The Sun will Soon Shine at Night…

Last week, The California Senate Energy, Utilities, and Communications Committee approved a bill that would require the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to establish an Energy Storage Initiative that would provide rebates and incentives for the installation of energy storage systems.

S.B. 700 , which was authored by Democratic Senator Scott Wiener of San Francisco, would mandate that California utilities create an Energy Storage Initiative by December 2018 and submit a budget for approval by the legislator.

This bill would be very similar to the California Solar Initiative, CSI , which over a decade ago helped transform the solar PV market and helped California to be the leader in renewable energy and propelled the solar industry in California to where it is today.

Under this legislation, utilities would collect a specified amount of funding from 2018 through the end of 2017 to fund the rebates for customer-sited energy storage systems. Additionally, S.B. 700 would dedicate up to 25% of the funds collected to low-income communities and for job training.

The California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA), which supports this bill says the legislation would create a huge marketplace for local energy storage which will further bring down prices and will ensure access to energy storage for schools, businesses, and all consumers across the state.

In other words: “This bill will allow the sun to start shining at night” , by encouraging Californians to produce their own solar power during the day and use their storage system to deploy the stored solar energy during the night when they would otherwise had to draw that power from the grid.
The storage technology is a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to bringing California into a net zero carbon future.

This bill will also encourage more private investments in our road to a 100% renewable energy future.

The S.B. 700 now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee.

We are obviously very excited about this news and will keep you posted as things develop.