New Member from SoCal

[J.P.M.]

What is clearly evident is the political winds dictate where rates fall. I'm on an ad-hoc committee for my HOA, charged with the responsibility of determining if it makes sense to install a rooftop solar system on our clubhouse. If the charge for utilities provided by SDG&E were at the same level residential customers pay it would be easy to support the installation. That isn't the case as the commercial rates paid by the HOA last month averaged $0.26/kWh for electricity and $1.57/therm for natural gas.

I too am associated with my HOA board and was part of a similar working group formed about 10 years ago that was tasked with examining the efficacy and cost effectiveness of using PV to offset our community center electric bills. There is no nat. gas in my HOA.

FWIW, and similar to what you write, that committee's recommendation to the membership was to not pursue the project at that time, primarily due to the low LCOE that was enabled by the relatively low SDG & E commercial rates, but also other issues dealing with aesthetics and practical maintenance, security and liability issues.