Closing the California Clean Energy Divide: Reducing Electric Bills in Affordable Multifamily Rental Housing with Solar+Storage

Battery storage is emerging as an effective new strategy for reducing electricity costs for affordable multifamily rental housing in California. Battery storage systems not only provide economic returns today, they can also preserve the value of solar in an evolving policy and regulatory environment. Because batteries empower owners of solar photovoltaics (PV) systems to take control of the energy they produce and when they consume it, storage can deliver deeper cost reductions that can be shared among affordable housing owners, developers, and tenants.

California has installed numerous integrated solar and battery storage projects; however, few have served low-income tenants or owners of affordable rental housing. This disparity is due to many factors, including a lack of information about the economics of these systems in multifamily housing. To provide that needed information, Clean Energy Group, California Housing Partnership, and Center for Sustainable Energy, with analytical support from Geli, are embarking on a series of reports on solar and storage in California affordable multifamily rental housing.

The first report is this series, Closing the California Clean Energy Divide: Reducing Electric Bills in Affordable Multifamily Rental Housing with Solar+Storage, examines the utility bill impacts of adding battery storage to stand-alone solar in affordable rental housing facilities in California’s three investor-owned utility service territories, each with different rate structures. It is the first such report on these technologies in this sector in California.