In 2006, the State of California – under the leadership of Governor Schwarzenegger and the California Public Utilities Commission — set a goal of creating 3,000 megawatts ( MW) of new, solar facilities by 2017. Through the California Solar Initiative ( CSI), the California Public Utilities Commission is providing $2.1 billion over the next 10 years to help existing businesses, public agencies and home owners: 1) lower their energy costs, 2) reduce reliance on fossil fuel-fed power plants and 3) create a sustainable energy future by using solar technology. The California Energy Commission ( CEC) will provide incentives to new residential solar projects through its New Solar Homes Partnership. The CSI has been allocated $203.5M for incentives in the San Diego region which is administered through CCSE.
The incentive level available to a given project is determined by currently available incentive in each utility territory for each customer class. The CSI was designed so that the incentive level decreases over ten steps, after which it goes to $0, as the total demand for solar energy systems grows.
The CPUC divided the overall goal of 1,750 megawatts by the ten declining steps. Each step has megawatts allocated to each Program Administrator and customer class, residential and non-residential (a combination of commercial and government/non-profit). Once the total number of megawatts for each step is reached within a particular customer class, the Program Administrator moves to the next step and offers a lower incentive level for that class.
The California Solar Initiative pays solar consumers their incentive either all-at-once for smaller systems, or over the course of five years, for larger systems. The program's two incentive payment types are:
