The Solar Energy Industries Association commended legislation filed in the California Legislature on Friday that would make it easier for businesses, schools, nonprofits and municipalities to access solar energy. In turn, this will help generate thousands of new jobs and millions of dollars of investment in the state.
“California has long been our nation’s leader in solar energy, but many of its businesses and schools face practical barriers to adopting solar,” said Sean Gallagher, SEIA’s vice president of state affairs. “This bill provides an innovative, yet commonsense solution that will unlock access to local clean energy for these organizations, while creating thousands of jobs in California. We thank Sen. Wiener for his leadership in advancing California’s solar economy.”
The bill, SB 1399, was authored by California Sen. Scott Wiener, who represents San Francisco and parts of San Mateo County. The legislation expands access to offsite solar projects for non-residential customers, by allowing them to partner with already-developed sites—such as parking lots, warehouses, brownfields and landfills—and use those sites for solar energy that the local community can access.
“To meet our aggressive renewable energy goals, California needs to dramatically expand solar, including maximizing use of our empty rooftops and other developed spaces that are ripe for solar,” said Senator Wiener. “However, these locations sometimes have no need for solar power and therefore sit unused, while other energy customers want to access renewable energy but have no space to install solar. SB 1399 brings these two groups together—supply and demand—to drive an increase in solar installations in urbanized areas throughout California. SB 1399 will spur the generation of more clean energy and create more good-paying solar installation jobs in communities throughout our state.”
California has an abundance of previously developed sites—35,000 acres in total, including 20,000 in disadvantaged communities—that could provide ideal locations for solar energy. This bill establishes a pathway for non-residential customers to take advantage of clean energy and enhance both the built environment and the local economy.
SEIA urges the California Legislature to pass this bill, and allow solar to deliver more clean, reliable, affordable power to businesses, schools, public agencies and nonprofits in the state.
News item from SEIA
Paul Melzer says
Bravo! Some years back The Wildlands Conservancy championed the argument against developing solar projects on pristine lands such as the beautiful expanses of the Mojave Desert and argued that there are plenty of already disturbed sites that could serve our need for renewable energy. Large-scale solar energy companies preferred free, or low-cost leases from the taxpayer for public lands rather than having to actually pay for the already disturbed, fallow sites, combined with even organizations like Sierra Club and Nature Conservancy (both of which have since then come around to clear thinking on the issue, concurring with The Wildlands Conservancy) made the fight challenging.
Kudos to Sen. Wiener for sponsoring the bill. This could be a valuable step towards some greater level of the democratization of energy and a cleaner environment.
Paul Melzer
Mission Advancement,
The Wildlands Conservancy