Over 150,000 Californians went solar in 2016
Over 154,000 new solar homes were installed in California in 2016, with 128,485 Californians going solar during the first 10 months of the year, according to solar consumer advocates California Citisuns. San Diego saw 90,722 solar projects installed; Los Angeles, 56,811; San Bernardino, 22,887; Orange, 37.075; and Riverside, 51,113. California now monitors net energy-metered solar photovoltaic projects through the California Distributed Generation Statistics Database, operated by the California Public Utilities Commission.
Southern California is the current regional solar champ, home of the top 5 California counties with the most residential solar projects installed. Those counties include: San Diego (90,722); Los Angeles (56,811); Riverside (51,113); Orange (37,075); and San Bernardino (33,887).

A new tool for keeping up with details of the solar expansion in California was launched by the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) in September, the California DG (Distributed Generation) Statistics database.

The platform highlights data on all net energy-metered solar photovoltaic projects in the three large investor-owned utility (IOU) territories (PG&E, SCE and SDG&E) and provides other publicly available distributed generation incentive program data sets, including the CSI ‒ General Market and Thermal programs, the Self-Generation Incentive Program and others, advises the CSI.

California DG Stats is an evolution of the California Solar Statistics (CSS) website, which has been the public reporting platform for the CSI since 2009, CSI notes. Eventually California DG Stats will expand to include and highlight additional distributed generation interconnection and incentive programs with the goal of serving as a one-stop shop for all California DG data.

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California Citisuns promotes grass-roots solar legislation initiatives. For example, over 400 Solar CitiSuns members wrote to their state representatives and helped bring the Imperial Irrigation District back to the negotiation table, Citisuns notes. “The utility and the solar industry negotiated a deal to help out the hundreds of Imperial County residents who were stuck in limbo after the utility changed the Net Metering Rules,” the group explains.

California Citisuns, which has grown rapidly to some 700 members, is independent of its founding partner, the California Solar Industries Association (CALSEIA), also based in Sacramento. CALSEIA has seven regional chapters in the state thus far; it is the California state member of the Solar Industries Association (SEIA), based in Washington, DC. CALSEIA initiatives help shape policy decisions within the California PUC, and its efforts and strategies are widely mirrored and adopted by other SEIA state organizations.