California and many other states already have an effective policy in place for clean local energy at the retail level, behind the customer’s meter: net energy metering (NEM). But NEM typically works best for residential installations — like rooftop solar on single-family homes — or other owner-occupied properties. The policy doesn’t work well for the commercial-scale solar segment, including non-owner-occupied properties, split-metered facilities, and sites with little on-site load.
That’s why we need policies and programs that unleash the FOM/WDG market to provide all of its benefits.