Update Nov. 29: California’s Contractors State License Board held a virtual meeting on licensing requirements to install solar + storage systems in the state.
The board voted to allow the solar industry and union electricians to work together to come up with proposed regulatory language acceptable to both parties by the March 2022 CSLB meeting. If mutual language isn’t agreed upon by then, the board will skip to the rulemaking process using the original regulatory language.
The California Solar & Storage Association’s executive director Bernadette Del Chiaro noted during the public comment period that CALSSA supports today’s motion and appreciates the opportunity to work on mutually agreeable language.
Representatives from battery manufacturing companies Tesla, Yotta and Enphase also gave public comments about the storage training any installers must have in order to install their products to demonstrate that C-46 contractors are equipped to install storage.
Yesterday, the Attorney General of California filed in San Francisco Superior Court a written stipulation agreeing to voluntarily stay enforcement of the Contractor State License Board (CSLB)’s July 27 decision limiting the ability for California’s solar contractors (C-46) to install solar paired with energy storage projects. As a result, C-46 solar contractors may continue to install solar and storage systems throughout California on and after November 1, 2021.
The decision also means that the work of a C-46 contractor installing stand-alone solar or solar paired storage systems may continue to be done through the contractor’s existing trained and experienced solar workforce, and not be limited to hiring Certified Electricians, as required by the CSLB’s July 27 decision. CALSSA contends that there is a severe shortage of Certified Electricians and that they do not necessarily bring public safety benefits compared to the existing specialized solar workforce. The CSLB upheld the existing practice of allowing General A and General B license holders to continue installing solar and solar paired storage systems without using Certified Electricians as well.
“This is a huge relief, albeit temporary, for hundreds of contractors up and down the state,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA). “The restrictions suddenly imposed this past summer were devastating and came at a time when consumers and the state as a whole desperately need more reliable clean energy, not less.”
The stay agreed to by the CSLB stands until “this action is finally resolved, and the Petitioner-Plaintiff has agreed to withdraw its motion in exchange,” as stated in the stipulation. In other words, the stay on enforcement is good until the CSLB has promulgated new regulations or CALSSA has dropped its lawsuit. The bottom-line is contractors holding a C-46 solar license can continue to install solar and storage systems for at least 12-18 months, and possibly longer depending on the outcome and timeline of any new regulations.
This decision to stay enforcement was made by a majority vote of the CSLB on Wednesday, September 29, and the written stipulation filed with the Court was negotiated between the Attorney General representing the CSLB and CALSSA’s litigation team. It represents a major victory in defense of California’s solar and storage industry, but not the end of the road.
“Much more work lies ahead to ensure that any new regulations are clear, consistent, and not harmful to our industry,” said Del Chiaro. “We sincerely hope the CSLB will work with CALSSA going forward and not try to cut corners again.”
With this written stipulation, CALSSA has agreed to put a hold on its Preliminary Injunction which would have sought a court-ordered stay on enforcement. The voluntary stay has the same effect and was arrived at sooner than a court would have. CALSSA has not put a hold on its lawsuit claiming that the decision and subsequent bulletins are illegal, underground regulations but is willing to enter settlement negotiations with the CSLB.
“We won’t put a hold on our lawsuit until the Board concludes a legal decision-making process for any future regulations and carefully considers what it means to our industry, especially small businesses which make up the majority of our contractor base,” said Del Chiaro.
CALSSA points out that the threat of future licensing restrictions remains at the CSLB. The difference is, thanks to CALSSA’s litigation, any new restrictions would be arrived at through a rule-making process that adheres to the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). Such a process typically takes 12-18 months and, according to the law, must be based in fact, be clear and consistent, and consider economic impacts especially to small businesses. If the new regulations don’t adhere to the APA, then CALSSA could decide to take CSLB once again to court.
“It is CALSSA’s sincere hope that this will not be necessary,” clarified Del Chiaro. “But the solar and storage industry is here to stay. We might be small compared to our opponents in the fossil fuel industry, but we work together to speak with one voice.”
In addition to the existential fight at the licensing board, CALSSA is also engaged in a consequential battle over the future of Net Energy Metering (NEM) at the California Public Utilities Commission. The same labor union, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) that pushed the illegal regulations at the CSLB were also behind AB 1139, a bill that mirrored the NEM fight at the CPUC and would have devastated the rooftop solar industry harming existing and future consumers. The bill was shot down by the legislature in June but only after a grueling battle that required the engagement of thousands of voters, small businesses and environmental groups.
“This has been quite the year and we are not out of the woods yet,” reflected Del Chiaro. “Our hope is that Governor Newsom exerts some leadership and protects the current and future growth of distributed solar and energy storage in California.”
News item from CALSSA
Andrew Cheshire says
This is just ridiculous. I am a licensed C46 contractor and have been installing solar for 15 yrs. My friend is a licensed electrician with a C10 license but has no idea how to install solar but they would prefer him do it over me? It makes no sense at all.
Solarman says
“As a result, C-46 solar contractors may continue to install solar and storage systems throughout California on and after November 1, 2021.”
The thing with energy storage, since the revelation in 2019 of LG Chem failure and fire in the McMicken ESS in Arizona, the revelation of LG Chem’s own RESU10H units recalled and replaced due to the smoke coming out of units complaints has changed the ESS industry. More ESS entities are moving towards the 48VDC (LFP) battery for energy storage and long life with much less thermal run away risk than battery technologies of the past. The devil is in the details and the CSLB sounds like it’s going to make the whole solar PV installation process much more labor intensive and costly overall. Where this (needs) to go nation wide is certified competence in solar PV installation required and Journeyman assistance in wiring, installing and connecting the solar PV array to the proper isolation devices and finally to the ESS and or the home’s circuit breaker panel. The industry needs ‘simple’ grid tied installations to be less than $2/watt installed like is common in Australia.
” The stay agreed to by the CSLB stands until “this action is finally resolved, and the Petitioner-Plaintiff has agreed to withdraw its motion in exchange,” as stated in the stipulation. In other words, the stay on enforcement is good until the CSLB has promulgated new regulations or CALSSA has dropped its lawsuit. The bottom-line is contractors holding a C-46 solar license can continue to install solar and storage systems for at least 12-18 months, and possibly longer depending on the outcome and timeline of any new regulations.”
The so called Energy Justice or JEDI type programs (Justice, Equity, Diversity, Inclusion) is getting stepped on by “demanding” a high salaried and probably Unionized workforce to dictate how many and qualifications are needed for the install of a solar PV system. Driving up costs of solar PV plus storage to $5/watt and over is NOT JEDI. Getting rid of spaghetti permitting requirements, bringing down labor costs and other soft costs is JEDI. As mentioned in the article the so far failed AB 1139 and the interference of IBEW inserting themselves in the cost stream of solar PV installations. This will all come up again and it will be labeled as “something else” the next time around. The ratepayers in California need to be vigilant of their so called, PUC and representatives inserting cost adders to their already onerous electric bills each month.
John Cromer says
>The thing with energy storage, since the revelation in 2019 of LG Chem failure and fire in the McMicken ESS in Arizona… More ESS entities are moving towards the 48VDC (LFP) battery for energy storage and long life with much less thermal run away risk than battery technologies of the past
Correct.
The CSLB regulations do not address the causes of the lithium fires that have occurred and the cited industry study by Berkeley did not investigate the causes either – shame on them! For example, study did not categorize the battery fires into primary causes such as “due to high voltage DC architecture” or “due to thermal runaway”. Many of the installs were not even installed, but on manufacturer test facilities. Others were installed by C-10 contractors!
If more due diligence were performed, the recommendations could have been tailored to address actual battery safety. For instance, only allowing C-10 contractors to install the more dangerous, high voltage lithium cobalt systems like Tesla and LG Chem, while continuing to allow C-46 contractors to install more safe, low voltage lithium iron phosphate batteries like Fortress and Enphase, would have been a far more reasonable course of action.
Instead, the CSLB used battery battery safety as a proxy battle to push C-46 contractors out of the solar industry. As evidence, numerous board members voiced their disfavor for C-46 contractors as their reason to vote during the meeting. That was the reason for these proposed regulations, not battery safety.