Posted on 05/04/2018 6:36:58 PM PDT by Simon Green
For seven years, a handful of homebuilders offered solar as an optional item to buyers willing to pay extra to go green.
Now, California is on the verge of making solar standard on virtually every new home built in the Golden State.
The California Energy Commission is scheduled to vote Wednesday, May 9, on new energy standards mandating most new homes have solar panels starting in 2020.
If approved as expected, solar installations on new homes will skyrocket.
Just 15 percent to 20 percent of new single-family homes built include solar, according to Bob Raymer, technical director for the California Building Industry Association.
“California is about to take a quantum leap in energy standards,” Raymer said. “No other state in the nation mandates solar, and we are about to take that leap.”
The proposed new rules would deviate slightly from another much-heralded objective: Requiring all new homes be “net-zero,” meaning they would produce enough solar power to offset all electricity and natural gas consumed over the course of a year.
New thinking has made that goal obsolete, state officials say. True “zero-net-energy” homes still rely on the electric power grid at night, they explained, a time when more generating plants come online using fossil fuels to generate power.
“Zero net energy isn’t enough,” said Andrew McAllister, one of five state energy commissioners voting on the new homebuilding standards. “If we pursue (zero net energy) as a comprehensive policy, we’d be making investments that would be somewhat out of touch with our long-term goals.”
While environmentalists and homebuilders praised the new standards, the proposed rules have some detractors who still support net-zero goals.
“We’re happy they’re making good progress,” said Kelly Knutsen, technology advancement director for the California Solar and Storage Association, a solar-industry group. “We wish they would go further."
(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
Young people in California already can’t afford a home unless they are very solidly funded by a top job.
If you are marginally getting by, in California that means you are living in a dangerous and depressing housing setup.
Because the cost of homes in California isn’t skyrocketing fast enough.
and people wonder how come there is a homeless problem along with a shortage of low income private housing in california.
Or they'll strike a deal with Middle East countries to swap solar power. Daytime there is nighttime in California. They just need some long extension cables.
Too bad Cali closed it two Nukes.
Those plants had tremendous service records, especially DCPP.
What will Cali do now, ….. or better yet, - when the lights don’t work after 2025. Oh my Yes, solar to the rescue. What a laugher!
Really bad calls by a public band-wagon Liberal (ingrate) crowd.
You ever been in the Sierras in the winter. You’ll be damned smelly by the time your water heats for a shower.
Keeping California Green With Greenbacks To Politicians
Getting a mandate like this this passed must have put millions and millions of dollars from the solar power industry directly in the pockets of the politicians and bureaucrats.
In its own way this is no different than Obamacare.
The state is demanding that consumers purchase a product from the same industries that are keeping politicians wealthy with payoff money thinly disguised as campaign contributions.
How many sunny days does Hawaii have VS coastal northern CA?
Mandate this on existing homes in CA worth over $1M.
C’mon Californians, do your part to fight climate change!
If it works so well, and saves lots of money, there should be no need for a mandate . Yes ?
I do have a kilowatt of “hobby” solar panels but just wait for a decent-sized volcanic eruption or other solar obscuring event...useless!
Exactly. In California, anything that works well and saves money, it is banned.
Solar panels and the related control systems don't last forever.
The only thing that has made a solar setup cost effective for the average homeowner are huge government subsidies.
On average, just about the time a system pays off the purchase and installation cost the solar panels are worn out.
Ten to twenty years after this law takes effect the state junk yards will be knee deep in worn out solar panels.
“You ever been in the Sierras in the winter. You’ll be damned smelly by the time your water heats for a shower.”
Not so sure about that. I get pretty sunburned snow skiing up here in the Cascades. If it’s sunny, there’s plenty of infrared+UV.
The ugly, butt-naked truth is that statists HATE the middle class. They hate hard-working families and taxpayers. That is why they implement these brain-dead policies - to chase the middle-class out of the area, so it’ll be just them, the elites, and the underclass who looks up to them approvingly.
Sweaty palms in utility boardrooms...
So California is about to become the largest HOA in the world.
Cloudy, rainy Oregon has mandated solar panel pre-wiring on all new homes.
70% of the Cannons used by the Patriots against the British came from Private Hands.
Yes, I understand that “Well Regulated” means in good working order, but even that part of the Second Amendment has nothing to do with the RIGHT of the PEOPLE to keep and Bear Arms.
It seems Politicians who want to run our lives and want to decide which of our God Given Rights meet with their approval lack the intelligence to understand a simple four word phrase, “Shall Not Be Infringed”.
True “zero-net-energy” homes still rely on the electric power grid at night, they explained, a time when more generating plants come online using fossil fuels to generate power.
Thanks Simon Green.
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