California Program Promotes Multifamily Rooftop Solar

Christian Roselund discusses California's December approval of the Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) rebate program, calling it "a visionary program that could grow the amount of solar on such buildings nearly seven-fold by 2030."

Providing up to $100 million in annual rebates, SOMAH targets multifamily affordable housing. "Under SOMAH, apartment building owners and tenants will be awarded credits through a system called virtual net metering (VNEM), a subprogram of the state's 'Net Metering 2.0' program."

The program, which is set to officially start in September 2018, doesn't only benefit building owners. "SOMAH is designed so that tenants can share in the benefits, by receiving credits on their utility bill corresponding to their portion of the output of the systems. And to ensure that building owners dedicate as much of the PV system as possible to their tenants, the program provides higher incentives for this portion of the system."