Solar Rebates And Incentives

All investor-owned utilities and publicly-owned utilities with 75,000 or more customers must make a standard Renewable Market Adjusting Tariff (ReMAT) available to their customers. As the ReMAT is meant to help the utilities meet California's renewable portfolio standard (RPS), all green attributes associated with the energy, including renewable energy credits (RECs), transfer to the utility with the sale. Any customer-generator who sells power to the utility under this tariff may not participate in other state incentive programs. The tariffs will be available until the combined statewide cumulative capacity of eligible generation installed equals 750 megawatts (MW) for the general ReMAT program, and 250 MW for the bioenergy ReMAT program. Each utility will be responsible for a portion of those cumulative totals based on their proportionate sales.

The CPUC has regulatory authority over the investor-owned utilities (IOUs), but not publicly-owned utilities. Therefore, the rules adopted by the CPUC do not apply to the publicly-owned utilities. Instead, the governing board of each publicly-owned utility is wholly responsible for developing their tariffs within the parameters established by the legislature in CA Public Utilities Code § 399.32 (formerly CA Public Utilities Code § 387.6). The collective share of the 750 MW program capacity established by the legislature for which the investor-owned utilities are responsible is 493.6 MW. The remaining 256.4 MW is to be divided between the publicly-owned utilities. Investor-owned utilities are solely responsible for the 250 MW bioenergy program.

Investor-Owned Utilities (General ReMAT program)

The California ReMAT allows eligible customer-generators to enter into 10-, 15- or 20-year standard contracts with their utilities to sell the electricity produced by small renewable energy systems (up to 3 megawatts (MW)). The CPUC has separated the technologies eligible to participate in the feed-in tariff into three project type categories: Baseload (bioenergy and geothermal), As-Available Peaking (solar), and As-Available Non-Peaking (wind and hydro). 

The current ReMAT starting price is based on the average RPS contract price for projects 20 MW or less in size executed by IOUs, Community Choice Aggregators, and Electric Service Providers between 2020 and 2022. As of June 2023, the current prices are as follows:

• As-Available Non-Peaking resources: $55.13 per MWh
• Baseload resources: $74.59 per MWh
• As-Available Peaking resources: $67.69 per MWh

These amounts are recalculated annually. 

Investor-Owned Utilities (BioMAT program)

SB 1122 of 2012 requires the investor-owned utilities to operate a separate ReMAT program for a cumulative total of 250 MW of bioenergy projects, separate from the wider 750 MW program. The legislation subdivided the 250 MW limit across different bioenergy sources:

• 110 MW for biogas from wastewater treatment, municipal organic waste diversion, food processing, and codigestion
• 90 MW for dairy and other agricultural bioenergy
• 50 MW for bioenergy using byproducts of sustainable forest management

The CPUC, in consultation with the California Energy Commission (CEC), the State Air Resources Board, the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, the Department of Food and Agriculture, and the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, may reallocate the 250 MW requirement among the categories if they determine the allocations referenced above are not appropriate. 

Publicly-Owned Utilities

All publicly-owned utilities with 75,000 or more customers are required to develop feed-in tariffs by July 1, 2013. In determining the rate to pay under the tariffs, publicly-owned utilities must consider:

• The value of every kilowatt-hour (kWh) on a time of delivery basis
• Avoided costs for distribution and transmission system upgrades
• The ability of systems to offset peak demand on the distribution circuit
• All current and anticipated environmental and greenhouse gas reduction compliance costs

CA Public Utilities Code § 399.32 provides more guidance for publicly-owned utilities in developing their tariffs, including conditions in which the utility may limit the program.

Customers of publicly-owned utilities with 75,000 or more customers should contact their utility for more information. Customers of one of the investor-owned utilities can contact the appropriate program administrator for more information: