California's New Solar Mandate: The Essentials
The New Solar Mandate in California is equal parts controversial and cool. Here's what you need to know.
Get ready for California's biggest Solar+ year yet.
We did it. We're here. It's the year 2020, and California's starting the decade out with a bang.
California's Building Energy Efficiency Standards Title 24 is equal parts controversial and cool. It states that every new home built hasto have a solar energy component. ALL of them. Like, 100%. Sure, it's going to take some adjusting, but the result is going to be awesome.
In recent years, there have been upwards of 100,000 new residential solar installations (about a dozen thousand more if you count solar retrofits on existing homes). California builds somewhere between 75,000 and 80,000 new homes a year. Have you done the math yet? No problem, we'll fill in the blanks. This new standard means **we're about to see a 50% increase in solar installations in 2020. **
But since that was so fun, let's crunch a few more numbers. Solar system installations on new homes are about 3.5 kW or so (the minimum system size is 2.5 kW, so though this is a rough guess, it's probably pretty accurate.) The new, mandated solar is going to bring in about 225 MW more solar power to California's market. Now, when we see a mind-blowing number like that, we automatically think about how essential it's going to be to **store this energy. **But we'll talk about that later.
Here's what California's new solar standard means for everyone, and everything:
- *Solar installers and home builders are about to get busy.*As a rule, builders aren't super happy about regulations, since they, you know, force them to make some changes. But California's hoping that this new change is going to be good for everyone in the long run.
Homebuilders are going to have some control over which PV systems they install, which means they're probably going to choose the lowest-priced options they have. Contractors in the state of California are going to be super busy, but they're also going to play a huge part in the solar market in the next decade. It's a scenario that deserves some thought.
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*The roofing industry might want to get in on this action.*Since most of these solar systems are going on people's roofs, the roofing industry might want to swoop in and get in on this new arrangement. All of Tesla's solar roof work aside, all roofing companies could look into bundling solar with the products they already offer. In fact, they not only could, but they probably should (since solar is the future and everything.) Keep an eye out for new developments in roofing in the years to come.
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*Energy Storage is going to be a bigger deal than it already is.*We've said it, and we'll say it again: solar and storage are better when they're together. Without a home battery, these new solar-equipped homes simply aren't getting the energy security they could so easily take advantage of.
It's pretty clear that California's leaders are expecting homebuilders to pick up on this. When the new solar mandate was passed, there was another bill passed along with it. This one reinstated California's SGIP program, or the Self-Generation Incentive Program. SGIP sets aside millions of dollars for homeowners looking to install their own, on-site energy storage systems. There's some serious cash here for the taking.
We're excited to see more solar on the roofs of California homes, but we're ever more excited to see people **store that energy. **Home batteries give homeowners the opportunity to take their power into their own hands, and make sure it's available when they need it (even after the sun goes down.)