New state legislation permitting consumers to buy their electricity from nearby community solar gardens opens the door for PG&E “to enable customers to go 100% solar” by the end of this year, Renewable Energy World reports.
The giant utility, which serves the northernmost two-thirds of the state, “already has enough renewable energy contracts in its portfolio that its customers now get a quarter of their electricity from sources like solar and wind,” Kraemer writes. Now, the solar garden legislation creates “a new avenue for every Californian to go solar regardless of home ownership, credit rating, or roof suitability.”
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PG&E “has now received regulatory approval to offer its customers this option for a few cents more per kilowatt hour added to their utility bill.”
“Under this option, customers will be able to contract directly with a third-party developer for a share of the output of a local solar project,” said PG&E spokesperson Jonathan Marshall. Kraemer notes that “while more solar-savvy customers might be comfortable contracting directly with the solar developer, the utility option may be the easier choice for the average ratepayer, since they’d simply check a box on their PG&E bill to get 50% or 100% of their electricity from the solar garden.”
