 6,000 new jobs for Californians and generate more than $2.2 billion in economic output.

SB 43 does not specify whether the program must include a customer choice element that allows customers to choose what specific renewable energy project and location they would like to support. We hope you will encourage the California Public Utilities Commission to explicitly enable this element, which will accelerate renewable energy development by allowing customers to choose projects with characteristics they value.  Customer choice can be enabled by allowing third parties, other than the utility, to market to customers for participation in shared renewables projects with characteristics they believe customers want.  This will better harness the power of competition and enable market forces to determine the direction of renewable energy development under this program. This element of customer choice is supported in best practices research on shared renewables programs nationally by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council.[2]

We strongly support SB 43 and respectfully request that you sign the bill into law as soon as possible. Thank you for your leadership in expanding access to renewable energy, which will benefit electricity customers, utilities, California’s economy and our environment.

Sincerely,

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