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AB 1181 (Chavez Zbur) Multifamily Affordable Housing Solar Roofs Program

Solar array on condos
Image credit: Laurie-Ann Barbour

Existing law vests the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) with regulatory authority over public utilities, including electrical corporations. Existing law establishes the Multifamily Affordable Housing Solar Roofs Program to award monetary incentives for qualifying solar energy systems, as defined, that are installed on qualified multifamily affordable housing properties. Existing law requires the commission, beginning with the 2016–17 fiscal year and ending with the 2019–20 fiscal year, to authorize the annual allocation of certain amounts of moneys for the program, and requires the commission to continue authorizing the allocation of those moneys through June 30, 2026, if the commission determines that revenues are available and that there is adequate interest and participation in the program. Existing law requires that low-income tenants who participate in the program receive credits on utility bills from the program.

This bill would:

  • Require, for eligible common areas and for tenant units that are separately metered, benefitting accounts, rather than low-income tenants, that participate in the program to receive credits on utility bills from the program;
  • Require the CPUC to ensure that electrical corporation tariff structures affecting the qualified multifamily affordable housing properties participating in the program reduce barriers to the installation of solar energy storage technologies;
  • Require that any tariff structure adjustment affecting the program consider impacts to adoption by affordable housing developments regarding financial feasibility and the economic benefits to tenants and owners;
  • Authorize, if a development is eligible and master metered, a property in the development to choose either to participate in virtual net metering tariffs designed for the program or certain other tariffs adopted by the CPUC, or to directly connect a solar energy system to a meter for self-consumption.

Committee Location: FAILED. Held in the Assembly Appropriations Committee May 18.

Full bill text and related information.

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