Welcome back, dedicated reader! Thanks for visiting.
Last Friday, the Boots on the Roof team shared in miraculous moment here at our headquarters in Fremont, the Solar Capital of America. The moment was a demonstration of government and its affected citizenry meeting and discussing the current state of affairs in the solar industry with the intention of improving accessibility to all. This was a Thomas Friedman moment. A Krugman moment. An industry positively effecting policy moment. That might sound a bit dense, but coming from a background of International Political Economy, this was the real deal, live, in stereo, development moment, one that authors could use as a specific example in argument papers.
Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner of the 14th district, gamechanger, forward thinker, Styrofoam banning, small business opening, world saving author, she taught a class full of solar business developers about the governmental behind-the-scenes back and forth on the challenge faced in raising the net-metering cap in NorCal (the #1 solar part of the country). Assemblywoman Skinner is intricately involved in the battle to raise the net-metering cap higher than its current 2.5%. Once the California utility (PG&E) receives 2.5% of all energy from renewable, like solar, it will no longer have to pay out for extra, distributed solar energy input. This would be bad for the solar industry.
Adding solar systems to a residence or a business has to make sense financially, at the end of the day, it’s the dollars that matter most to any family or business venture. It makes more sense to invest in solar if there’s a cash return, at any amount, over time.
Assemblywoman Skinner explained that she expects PG&E to reach an energy input level of 2.5% from all the distributed solar systems in the area in the very near future. Without a further financial incentive, solar installations of tomorrow, even in our pro-solar area, will have an even larger hurdle to overcome before be installed than it does already (including misinformation, credit crunches, recession, limited clarity or standardization of process (think German solar loan papers, there are a sum total of two) and a lack of educated professionals across the board). Lucky, Boots on the Roof is hoping to help change some of that, and fast. Infrastructure development is good for the economy.
The best part was the exchange between our future solar contractors and business developers and the politician. But it happened. And we have video evidence (coming shortly).
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