What California low income community solar subscribers get
California will guarantee low income households a discount on community solar, a shared solar project built by someone else that a household buys a share of instead of installing panels on its own roof. A decision from the California Public Utilities Commission, D.26-06-006, requires at least 51% of the capacity in every new project to serve low income subscribers, and guarantees each of those subscribers a bill credit worth at least 20% off the wholesale price the power sells for. The rule comes from a state law, Public Utilities Code Section 769.3. The commission decided it on June 11, 2026, and it applies through the 3 largest utility companies in California, each required to file its own version of the tariff within 60 days.
How the credit is calculated
The credit rides on an existing wholesale pricing system called the Renewable Market Adjusting Tariff, ReMAT, which already sets what a solar project gets paid for the power it sells. The decision adds at least 20% on top of that ReMAT price for eligible low income subscribers. One example price named in the decision is 67.99 dollars per megawatt hour, about 0.07 dollars per kilowatt hour. A renter, a condo owner, or anyone with a bad roof can now sign up for a share of a project near them and expect a credit locked to that wholesale price plus the 20% floor, not the retail rate printed on the bill.
How big community solar already is in California
California already runs a large community solar system outside this new program. The commission counts 1,200 operating community solar projects statewide, with a combined 560 megawatts of capacity, plus 430 more projects and 165 megawatts under construction. That dwarfs the earlier Green Tariff Shared Renewables program, just 38 megawatts across 3 sites in Southern California Edison territory. None of those subscribers belongs to the new program yet, since no utility can enroll anyone until it files its own tariff.
The Green Tariff Shared Renewables figure comes from source 4. The 2 current figures come from source 2.
Show the numbers
| Green Tariff Shared Renewables prior program | 38 |
| Operating today | 560 |
| Under construction | 165 |
The project size the industry lost
Industry asked the commission to let a single project grow from 3 megawatts to 5 megawatts, and the commission refused, a detail that only shows up from reading the decision itself, not from coverage of it. The adopted cap stays at 3 megawatts, small enough to fit a single warehouse roof or a few acres, not a solar farm.
The regulator refused the industry request to raise the cap from 3 megawatts to 5 megawatts.
Show the numbers
| Adopted cap per project | 3 |
| Cap industry requested, rejected | 5 |
The money that was supposed to pay for more
The decision also records, in its own background section, that the money meant to pay for anything beyond the 20% floor is gone. The state had set aside 33 million dollars for the program, reverted to the general fund on June 27, 2026, under Assembly Bill 102. A federal Solar for All grant the program was also counting on was terminated by the federal government on August 7, 2025, and the termination is still being fought in court, with no ruling date set. Reading the background section next to the rules section shows what no coverage states plainly, the only bill credit the state can guarantee right now is that 20% floor.
California remains committed to delivering on clean energy options for all customers.
John Reynolds, president of the California Public Utilities Commission. Source 5.
The program now carries a smaller, plainer guarantee than the law first described, a discount off a wholesale price rather than a wider promise built on money that no longer exists.