California’s clean energy goals lag as rooftop solar demand plummets and jobs vanish amid policy changes.

California’s clean energy goals have fallen short of expectations, according to the California Solar and Storage Association (CALSSA). The state passed a bill in 2018 aiming for 100% carbon-free electricity by 2045, but Governor Gavin Newsom recently set an interim target of 90% by 2035. The California Energy Commission (CEC) estimates that the state will need to build 6 GW of solar-plus-storage every year for the next 26 years straight to meet this target. Over the past five years, California has only averaged about half of the 6 GW deployment figure. The failure of Net Energy Metering (NEM) 3.0, a policy that cut customer compensation for exporting power to the grid, has led to a decrease in project economics for rooftop solar in California. The association reports that around 17,000 rooftop solar jobs have been lost and demand for rooftop panels has fallen about 80%. Major publicly traded global equipment providers like Enphase and SolarEdge have also made significant cuts to their workforce. High interest rates have increased the industry’s borrowing costs, making it more expensive to pay for systems.