Solar in Disadvantaged Communities

Overview

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has four programs designed to increase adoption of renewable generation in disadvantaged communities (DAC) pursuant to the requirements of Assembly Bill (AB) 327 (Perea, 2013). The Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) program, adopted in Decision (D.) 17-12-022, counts toward the CPUC’s obligations under AB 327. This program provides an avenue for customers residing in multifamily affordable housing to access solar electric generation, with a special provision to increase solar installation in DACs. Also, the CPUC created three programs to increase access to solar for residents of disadvantaged communities located within PG&E's, SCE's, or SDG&E's service territories in D.18-06-027.

Disadvantaged Communities - Single-family Solar Homes (DAC-SASH): This program enables income-qualified homeowners in DACs to receive no-cost rooftop solar installations.
Disadvantaged Communities - Green-Tariff (DAC-GT): This program enables income-qualified, residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof to benefit from utility-scale clean energy and receive a 20% bill discount.
Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT): This program enables residential customers in DACs who may be unable to install solar on their roof to benefit from a local solar project and receive a 20% bill discount. The communities work with a local non-profit or government “sponsor” to organize community interest and present siting locations to the utility or CCA.

Defining Eligible Communities

To define disadvantaged communities which communities are eligible for these solar programs, the CPUC relied on CalEnviroScreen, which identifies California communities by census tract that are disproportionately burdened by and vulnerable to multiple sources of pollution. For these programs, the CPUC defines a "disadvantaged community" as a community that appears among the top 25 percent of census tracts identified by CalEnviroScreen statewide, as well as 22 census tracts in the highest 5 percent of CalEnviroScreen's Pollution Burden, but that do not have an overall CalEnviroScreen score because of unreliable socioeconomic or health data. The CPUC later expanded the three programs to California Indian County.

DAC-SASH Program

The Disadvantaged Communities – Single-family Solar Homes (DAC-SASH) program, modeled after the Single-family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) Program, provides financial incentives for the installation of rooftop solar generating systems. The incentives assist income-qualified DAC customers in overcoming barriers to the installation of onsite solar energy, such as lack of capital or credit needed to finance a solar installation. Please visit GRID Alternatives’ website to apply for a no-cost solar system.

The DAC-SASH program also incorporates job training objectives to promote green-collar jobs in low-income communities and to develop a trained workforce that will foster a sustainable solar industry in California.

Through a competitive solicitation, GRID Alternatives was selected to serve as the statewide program administrator for the DAC-SASH program. The CPUC approved the DAC-SASH Program Handbook and Program Implementation Plan in Resolution E-5020 on September 12, 2019, signaling the official launch of the DAC-SASH program.

Eligible customers:	Income-qualified, single-family homeowners in DACs(must be eligible forCARE or FERA) or in San Joaquin Valley (SJV) pilot communities identified inR.15-03-010.
Customers receive:	$3/watt incentives to install an onsite solar system and energy efficiency training
Project location:	InDACson a qualified customer's property
Project size:	1 kilowatt (kW) or higher
Program budget:	$120 million total ($10 million per year 2019 - 2030)

Program Documents

Evaluations

Program years 2022-2024: Verdant Associates, LLC will complete an independent evaluation of the DAC-SASH program.
- 2025 March Draft Evaluation Research Plan
Program years 2019-2021: Evergreen Economics and the Brightline Group completed a process and load impact evaluation of the DAC-SASH program.

Regulatory Documents

D.18-06-027: Decision creating the DAC-SASH, DAC-GT, and CSGT programs.
D.18-10-007: Decision correcting and clarifying Decision 18-06-027.
D.20-12-003: Decision regarding PFM of D.18-06-027, providing direction regarding marketing and outreach of DAC-SASH, and expanding DAC-SASH eligibility to California Indian Country.
Resolution E-5020: Approves GRID Alternative's DAC-SASH Program Handbook and Program Implementation Plan.

DAC-GT Program

The Disadvantaged Communities - Green Tariff (DAC-GT) program is modeled after the Green Tariff Program. DAC-GT allows customers who are not in a position to take advantage of SOMAH or DAC-SASH through onsite solar, to still benefit from solar energy.

PG&E's, SCE's, and SDG&E's implementation plans for the DAC-GT program were approved with modification in Resolution E-4999.

DAC-GT was approved by the CPUC in June 2018 and the first request for offers (RFO) was launched in 2019. The program is administered by the three large investor-owned utilities (PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E) and ten Community Choice Aggregators (Ava Community Energy, Clean Power Alliance, CleanPowerSF, Lancaster Choice Energy, MCE Community Choice Energy, Peninsula Clean Energy, Pico Rivera Innovative Municipal Energy, San Jacinto Power, San José Clean Energy, and San Diego Community Power.

Eligible customers:	Income eligible residential customers in DACs (must be eligible forCARE or FERA)
Customers receive:	100% renewable energy 20% off their otherwise applicable electric rate
Project location:	In DACs or within a 5-mile radius of DACs; within 40 miles of DACs for SJV pilot communities
Project size:	500 kW - 20 megawatts (MW)
Program capacity: (MW caps within each utility's service territory, with some capacity reserved for CCAs)	233 MW

Please check the DAC-GT link above for more information and updates.

CSGT Program

The Community Solar Green Tariff (CSGT) program is a structured similarly to the DAC-GT program but requires each solar project to be located in proximity to the customers it serves. It provides participating customers a sense of ownership in locally-generated solar power via the required participation of a community sponsor. Community sponsors will help ensure interest from the local community and community engagement in project siting. If eligible, community sponsors can receive a 20 percent bill discount on up to 25 percent of a CSGT project's energy output.

Clean Power Alliance continues to administer the program. Decision 24-05-065, issued in June 2024, discontinued the buik of the program and transferred the remaining capacity to the DAC-GT program.

Eligible customers:	Residential customers in DACs (50% of a project’s output subscribed by customers eligible forCARE or FERA)
Customers receive:	100% renewable energy 20% off their otherwise applicable electric rate
Project location:	InDACswithin 5 miles of DAC(s) where subscribing customers reside
Project size:	1.38 MW or less
Program capacity:	3.37 MW

DAC-GT and CSGT Program Documents

Evaluations

Through Q2 2021: Evergreen Economics completed a process evaluation of the DAC-GT and CSGT programs.

Community Solar Proceeding A.22-05-022

D.24-05-065 expanded and improved existing community solar programs and launched a new community renewable energy program that will allow California to capture millions of dollars in state and federal funding, including the Solar For All grant recently awarded to California by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency through support of the Biden Administration. More information can be found at www.cpuc.ca.gov/communitysolar.

Proceeding A.22-05-022 began in May 2022 and included the legislative directives of AB 2316 (Ward, 2022) and AB 2838 (O’Donnell, 2022), which required the Commission to review its existing customer renewable energy subscription programs including DAC Green Tariff, Community Solar Green Tariff and Green Tariff Shared Renewables programs and consider whether to adopt a new community renewable energy program. This proceeding reviewed program goals, budget, capacity, design, implementation, and consumer protections.
D.21-12-036, issued in December 2021, also directed that the IOUs include implementation details for the Green Tariff Shared Renewable (GTSR) Program in their DAC-GT & CSGT Applications.
Energy Division staff shared a guidance template and held a public webinar in September 2021 to better communicate what additional information their Applications for review of the DAC-GT, CSGT, and Green Tariff Shared Renewables programs should include.

DAC-GT and CSGT Regulatory Documents

D.18-06-027: Decision creating the DAC-SASH, DAC-GT, and CSGT programs.
D.18-10-007: Decision correcting and clarifying Decision 18-06-027.
D.20-07-008: Decision implementing automatic enrollment of PG&E's DAC-GT program.
D.20-12-003: Decision regarding PFM of D.18-06-027, providing direction regarding marketing and outreach of DAC-SASH, and expanding DAC-SASH eligibility to California Indian Country.
Resolution E-4999: Approves PG&E's, SCE's, and SDG&E's DAC-GT and CSGT program implementation plans with modifications.
Resolution E-5102: Approves Clean Power Alliance’s DAC-GT and CSGT program implementation plans with modifications.
Resolution E-5124: Approves CleanPowerSF’s, East Bay Community Energy’s, Marin Clean Energy’s, Peninsula Clean Energy’s, and San Jose Clean Energy’s DAC-GT and/or CSGT program implementation plans with modifications.
Resolution E-5125: Approves with modification PG&E’s and SCE’s requests to adjust administrative and marketing budget caps for the DAC-GT and/or CSGT programs.
Resolution E-5130: Approves Lancaster Choice Energy’s, Pico Rivera Innovative Municipal Energy’s, and San Jacinto Power’s DAC-GT program implementation plans with modifications.
Resolution E-5212: Approves two PFMs of Resolution E-4999, updates CalEnviroScreen geographic eligibility requirements, and expands DAC-GT and CSGT eligibility to California Indian Country.
Resolution E-5246: Approves San Diego Community Power’s DAC-GT and CSGT program implementation plans with modifications.

Contact Us

You are welcome to contact the CPUC if you have any questions about information on this webpage. For press inquiries, please contact the CPUC News and Outreach Office.