The SJR had a good article yesterday on people who have started putting in their own renewable energy generators. This is, of course, a welcome thing, and gets to the heart of what we're trying to do with our comments on CWLP's PURPA standards, which govern (among other things) how these small generators hook up to CWLP's system, and how their energy production gets paid back.
As Chris Wetterich notes in the article, CWLP is sending its recommendations to city council today. They're basically just going to get slotted to a committee tonight, but ought to be more fully considered at next week's utilities committee meeting.
As this article shows, what we're primarily looking for are good rules that allow people to make their own investments in renewable energy, or for people to invest, through CWLP, in renewable energy. If you read down into comments on the article, you see the inevitable incoherence about coercion and whatnot, which just goes to show how rote this all is. We're asking for rules that give people more power over their own energy use.
ALSO: In the article, the guy putting solar panels on his roof talks about how inefficient his home is. I hope everyone else knows how big a no-no that is--why put your money into something with a 10- or 20-year payback, when you can start with insulation and furnace upgrades that are going to have 2- or 5-year paybacks? Not even to mention all of the filling of little gaps (which we are blessed with a utility that will train you in how to do this) which are nearly cost-less.