County Supes Want More Solar

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 24, 2008 at 12:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

San Diego County supervisors say residential solar users should be able to reap the benefits of their investment. The supervisors say allowing homeowners to sell their excess power would be good for t

San Diego County supervisors say residential solar users should be able to reap the benefits of their investment. The supervisors say allowing homeowners to sell their excess power would be good for the economy and the environment. KPBS Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

Under current rules, if a solar-powered home generates more electricity than it uses, the excess is carried forward on the customer's bill for 12 months.

Any yearly surplus goes to the utility.

But County Supervisor Dianne Jacob and the other supervisors are pushing for a new state law to let residential solar users sell their excess power back to their local utilities.

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Jacob: This I think could just bust open, break open, the whole solar industry in San Diego County. So it not only means producing energy, using the sun as our energy source to the maximum extent possible, but it means that people would be paying lower electricity rates.

A bill that would have allowed the reselling of surplus power failed in the last legislative session but is expected to be reintroduced next year.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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