Home Battery Incentives in SDG&E: 2021

Have you noticed that your SDG&E has been rising? Most people have taken note of rising energy prices because they’re an indisputable factor that San Diego homeowners need to deal with. San Diego County is one of the most expensive counties in the United States when it comes to electricity prices.  In fact, SDG&E is increasing electricity rates in 2021 due to a hot 2020. On top of this southern California is facing record heat in the latter half of 2021. The average SDG&E residential rate has increased from 27 cents per kilowatt hour to 31 cents per kWh.  Even if you reduce your home energy use, it’s now a fact of life that SDG&E will considerably increase rates each year. This is why every San Diego homeowner should consider installing a solar system and home battery. This can (potentially) eliminate your monthly SDG&E energy bills while admittedly lowering your carbon footprint.  Purchasing solar panels and a home battery system can save thousands of dollars in the short-term and long-term.  There is an option to go solar for any homeowner: you can purchase with a loan or via cash upfront. Both options give you access to the 26% Federal Solar Tax Credit and the Self-Generation Incentive Program or (SGIP). What are these? The 26% Federal Solar Tax Credit means that you get a federal tax credit up to 26% of the value of your solar installation. This means if you purchase (for example) a $20,000 solar system you can get a tax credit of $5,200 (which is 26% of $20,000). Not a bad amount of money. Additionally, the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) provides financial incentives to homeowners for the installation of approved technologies such as renewable energy generation and storage systems. It was initially started in 2001 as a response to the energy crisis to reduce peak-load. It has evolved to focus on energy storage projects such as home battery systems.  SGIP is available for both large storage commercial projects and small residential storage projects. Incentives for SGIP eligible systems are calculated as the potential capacity of the installed system with (kW) for generation projects, and (kWh) for battery or energy storage projects.  To calculate your potential incentive amount, multiply the capacity of the potential system by the incentive rate for the category that system is under. Check out the SGIP website for the full list of incentives per watt-hour (wh). Most San Diego County homeowners who apply for SGIP incentives apply through their installer. Installers such as Stellar Solar will have a process in place to streamline your solar and home battery system installation. We take care of the paperwork and liaise with the SGIP and SDG&E to get the maximum incentive possible.  Our process for applying for SGIP incentives is straightforward: we apply for permits, coordinate your documentation, submit documents with a 3rd-party processor, create a contract, and other factors. We deal with regulations and the paperwork so our customers don’t need to deal with factors such as the CISR form, electrical load documentation, and the energy audit.  Once everything is complete on the processor’s end, they send us an application that all parties sign. Once the application is signed, we return it with an audit report. The application is then submitted and the homeowner is put on a waitlist until SGIP funds become available.  We’re here to help with the application process - it can be overwhelming for many homeowners and our system is streamlined to make it as painless as possible. Solar System + Home Battery + Electric Vehicle = Trinity of Energy Savings Imagine eliminating your electric bills and never paying for gasoline again. It’s almost too good to be possible, right? Especially in a region with high gas & electricity costs.  It’s entirely possible and now is the perfect time to achieve the dream. With the 26% Federal Solar Tax Credit and SGIP incentives - going green is a fantastic financial decision. Did we mention that California has superb electric vehicle incentives and rebates? Folks who purchase electric vehicles (EVs) can take advantage of the California Clean Vehicle Rebate Project (CVRP) which promotes clean vehicle adoption with rebates for California residents. Rebates vary: fuel-cell vehicles can receive a $4,500 rebate, battery electric vehicles can receive a $2,000 rebate, hybrid vehicles can receive $1,000, and zero-emission motorcycles can receive $750.  You can also take advantage of the California Clean Fuel Reward. This is a rebate for California residents who purchase or lease eligible new Battery Electric (BEV) or Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) vehicles at participating automotive retailers. You can receive up to $1,500. Solar System and Home Battery: In Action Check out this example of how a solar installation and battery storage can complement each other to eliminate high SDG&E rates - check out this graph from September 2020. It’s the monitoring system for the home solar system of Michael Powers, co-founder of Stellar Solar:

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