On September 27th, California Governor Jerry Brown approved the bill to extend SGIP, the Self Generation Incentive Program that will provide battery installations in California homes, schools, commercial and non-profit organizations with as much as $700 million in funding. This certainly serves as a vote of confidence in California’s support of solar energy, and most likely a sign of similar renewable-friendly policies to follow.
The program gives rebates to qualifying distributed energy systems, potentially lowering the cost of adding PV system batteries by $1,000s.
About SGIP
SGIP has existed since 2006, initially founded as a means to encourage peak load reduction by funding solar, it eventually turned into the main funding source for behind-the-meter batteries. Companies like Stem, Sunverge and Tesla have taken advantage of the incentives for systems smaller than 30 kW.
While some companies took advantage of its first-come, first-served submission process, some large changes have been enacted since that changed the awarding system with a lottery focused on projects with that offer additional grid-balancing or greenhouse gas reduction efforts. In addition, a declining incentive structure similar to the California Solar Initiative (CSI) program were put into place that would reduce payouts throughout the programs lifetime.
This program should help California continue to lead the nation in behind-the-meter battery installations, lowering the costs of PV solar as an alternative to grid power.
You can read the bill’s contents here, or contact Sustainable Capital Finance to find out how our proprietary SCF Suite™ can make the process of financing your solar project faster and easier.
How SCF Can Help Finance Your Solar Project
Sustainable Capital Finance is a commercial & industrial (C&I) solar financier, providing PPA solutions to EPCs and Developers for projects as small as 100kW.
If you are evaluating a project and would like to learn more, please don’t hesitate to contact Dan Holloway @ dholloway@scf.com or fill out our contact form to get in touch with us.
