[curriculum]

I think the idea is that California has plenty of solar generation during the day (or is on track to have plenty); what it needs is storage for when the sun isn’t shining.

The new NEM (the Net Billing Tariff) shifts the incentives away from solar generation (which the utilities have a lot of) and towards energy storage. I am in the market for solar right now, and I’ve been running the numbers. Whereas I would have had the greatest ROI with a large solar panel array under the last NEM, I now get the largest ROI with a small solar array + a battery.

I can’t say that my ROI will be the same under NEM 3.0 as it was in the old NEM, but solar is not suddenly a bad investment, as some might claim. A small solar + battery setup will pay for itself in 5 years in my situation. A battery alone (no solar panels) pays for itself within a decade, since you can buy energy for “cheap” during super off peak and store it for use during peak hours, pinning your electricity costs to the lowest of the day.

This is all with existing rates. The upcoming shift to an Income Graduated Fixed Fee will likely come with reduced per-kilowatt-hour rates, which will reduce the ROI for home solar and batteries.