2015 Annual Program Assessment
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2015 Annual Program Assessment
In its 2015 Annual Program Assessment report issued in June 2015, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said that consumer solar installations continued to increase in 2014, largely without rebate incentives, demonstrating that the state’s California Solar Initiative (CSI) program has substantially reached its goal of stimulating widespread adoption of solar energy and creating a self-sustaining market.
Highlights of the report include:
- The CSI program has installed 1,647 megawatts (MW), or 94 percent of its 1,750 MW goal, and will surpass its goal with another 258 MW waiting in pending projects.
- Between the last quarter of 2008 and the last quarter of 2014, the average cost of installed residential systems has decreased 53 percent from $10.87 per watt to $5.14 per watt, further demonstrating that the CSI program has substantially reached its goal of stimulating widespread adoption of solar and creating a self-sustaining market, free of direct cost-support in the form of program rebates.
- Between the last quarter of 2008 and the last quarter of 2014, non-residential solar system costs have decreased 62 percent from an average of $10.30 per watt to $3.93 per watt.
- Through the end of 2014, an estimated 2,529 MW of solar capacity has been installed on the customer side of the meter (including projects that didn’t receive CSI program incentives) at 302,266 customer sites in California.
- All but 254 MW, or 9 percent, of customer-sited solar energy systems interconnected into the grid in the large investor-owned utility territories are enrolled in Net Energy Metering.
- The CSI Single-Family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program has completed a total of 4,499 projects, representing 13.6 MW of installed capacity. There are an additional 316 SASH projects in progress, with a total capacity of 1 MW.
- The CSI Multifamily Affordable Solar Housing (MASH) program has completed 349 projects, representing 23.2 MW of installed capacity. There are an additional 41 MASH projects in progress, with a total capacity of 6.3 MW.
- In just over five years of operation, the CSI Thermal program has approved 2,585 applications for solar water heating systems, totaling $33.7 million in incentives of the available $205 million CSI Thermal incentive budget.
- The CSI Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment program has conducted five project solicitations since its inception, resulting in grant funding for 36 projects, totaling $44.4 million. Funded projects have focused on the following areas: integration of solar photovoltaics into the electricity grid; energy generation technologies and business development; and grid integration and production technologies.
Weekly solar program data is available at www.CaliforniaSolarStatistics.ca.gov and www.csithermalstats.org.