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December 7, 2006

CPUC Proposed Decision: RECs Belong to Solar System Owners

by Stephen Lacey, Staff Writer
San Francisco, California [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision on Wednesday granting 100% ownership of Renewable Energy Credits to owners of solar systems and other renewable energy distributed generators.

This reverses a proposed decision from early November that would have granted utilities full ownership of RECs. Many solar advocates and consumers argued that gifting RECs to utilities would have eliminated an important source of revenue for solar owners. The utilities wanted the RECs to help fulfill their procurement obligations under the state's renewable portfolio standard.

"This is a huge victory for solar in California, showing how strong support from across the business and environmental community can swing a decision at the Public Utilities Commission in favor of solar energy," said JP Ross, Policy Director for the Vote Solar Initiative.

CPUC President Michael Peevey said in the proposed decision that "renewable DG [distributed generation] facility owners should retain 100% of the RECs associated with their facilities." The decision, he said was in line with the "previously established policy to promote development of all renewable DG facilities in California."

The proposed decision will be on the January 11th Commission meeting agenda for vote. The comment period will last from December 7 to December 27.
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December 8, 2006
I am extremely pleased as this does directly affect me as I have a 10 kW solar system that has produced over 58,000 kWh since 06/03. Therefore, I am one of those that will be directly involved. I was not counting on this to happen, because it has been my observation that the CPUC was unduly influenced by the utilities in the past.

If these RECs were worth $0.05 each kWh as I have heard, that means I could have sold these for $2,900. This would have shortend my payback period considerably. The next question I have is obvious. How will a small producer like me go about selling these RECs?
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