AB 693 (Eggman, 2015) directs the CPUC to establish the Multifamily Affordable Housing Solar Roofs Program to directly serve low-income residents. 

AB 693 had its origins in AB217, a.k.a. “MASH 2.0”.  First, even as advocates were successful in getting the MASH program extended with new funding and improved rules, by the time the revised program finally got up and running, it was almost immediately oversubscribed. The waiting lists quickly filled with more than enough projects to exhaust all of the new AB217 funds.

Secondly. For all the success of MASH in providing access for low-income multifamily properties to solar PV, there have been continuing efforts to try to enhance the direct program benefits to low-income residents. The second round of MASH created by AB217 established higher tenant-serving rebates for projects providing at least a 50% direct benefit to residents (through virtual net metering), which allowed housing sponsors to reach and directly benefit more residents, but significant technical obstacles remain.  The vagaries of using the California Utility Allowance Calculator mean that, even with higher MASH round 2 tenant-benefit rebates, projects can’t always feasibly reach residents’ homes directly.

In direct response to these two motivations, a partnership of the California Environmental Justice Alliance, Everyday Energy and the California Solar Energy Industries Association, with support from the MASH Coalition and many others, conceived and achieved a brilliant way around this obstacle. 

AB 693 creates a new program that builds on the success of the MASH Program to fund solar PV on true, deed-restricted multifamily affordable housing, funded from just 10% of one pot of cap-and-trade funds that otherwise would have been returned directly to ratepayers.  In other words, the program diverts what would have been well under fifty cents a month to average customers into a multifamily affordable housing solar program of up to $1 billion over ten years. The Coalition is proud to have played a significant role in the creation of the program. Coalition co-coordinator Randy Simmrin was the only housing advocate to testify in support of AB 693 at the Senate Standing Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications, and has been a resource to the office of Assemblymember Susan Talamantes Eggman on housing issues.

The CPUC will take has taken up implementation of AB 693 alongside other programs for low-income and disadvantaged communities in the second phase of the NEM 2.0 proceeding discussed on the Net Metering page. In July 2016, the Commission invited proposals and comments on the program. The MASH Coalition was one of a number of party presenting a proposal and submitting comments in August. Consistent with our typical position, the Coalition urged the Commission to establish simple, streamlined procedures that make it relatively easy for affordable housing owners to understand and participate in the program, building on the successful ongoing MASH program. The MASH Coalition will continue to actively engage in the process, to ensure these funds are used as intended, to expand opportunities to install solar PV serving low-income residents of multifamily affordable housing, toward the ultimate goal of “bridging the Green Divide” and making the benefits of clean solar power available to all Californians.

MASH Coalition Comments

View a complete list of our CPUC comments.

Legislative Updates:

NEW - Administrative Law Judge's Ruling Seeking Proposals and Comments on the Implementation of AB693 - July 8, 2016
AB693 Bill Analysis - July 13, 2015
AB693 Bill Analysis - September 4, 2015
AB 693 Second Amended Scoping Memo (2014-07-10)