The California Photo voltaic & Storage Affiliation (CALSSA) held a grim media briefing on November 30 that includes 5 residential photo voltaic firm house owners discussing the impacts of the state’s new NEM 3.0 web billing regime on their companies. NEM 3.0 was accepted by the California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) in December 2022 and went into impact in April 2023. Because of NEM 3.0 reducing the sum of money owners can obtain for feeding photo voltaic again to the grid, 22% of photo voltaic jobs have been misplaced, and 59% of the state’s residential photo voltaic + storage contractors anticipate layoffs, in keeping with a survey of CALSSA’s 700+ members.
CALSSA’s graphic representing job losses reported in a member survey.
Photo voltaic gross sales within the state are down between 77% and 85% 12 months over 12 months, in keeping with Ohm Analytics, which hosts a proprietary database of photo voltaic tasks in the USA primarily based on allow and interconnection knowledge. Interconnection software knowledge from two of the three giant California utilities, PG&E and SCE, additionally confirmed quantity down between 66% and 83% 12 months over 12 months.
The contractors on the decision offered their very own anecdotes to color a bleak image of the state that used to guide the nation in photo voltaic coverage.
San Diego’s HES Photo voltaic has been in enterprise for over 20 years and simply downsized from 70 to 33 folks. Fresno’s Power Ideas has 32 years of enterprise beneath its belt and simply lowered its workforce from 70 to 35 folks. And Arcadia’s Assemble Solar has already pulled out of California altogether to focus its assets on states that also supply one-to-one web metering on the East Coast and Midwest.
“You don’t simply rent anyone after which they begin working for you, it takes years and years to develop expertise. And we love to advertise from inside,” stated Ross Williams, CEO of HES. “All these jobs are gone. Years and years of workforce growth have simply been worn out, so it’s fairly miserable.”
Carlos Beccar, advertising director at Power Ideas, stated the toughest a part of his job now’s explaining NEM 3.0 to prospects. The CPUC’s principal argument for the plan was avoiding the duck curve of noon photo voltaic technology by encouraging extra residential battery installations utilizing advanced hourly export charges. However regardless that some contractors on the decision stated they’re promoting extra batteries in California than earlier than, the general quantity of labor is approach down.
“Lots of people speak about batteries and make it sound prefer it’s this easy factor — you simply take a battery and plug it in. And it’s so way more difficult,” Beccar stated. “It’s a must to have a system that’s sufficiently big to cost the battery. Simply because you may have a battery, you possibly can’t put a smaller [solar] system in by default. We’re promoting the batteries; we love promoting batteries; prospects love the batteries. However the math will not be there, even with a battery answer — it’s double the value; it’s not there.”
Many of the dialog centered on the residential market, however CALSSA govt director Bernadette Del Chiaro stated industrial installations will really feel the ache subsequent, possible in 2024. The longer timelines for these tasks have delayed the extra fast impacts felt by the residential market. However Kenneth Wells, CEO of O&M Photo voltaic, stated his firm is already seeing a preview of this in its industrial work.
“One of many issues I deal with is doing subcontracting, and we’re not seeing as many bids for 2024 coming. We’re not seeing as many tasks as we did the prior 12 months,” Wells stated.
CALSSA tried to finish on a hopeful word, outlining three requests for policymakers to stave off extra hurt to the business. The group is asking for no additional actions that would hurt the market — together with no photo voltaic taxes or mounted costs on residential prospects and no limitations on licensed photo voltaic contractors putting in photo voltaic + storage. It’s asking for a brand new “Million Photo voltaic Batteries Initiative” to make this expertise inexpensive for owners, just like the “Million Photo voltaic Houses Initiative” by the Schwarzenegger Administration. And it’s asking for the state to chop extra pink tape by getting agency with utilities about interconnection delays and simplifying allowing on the metropolis and county ranges.
Nonetheless, CALSSA stated the hurt already felt within the peak summer time photo voltaic gross sales season will not be an excellent signal for the historically slower winter forward.
“It’s 2023. California has declared … that local weather change is a disaster. We want three-times extra photo voltaic vitality and we want it as quick as we are able to,” stated Del Chiaro. “We want extra batteries. This ought to be the Golden Period. This ought to be the heyday. We ought to be hitting our stride and sprinting to the end line. And as a substitute we’ve got California’s footsoldiers out there to construct our clear vitality future in essentially the most quick and accessible method nervous that they’re not even going to have the ability to make it via the winter.”
