Solar Homeowners Can't Sell Excess Power

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 24, 2008 at 3:05 AM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

Homeowners in California that use solar can't sell their excess energy back to the local utility. San Diego County supervisors say residential solar users should be able to reap the benefits of their

Homeowners in California that use solar can't sell their excess energy back to the local utility. San Diego County supervisors say residential solar users should be able to reap the benefits of their investment. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

County Supervisor Dianne Jacob and the other supervisors want a new state law that will allow residential solar users to sell their excess power at a fair market price.

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Under current rules, if a homeowner generates more solar energy than they use, the excess is carried forward on the customer's bill for 12 months.

Any yearly surplus goes to the utility.

Jacob says homeowners should be able to get a return on their investment rather than the utility getting surplus energy at no cost....which it then resells.

She says if solar homeowners could sell that power it would encourage more people to go solar.

Jacob says Colorado and many other states compensate residential solar customers for surplus power.

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Legislation that would have offered similar benefits to California ratepayers failed in the last legislative session.

Similar legislation 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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