CALIF SUN EXPERIMENT

All Eyes on California as State Considers Energized Feed-in Tariff
Bettina Weiss, May 2010 (PV Group)

"Representing 60% of the total grid connected PV demand in the United States, California is increasingly seen as one of the most critical solar markets in the world. Even without the passage of federal energy legislation in Washington, favorable policy actions in California could help US demand reach as high as 4GW in 2012, up from the 2009 level of less than 700MW, to become the world’s largest solar PV market.

"Consequently…[the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) effort] to re-energize current California Feed-in Tariff (FIT) legislation, could have a significant impact on the solar energy market in US and the world."

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"CALSEIA is urging the California Public Utilities Commission to implement SB 32, a feed-in tariff bill enacted in 2009, with “PV Adder” pricing which would result in an additional 750 megawatts of new renewable generation in California. Last year, SB 32 was passed utilizing a Market Price Referent (MPR) [based on natural gas market prices]…With natural gas prices reaching 10 year lows…California’s FIT has failed to create a meaningful incentive for solar power in the State.

"… CALSEIA released a study on FIT pricing showing that the value of renewable generation is between 9 and 16 cents over the wholesale price of natural gas generation. The PV Adder pricing is based on several factors, including avoided distribution and transmission costs, air quality and health benefits, and contribution to State-mandated renewable energy credits. The analysis demonstrates that only by accounting for these factors could the MPR rate meet the requirements for ‘ratepayer indifference’, recognizing the value of the energy and its attributes on a market value basis…"

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[Senator Negrete-McLeod (D-Chino), author, SB 32;] “The Commission needs to take action now to implement SB 32…There’s no reason to delay and plenty of important reasons to move ahead…The Feed in Tariff will help to bring clean power to California and jobs to people who need them now.”

"…[ Advancing a Sustainable Solar Future] advocated the use of feed-in tariffs as the best policy tool available to encourage solar energy and provided a set of recommended best practices…[including] technology differentiation, generation cost-based rates sufficient to spur demand, well-defined purchase and interconnection requirements, and fixed price and long-term payments…SB 32 with Market Price Referent based on wholesale price of natural gas generation alone failed the best practice of cost-based rates sufficient to spur demand. Since California has adopted [the plan]…little demand has been created…"