California Center for Sustainable Energy

California’s energy legislation for 2010 builds on legislation passed successfully in previous sessions.

The California Solar Initiative, the state’s landmark bill that mandates the installation of 3,000 megawatts of solar systems, combined with the Renewable Portfolio Standard mandating 20 percent of electricity corporations’ sales from renewable resources by the end of the year provide two lofty green goals for the state. To accomplish these goals, California’s legislators have introduced several bills that target incentivizing green technology development, purchase and use. As a vital component of the state’s legislative efforts, this year’s energy bills focus on funding for technology research and development, project financing and creative project options.

Legislation that encourages research and development of green technologies (SB 338, SB 1073, SB 1074, SB 1261) are receiving their fair share of attention in 2010. These bills provide incentives to investors and technology development firms to address potentially burdensome regulations for green technologies. Tax breaks for investment in renewable energy (AB 1705, AB 2525) will incentivize retailers and end users to purchase renewable energy technologies.

Another California energy legislation theme is securing the success of property assessed clean energy ( PACE) financing programs in the state. In previous legislative sessions, AB 811 and SB 474 enabled property owners to pay for permanently affixed energy efficiency, renewable energy and water efficiency measures through property taxes. SB 77, signed April 21, 2010, creates a state PACE reserve program to assist local jurisdictions in lowering the cost for property owners to finance the installation of renewable energy sources, or energy and water efficiency improvements.

To reach the ambitious goals set in 2006 by SB 1, the California Solar Initiative, California’s legislature is focusing on expanding the pool of customers eligible to receive incentives for renewable energy production. The successful passage of AB 2466 set the stage in 2008 by allowing governments to aggregate their electricity bills and credits from renewable energy. By allowing customers to produce electricity at sites where there is insufficient onsite load and use the credit from that site’s production toward sites with insufficient space for renewable energy, governments and college campuses (AB 1031) are now able to contribute to the state’s renewable energy goals. AB 2693 will expand current law to include joint powers authorities and agencies as eligible facilities. AB 1947 will allow public owned utility customers to use solar photovoltaic panels to produce electricity for a site other than their own. .

Jennifer Green is CCSE’s local governments program manager.

Continue reading June's newsletter.