[solarpunk]

>We should be investing solar in lower income communities, as those people could really use cheaper utilities, and any saving they get would immediately go back into their communities.

Good news, these are called "community solar gardens" and they exist all around the USA, here's a large one based in Minneapolis: https://www.cooperativeenergyfutures.com/

[hedora]

Community net monitoring isn’t allowed in California.

Instead, PG&E let the grid fall apart, so now they’re charging crippling amounts of money to people that can’t afford solar.

On the one hand, with the help of subsidies, our house is off-grid capable, and our power bill is $0-50.

On the other hand, there’s a red-tagged neighborhood near by (they built homes despite not having power grid access), and they usually end up having a generator fire take out a few houses every couple of years.

Anyway, I really wish California had a second political party (not the GOP).

[renewiltord]

How is it crippling? My 1900 sq. ft. loft in SF cost like $100/mo most months. That’s 5 hours of minimum wage work here. Even the $200 it hit at peak is 10 hours of minimum wage work. That was with 4 people living in it.

[r00fus]

PG&E is a factor in net emigration out of CA. Agreed single-party-controlled states are full of inefficiency (aka corruption).

[selimthegrim]

Net metering?

[irq-1]

> CEF has financed and developed 6.9MW (~$16M) of low-income-accessible community solar arrays that ... offsets the utility bills of over 700 Minnesota households for the next 25 years

$16M for 700 homes = $22,857.14/home

That's not an investment, it's just charity by other means.

[solarpunk]

That number is in the ballpark of what it costs to install solar on a rooftop here in Minnesota.

The other part is these solar gardens don't stop paying for your electric bill if you move, so it's especially equitable for renters.