California Mandates Solar Panels for New Homes by 2020

If you’re thinking of buying a home in California, I hope you like solar panels – they’re about to become mandatory.

In an effort to cut home energy use by 50% or more, the California Energy Commission passed the 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards, which mandates that all new homes must have solar photovoltaic systems by 2020.

In other words, those door-to-door solar installers are about to make bank in Cali.

“The buildings that Californians buy and live in will operate very efficiently while generating their own clean energy,” said CEC Commissioner Andrew McAllister.

I’m also taking a wild guess and assuming that new home prices will go up by 2020.

The CEC, of course, is touting the prospective savings – they claim energy use for nonresidential buildings will drop by 30%, while residential homeowners will pay about $40 more per month but save $80 on monthly heating, cooling, and lighting bills.

The CEC also claims the potential greenhouse gas emissions reduction is equivalent to taking 115,000 fossil fuel cars off the road, so there’s that.

Read more about the new energy standards here: http://www.energy.ca.gov/releases/2018_releases/2018-05-09_building_standards_adopted_nr.html