California Solar Panel Installations: 2024 Pricing & Savings – EnergySage Blog

In some states, you’ll earn bill credits from your utility company when your solar panel system generates excess electricity and sends it to the grid. This incentive is known as net metering—basically a solar buyback program—and makes it so you will owe very little, or even nothing, on your electric bills with solar panels. 

California no longer offers net metering, but if you’re a customer of one of the three Investor Owned Utilities (IOUs)–Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), Southern California Edison (SCE), and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E)–and you connect your solar panel system to the grid, you can benefit from net billing, also referred to as NEM 3. 

Net billing works similarly to net metering, but the value of solar energy you send to the grid is worth much less: Your utility company will only pay you about 25% of what they otherwise would’ve under net metering. 

Due to high electricity costs in California, solar is still worth it with net billing. But to really benefit from solar and maximize your savings, you should add a battery to new systems. 

There’s a lot to understand about California’s net billing program. Get an in-depth explanation or learn more about the individual programs:

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