Solar panels use the sun’s energy to generate usable electricity. At a high level, solar cells interact with incoming light to generate an electrical current through the “photovoltaic effect”. In this article, we’ll break down exactly how solar panels produce renewable energy for your home.
Continue readingTag Archives: net metering
Top myths about solar
At EnergySage, we hear a lot of solar myths. Here are some of the top ones most in need of busting.
Continue readingSolar news: January 28th, 2022
In this week’s news update, we discuss two important changes to net metering in Florida and California, and what you can do to help.
Continue readingTexas electric retail providers: what does it mean to have a “deregulated electricity market?”
Texas experienced a series of devastating power outages in February 2021 that some are blaming on its instability caused by its deregulated electricity market. However, proponents of deregulation say that it can help cut down on costs and improve services to customers. Given this recent discussion, we will explain what having a deregulated electricity market means, how Texas’s electric choice affects customers, and how it can impact your savings with solar.
Continue readingSolar news: December 17, 2021
In this week’s news round up, we discuss an important update to solar regulations in California and an innovative new solar carport structure.
Continue readingHow many solar batteries do I need?
Solar batteries are becoming more and more common for individual homeowners, and just like solar panels, the exact battery installation you should get depends on your unique situation and what you want to get out of energy storage. The question “how many solar batteries do I need?” doesn’t have a straightforward answer – in this article, we’ll outline the major factors that contribute to the size of a battery system, and around how large your solar battery setup should be.
Continue readingThe State of California Solar Policy
The California solar market is facing one of its biggest periods of upheaval ever and the next few months will set the fate of the industry for the next decade as the state decides the future of “net metering”. The stakes could not be higher for this 75,000 worker, $4 billion industry so let’s take a deeper dive into the forces bombarding the industry, the trials ahead, and how the industry can defend itself to make it through this challenging time.
Continue readingSelf-consumption: what you need to know
One concept gaining importance in the world of solar and home storage is self-consumption: producing and consuming your own electricity at your home or business. As net metering policies start to shift in the coming years, a self-consumption setup may be the key to maximizing your solar savings.
Continue readingNet metering 3.0: what does it mean for you, and how can you help?
If you look at the best solar markets in the US, they all have one thing in common: a strong net metering policy. Net metering–or NEM–allows you to earn credits for any excess solar electricity you send to the grid when your solar panel system generates more than you need.
Over the next year, California will be releasing the third iteration of net metering, or NEM 3.0. And as of summer 2021, there’s still a lot for the state to decide on – we don’t know exactly how credit values will change, or what they’ll change to, but we do know that whatever happens will have large implications for the country’s leading solar market. We’ll continue to keep this article updated with the most recent news on NEM 3.0, and in the meantime, discuss some of the proposed changes to the state’s current net metering policy, along with timelines.
Continue readingWhat’s happening to net metering in California? A Q&A with CALSSA
California has historically been the best market for solar in the US, and the success of the solar industry as a whole can largely be traced back to the success of solar in California. In fact, out of the more than 2.5 million residential solar installations in the US, more than 1.2 million are in California alone!
However, the future of solar in California –and of residential solar in particular–hangs in the balance. In a current review of the future of net metering in the state, a series of proposals before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recommend significantly reducing the value of residential net metering credits. For a sense of the types of proposals submitted, check out this joint proposal from the major utilities in the state, which would reduce residential net metering credits to 23 percent of their value today and impose a monthly fee on solar owners of nearly $80 per month, making new residential solar all but impossible in the state.
Continue reading