1y ago

California clean energy industry rocked with widespread jobs losses, bankruptcies, following state’s dismantling of rooftop solar program

www.ewg.org California clean energy industry rocked with widespread jobs losses, bankruptcies, following state’s dismantling of rooftop solar program

California’s once-thriving residential solar industry is in ruins after state officials slashed rooftop solar incentives, causing thousands of job losses, said clean energy advocates and solar industry representatives during a recent virtual briefing.

California clean energy industry rocked with widespread jobs losses, bankruptcies, following state’s dismantling of rooftop solar program::undefined

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Honestly, this was a pretty stupid policy in the first place. The maintenance and upkeep for all the houses is way more than just putting solar in the field somewhere. It was a policy that sounded good on paper, but did not actually work in practice. A much better policy would be a community owned solar power facility. The solar panels we have today will be obsolete in five years time if not sooner, a dedicated solar facility would be able to update panels overtime and handle the maintenance at scale. Much easier than trying to upgrade or maintain solar panels on top of a bunch of peoples houses.
- Bullshit. Residential solar is point sourced and maintained with distributed resources. It powers the house it sits on.
  It powers my EV directly with solar. I drive for free. How awesome is that.
  
  “I drive for free”
  So your solar panels didn’t cost anything? Look I’m very pro-solar but rooftop solar for residential makes sense for very few people. It’s not very efficient (even with the best panels available at the time) and the efficiency falls off over time as the panels degrade. Most rooftop solar savings calculations use absurd estimates for power costs in the future to justify themselves and take 10+ years to pay off. Furthermore selling a house with rooftop solar is harder due to having to find someone to take over the lease (which is needed to pay for it for most people).
  None of this even starts to address the solar rooftop companies that have gone out of business while leaving their customer high and dry.
  Again, I like solar but rooftop just doesn’t make sense for most people.
  
  I apologize for my previous tone, but I vehemently disagree with most if not all of your premises so good luck to you. Not a good look to cherry pick and exaggerate all the negative possible outcomes.
  If you aren't lying when you say you like solar, please stop spreading disinformation. It comes across like a petro-shill. It would be great if you could channel some of that energy into positive progressive effect. We are facing a mostly unimaginable crisis.
  And yes, 'I drive for free' is working out pretty great. The solar I put on has an instant 2-300% ROI because it increases the value of the house by 4.1% (ref: zillow). 30% IRA ITC, SRECS, all help, too. Yes I paid cash for it, and that is very privileged, admittedly. And agreed, leasing is never a good option. Financing if you can't afford paying up front is an ok option. I also DIY'd my install so it was rather low cost up front. There are options out there.
  Residential panel efficiency is now on par with commercial installations. Degradation is measured in decades. Warranty for materials and production is around 25 years.
  Companies going out of business is not that big a deal. It's easy to pick up an existing installation and maintain it.
  Best to all of us, we are in this together.

35 comments