Solar Energy Making Progress in California

In the United States we are seeing solar energy rise not only in popularity, but in efficiency over the past decade. Other countries, such as China, have created national policies which have made them a world leader in developing innovative strategies to harness solar power for their strategic power needs. In the U.S., the west coast is leading the country when it comes to the application and pursuit of solar energy.

California Solar Energy in Residential Homes

This leads us to the recent energy efficiency building standards that require newly constructed residential buildings in California to use solar energy as their primary source of power. Morten Lund, chair of the Stoel Rives Energy Storage Initiative and former chair of the Solar Energy Initiative, was quoted saying, “This is massive…a big ‘I told you so’ on how state and local action can overwhelm federal obstruction.”

Customized Solar Energy Systems

The Californian Energy Commission (CEC) evaluated rulemaking provided by the 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards on May 9, 2018. These standards state that new homes must be equipped with solar PV systems that are customized for each structure. The solar PV systems need to be designed to appropriately accommodate the specific homes they inhabit. According to data provided by the CEC, the future use of the solar PV systems is projected to provide approximately 200 MW of evenly distributed energy per year in California. The U.S. Energy Information Association claims that California generated 5.7 GW of small scale power provided by solar PV as of May 2017.

The new building standards are designed to focus on four different areas: smart residential solar PV systems, updated thermal envelope standards, residential and nonresidential ventilation requirements, and nonresidential lighting requirements. All these areas will amplify the performance of the solar PV systems and focus the goal of solar expansion in a domestic direction.

The Future of Residential Solar Energy

With the mandate for the inclusion of solar power generation in all future residential homes in California, we get to witness communities almost entirely run on solar energy in the years to come. Intersect Energy proudly shares renewable energy news and information to all our customers and those interested in seeing renewable energy expand. Stay up-to-date with all the happenings at Intersect Energy by following us on LinkedIn!