Assembly bill could lower cost of residential solar in California
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar-permits-assembly-bill-20140822-story.html
A state bill seeks to streamline permitting procedures to encourage growth of the solar industry.
Assembly bill could lower cost of residential solar in California
By Chad Garland
8.23.2014
Californians who want to put solar panels on their roofs could benefit from a state bill headed to the governor’s desk.
The Legislature on Thursday passed the Solar Permitting Efficiency Act, which promises to streamline the solar permitting process throughout California. Industry officials say that could save each customer $1,000 or more on the cost of installing solar panels.
Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance) is the author of the bill, which requires cities and counties to adopt ordinances that will speed up the permitting and inspection process for residential rooftop solar energy systems.
Muratsuchi was prompted to create the bill after a visit to Verengo Solar in Torrance last year, where company officials told him permitting processes in some cities and counties add delays to solar installation work.
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Rules prevent solar panels in many states with abundant sunlight
= new reply since forum marked as read
In California, at least, more rooftop solar is a Godsend to utilities; it helps them meet peak demand and maintain a healthy renewables portfolio. Since Enron, our decoupling rules ensure disincentives to selling more electricity for the sake of profit.
Add to that the potential impacts on safety and reliability if installations don't factor in safety and the capacity, or lack thereof, of the local distribution infrastructure to handle the new generation.
And, finally, I don't get the map and map legend. I would ask the artist for clarification.
But K/R no matter what, because solar and wind and storage are the solutions.
Many don't appreciate the considerable differences between utility-scale projects and distributed generation, and between variable generated sources and base load.
Rooftop solar can't replace base-load nuclear unless and until we incorporate utility scale storage technologies.
The only solar tech that comes close would be concentrated solar or large scale PV with a robust storage component. I suppose wind could do that too, but only with the storage piece, the real solution.