Insight: Gov. González-Colón: Don’t follow California on rooftop solar
Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, warns Puerto Rico against repeating the state’s rooftop solar policy mistakes.
Jenniffer González-Colón is now the governor of Puerto Rico, swearing in just two days after Puerto Ricans were greeted with an island-wide blackout on New Year’s Eve. Gov. González-Colón now has the power to oversee the fate of rooftop solar and storage on the island, which is currently being attacked in court by the Financial Oversight Management Board (FOMB).
From one sunny and grid-challenged (and climate-challenged) place to another: Do not follow California’s lead when it comes to rooftop solar and storage.
California falls just behind Puerto Rico when it comes to our total number of electric grid blackouts. At a time when half of Puerto Rico’s blackouts come from a lack of electricity generation, it makes no sense that FOMB is attacking net metering, which is the key policy that has enabled more than 150,000 families to install rooftop solar panels across the island, nearly all with battery backup.
Even the new governor has said she agrees that revoking people’s right to generate and send power back to the grid is wrong. Regardless of FOMB’s rationale, we want to send a warning to Puerto Rico’s new Governor about what happens when net metering is gutted.
As the leader of California’s largest clean energy business group, I have watched the industry I love struggle to survive in California after the severe decision by the Newsom Administration to gut the state’s net metering program. I feel that it’s my responsibility to warn the people of Puerto Rico to prevent a similar fate.
Watching this debate unfold in Puerto Rico is like déjà vu. In December 2022, when California’s net metering policy was effectively eliminated for new consumers, solar sales dropped by almost 80% overnight. Today, nearly two years later, California’s solar market under the new program, called “Net Billing,” is down 60% compared to previous years.
Those responsible for killing net metering in California led with the false claim that rooftop solar caused a “cost shift” to other ratepayers and was responsible for California’s high electricity rates. A close look at the numbers proves this claim to be dangerously false. A new analysis by economist Richard McCann concludes that rooftop solar saved all California ratepayers $1.2 billion in 2024 alone.
This finding aligns with another study by Vibrant Clean Energy, which concluded that rooftop solar and batteries could cut $120 billion in grid costs over the next 30 years in California. Finally, a 2024 study by Gabel Associates shows Puerto Rico’s net metering customers lower rates for all other ratepayers — not to mention helping to provide reliable power for the island.
We encourage the policymakers of Puerto Rico to listen to the facts, learn from our experience and avoid the negative consequences of pursuing the same kind of flawed approach we did in California.
As we and prominent consumer and environmental advocates predicted, California’s net metering changes have sent rooftop solar off a cliff. Rooftop solar installations have plummeted to the lowest levels since 2015, and more than 17,000 jobs have been lost in the past year. While Puerto Rico’s solar market is smaller than California’s, it still employs more than 10,000 people and provides $1.5 billion in annual economic activity — an important part of the economy that the island cannot afford to lose.
Rooftop solar and storage benefit consumers by lowering their monthly utility bills while also providing critical backup power for people who are forced to live with the least reliable electricity grids in the United States.
This means keeping the lights on, air conditioning running, and food and medicine fresh during frequent and long-lasting blackouts. But rooftop solar also benefits everyone else by reducing strain on the grid during peak demand, reducing air pollution and creating local jobs.
There have recently been some promising signs for solar and storage, but all of them would be threatened if net metering were to go away. LUMA, the utility, has launched a successful pilot Virtual Power Plant (VPP) program that uses power from rooftop solar and home batteries across the island. So far, more than 7,500 batteries in homes across Puerto Rico have been preventing blackouts by activating when there’s insufficient power generation on the grid.
The pilot has been so successful that the Energy Bureau has directed LUMA to develop it into a permanent program. Programs like this, which have proven to help Puerto Ricans both in normal times and during blackouts, cannot continue if solar and battery systems are no longer installed. In other words, if net metering goes away, that would also block the future of reliable, clean, affordable electricity.
While California has made its decision and suffered the consequences, the fate of rooftop solar and batteries in Puerto Rico is in Gov. González-Colón’s hands. It has been directly threatened by FOMB, a temporary government agency charged with settling the island’s bankruptcy but has barged in to attack pro-solar policies for months — an action that is not part of its charter.
FOMB should drop its dangerous and misguided lawsuit and allow the will of the democratically elected state legislature to keep net metering in place through 2030.
Just like in California, people throughout Puerto Rico are speaking out to protect rooftop solar and batteries. A bipartisan group of 21 members of Congress, including then-delegate González-Colón, organized a letter in opposition to FOMB’s attack on net metering. Additionally, 15 environmental groups wrote a letter calling for the protection of net metering in Puerto Rico.
Most recently, a group of 24 nonprofits and solar companies filed an Amicus Brief in federal court in defense of net metering. Everyone’s plea is the same: for FOMB to learn from the damaging effects of California’s decisions, focus on supporting a thriving clean energy policy and the clean energy economy in Puerto Rico, and withdraw its lawsuit against net metering.
Puerto Rico does not have to repeat the same mistake the Newsom administration made in California, and Puerto Ricans don’t have to sit in silence and watch it happen. Puerto Ricans need the independence and ability to protect their families with solar and batteries, even in the face of ongoing power blackouts — the most frequent in the nation.
Please protect net metering. Protect rooftop solar and storage. Protect Puerto Rico. And whatever you do, don’t follow in California’s footsteps.
Author Bernadette Del Chiaro is the executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association, which represents 700 solar and storage businesses.
This story has been very eye-opening about how net metering provides benefits to solar power customers. I’m not clear about the reasons why it would be discontinued when it is clearly the most important advantage when you buy solar panels for your home or business. We need more info as to the danger net metering poses and why anyone would want to mess with it. I’d like to know more about this issue.