Bernadette Del Chiaro on the Benefits of Distributed Solar

​Bernadette Del Chiaro has a new job. She has left her longstanding and most effective role as the Executive Director of the California Solar and Storage Association, and joined the Environmental Working Group (EWG) as a senior vice president. She makes clear that she is not leaving the fight for distributed solar and storage. The attack on net energy metering, and the downturn in the California Solar industry are alarming. Bernadette is just supporting the fight from a different position. EWG is focused on health... the food we eat, the air we breathe, the power we rely on.Bernadette makes clear the benefits of local, distributed solar and storage. It saves everyone money, not just those that have panels on their roofs. It creates local jobs. It helps the State meet our climate protection goals. And all ratepayers save money as our utilities do not have to build new power plants. They also do not need to spend billions of dollars on new transmission and distribution lines. She points out that while generating solar in the desert is very inexpensive, it's the cost of the transmission to bring it to us that jacks up power bills. This has been quite out of sight of California's ratepayers but  the resulting rate increases are severe.She discusses how there are now two million California homes, businesses, schools, organizations, and public facilities of all kinds that now have solar. And as a result, she explains, the State did not need to build 16,000 MW of new generating capacity. Again, distributed resources -- paid by individual home and business owners and others -- are saving us all money. But despite this, our utilities continue to attack distributed generation.Ted and Bernadette talk about future models" Will utilities embrace networked distributed resources, or will they resist, potentially amplifying grid defection? Already utilities have imposed fees on solar system owners... disincentivizing solar and storage and the benefits that they provide. So the fight goes on. Bernadette is clear that there is stronger need than ever for advocacy of the benefits of distributed generation, warning that the force of utility profit-making is daunting, and needs a strategic and more-diligent-than-ever approach.