As of January 1, all new buildings of 10 stories or fewer in San Francisco must be built with solar panels included.
Since that local measure passed last spring, its author, Scott Wiener, moved from the San Francisco Board of Supervisors to the state senate. Now, he’s bringing the conceptto Sacramento, first in summary form, with the full proposed legislation expected in four to six weeks.
If adopted, mandatory rooftop solar legislation would set a groundbreaking example of how a legislature can expand distributed solar through less conventional means, diverging from the default models of renewable portfolio standards and tax credits. That outcome is by no means guaranteed, though.
The process of passing the legislation through the state legislature will likely raise new questions about how the policy would impact the entirety of the massive Golden State. There are more legislators to convince than in San Francisco, and more interest groups and industry lobbyists who may try to stop it.
“The state, of course, is much bigger and much more diverse geographically and in every other respect,” Wiener told GTM. “We are actively soliciting input to make sure we’re crafting legislation that will work for the whole state.”
For any other state, requiring solar photovoltaics or solar thermal on most new buildings would seem dramatic, if not unthinkable. For California, however, it’s the latest iteration of a legislative program years in the making.
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