WEBINAR

ROOFTOP SOLAR SAVES LAND AND BUDGETS

Thursday, September 30, 2021
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Register to attend: info@desertcoalition.org

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Join the California Desert Coalition (CDC), Solar Rights Alliance, and the National Parks Conservation Association via Zoom on Thursday, September 30th from 6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. to learn more about how you can join efforts by over 345 organizations during this critical time to achieve a low carbon energy future that centers on the health of California communities, our economy, and the environment.

Our panel of experts will describe how each of us can strengthen state policies to promote rooftop solar and battery storage while protecting our spectacular natural lands by taking action now.

Resources:

Speakers:

Dave Rosenfeld, Solar Rights Alliance

Dave is the Executive Director of the Solar Rights Alliance. He has been a community organizer for over twenty years and believes people power is the best way to overcome special interests. Prior to joining Solar Rights Alliance, Dave led a successful statewide ballot measure campaign in Oregon to restore Career Technical Education for high schoolers. Before that, he led a 40,000 member public interest organization that successfully worked to reduce health insurance premiums for consumers and combat government corruption. In addition to spending time with his wife and two children, he enjoys running, backpacking and studying science and philosophy.

Chris Clarke, National Parks Conservation Association

Chris joined NPCA in 2017. As California Desert Associate Director, he works with desert communities to protect national parks, monuments, and other protected places, and the landscapes that surround them. Prior to joining NPCA, Chris was environment editor at Los Angeles-based KCET, the nation’s largest independent public television station, where he was responsible for breaking numerous stories about threats to desert national parks. Before that, Chris worked as publications director at Earth Island Institute, where he published the award-winning Earth Island Journal — whose content shifted noticeably toward a focus on desert issues during his tenure. A California resident since the early 1980s, Chris has lived in the California Desert since 2008. He lives in Twentynine Palms, California with his wife Lara and their dog, Hart.

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Why it Matters

The California Energy Commission (CEC) estimates that the state will need three times as much rooftop solar as in 2019 and about one million acres of land for utility-scale wind and solar projects over the next 25 years to meet clean energy targets under Senate Bill 100 (SB 100).  Therefore, a robust rooftop solar market is critical to meeting our clean energy and land and biodiversity conservation goals. Rooftop solar and battery storage are also important tools for achieving energy democracy, keeping local money in local hands, and reducing overall costs for ratepayers who don’t (yet) have solar.

More rooftop solar means more landscapes can be preserved and protected.

  • Rooftop solar and home battery storage reduce the need for utility-scale facilities, helping preserve the state’s wildlands, wetlands, and other important natural and working lands from unnecessary projects.
  • While some utility-scale energy will be necessary, we can greatly reduce the need if we strengthen and build rooftop solar and battery storage, along with energy efficiency and energy conservation upgrades.
  • Rooftop solar also reduces the need for costly investments in the grid such as increased transmission and distribution as well as capacity investments, as demonstrated in 2018 when the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) recommended canceling and modifying several dozen transmission projects due to increased energy efficiency and the growth of rooftop solar, saving taxpayers $2.6 billion.

We need broad and strong support for California’s rooftop solar program. 

  • The industry has set sights on the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) after a failed attempt to gut Net Energy Metering (NEM).
  • It is critical that Governor Newsom and the CPUC support the Net Energy Metering program, preserve the framework of net metering and improve it by prioritizing, strengthening, and expanding incentives for rooftop solar and battery storage as California approaches its decarbonization goals.

Watch the webinar: