Last month, GRID Alternatives Greater Los Angeles unveiled the Los Angeles Energy & Equity Policy Series (LEEPS) with our first symposium on multifamily solar. Here in a series of blog posts, we're excited to share three important takeaways from our rich conversation on maximizing the benefits of solar to affordable housing tenants and the organizations that operate such housing. Read the previous post. Our study with UCLA's Luskin Center for Innovation provides more data on multifamily solar potential in Los Angeles.
Takeaway #2 from LEEPS: California demonstrated commitment to investing in solar for affordable housing for more than a decade, and in 2018 the state is expected to launch the largest solar for affordable housing rebate program to date.
Background: During the LEEPS event's second panel, Policy and Financial Solutions for Solar on Affordable Housing, speakers discussed California’s long commitment to investing in solar power on affordable housing. The state has targeted solar investments at affordable housing properties since the landmark environmental policy year of 2006, when Multifamily Affordable Solar Homes (MASH) program rebates were first offered to the public through the California Solar Incentive (CSI) program. The MASH program was carefully crafted to foster co-benefits, such as developing a solar workforce through required job training at each subsidized installation. Most importantly, the program provided higher rebates for solar capacity that directly benefit the tenants, incentivizing both greater solar capacity and low-income resident savings. Due to such high demand, the $216 million MASH program quickly exhausted its funding and stopped accepting new applications in 2016.
Two solar for affordable housing rebate programs remain active today: the Low-income Weatherization Program for Large Multifamily (LIWP-LMF), which provides rebates to affordable housing property owners who invest in both solar and energy efficiency upgrades, and the New Solar Homes Partnership (NSHP) for solar investment on newly constructed affordable housing. To date, there have been more than 36 MW of solar capacity funded through solar for affordable housing rebate programs, generating significant savings for both property owners and their residents.
State solar investment at affordable housing is expected to accelerate drastically thanks to the passage of Assembly Bill 693 (Eggman, 2015), which commits to a goal of installing at least 300 MW of new solar capacity on affordable housing, and allocates up to $1 billion over the next decade to do so. With by far the largest dollar investment for low-income multifamily solar in California to date, Assembly Bill 693, otherwise known as the Multifamily Affordable Housing Solar Roofs program, is set to launch in 2018 and could result in the installation of solar on over 2,000 properties, or roughly 30% of the affordable multifamily housing market in California.
Key Ideas: For affordable housing property owners curious about the investment in solar (e.g. How much does solar cost now after years of declining prices? How much can solar reduce our portfolio’s operating costs? How can solar bring tangible benefits to the residents we serve?), there is no better time to take advantage of GRID’s no-cost technical assistance than now. Solar has the potential to bring dramatic savings to both operators and tenants. But state solar rebate programs are extremely popular. To ensure your spot in the queue, we strongly recommend being prepared with an understanding of which properties are the best fit for solar.
Partner with GRID Alternatives to perform the technical analysis of your portfolio, which will provide the information needed to make an educated investment choice.
More info: https://gridalternatives.org/what-we-do/solar-programs/multifamily