Solar Solution

The Clean Energy Authority (CEA) Board has selected Solana Beach City Manager Greg Wade to serve as its next Chief Executive Officer. Greg will assume office at the beginning of December, and current CEO Barbara Boswell will continue to assist in the transition period as the CEA service territory continues to expand and more permanent staff are hired.

CEA introduced their new Solar Plus Program at the October 5th meeting of the Citizen Advisory Committee, and final approval of the program is expected at the CEA Board meeting on October 26th.  The Solar Plus program is a cooperation between Tesla, who will install solar panels and backup batteries at no upfront cost to the customer, and Participate Energy, who will finance projects and sell excess electricity to CEA. Every CEA customer is eligible to participate regardless of income or credit rating, fulfilling an important equity goal of CEA. Energy stored in the Tesla batteries can be used by the customer to power their homes during peak rate periods (currently 4-9 pm) or during power outages. Each participating household will have 100% renewable energy, and CEA will have distributed power resources to help support their load requirements. When CEA draws power from the homeowner, the cost to the CEA will be $0.145-0.155 per kilowatt hour, providing cost stability at a below current market rate. Although the monthly cost of electricity for participating households is likely to be zero or a credit, there will be a battery lease charge of $115/month for the first Tesla battery and $75/month for each additional battery. The solar panels and batteries will be maintained by Tesla, and they can easily be transferred to new owners of the property.

At this time, CEA customers with their own solar system are not eligible for the Solar Plus Program, although this could change in the future.