By City News Service,Mike Blake
Copyright timesofsandiego
San Diego Community Power Wednesday announced a program intended to make solar power more affordable for thousands of San Diego County residents while strengthening the region’s power grid.
SDCP, a not-for-profit public agency providing power to nearly a million customers in the county, said its new Solar Battery Savings program is backed by nearly $55 million over the next five years. Some of that funding is dedicated to provide extra financial assistance to purchase solar panels in historically underserved communities.
“With the Solar Battery Savings program launching, we are giving San Diegans more tools to cut energy bills, keep the lights on during outages and build a cleaner and more resilient grid,” said County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, chair of the Community Power board of directors. “This program helps us build out our rooftop solar network — and creates lower bills for families, cleaner air for our kids and good-paying jobs for local workers.”
Specifically, the program provides upfront rebates on panels as well as incentives for residential customers who install new solar-plus-storage systems or add batteries to their existing setups.
Community Power will hold a series of customer education workshops about solar power and the program. Workshop details will be available at sdcommunitypower.org.
“Customer education is at the heart of this launch,” said Colin Santulli, SDCP’s director of programs. “We want families across our region to understand how this program can deliver savings and resilience, and we are investing more resources than ever to connect directly with our communities.”
Wednesday’s announcement is intended to build on a 2024 pilot program with more than 1,600 participants, resulting in more than 2,200 batteries installed across the region. The long-term goal of the program is to deliver 90 megawatt-hours of local battery capacity, contributing to the agency’s larger goal of 150 megawatts of distributed energy resources by 2035 — enough to power between 60,000 and 150,000 homes for a year, depending on usage.
Additionally, the agency’s leaders hope the Solar Battery Savings program will help bolster local business.
“The local solar industry has faced a tough stretch in recent years, with pressures coming from state and national policy shifts as well as changing global market conditions,” said Jake Marshall, Greentech Renewables San Diego operations manager. “Community Power’s Solar Battery Savings program was a bright spot last year for our industry and our communities.
“This isn’t just a program that benefits customers of Community Power, this is a program for San Diego solar and electrical contractors — a local program for local workers.”
