The California Energy Commission's New Solar Homes Partnership Program Case Study, Promoting Greener, Better Housing in California

This case study analyzes data from the California Energy Commission’s New Solar Homes Partnership Program, part of California’s comprehensive statewide solar program, the California Solar Initiative. At the time this study was conducted, the New Solar Homes Partnership Program had installed 14,100 solar energy systems totaling 45 megawatts of capacity. Key findings about market impacts of the program include the following:

• Fourteen times more solar energy systems have been installed in single-family homes than in multifamily homes.
• The majority of solar installations took place in Southern California, with market penetration reaching 27 percent of the new single-family homes with building permits issued in 2012.
• Program participation is distributed evenly across communities by income.
• The program primarily serves production homes, also known as subdivisions.
• Direct purchases have been the dominant finance structure, with leases becoming more common in the last two years and power purchase agreements remaining uncommon.
• The rebate design has helped lower-income residents, with affordable housing and multifamily housing receiving higher average rebates per watt of solar capacity.