The opportunity to reform a net metering framework that has gutted rooftop solar project deployment in California was dashed yesterday.
Credit: SnapNrack
The California Court of Appeals upheld the current net metering program, Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM 3.0), after a months long review. Several solar industry and environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the California Public Utilities Commission regarding NEM 3.0 in 2023, and the California Supreme Court picked up the lawsuit in April 2024. The California Supreme Court to ruled in August 2025 that the Court of Appeals must revisit and reassess NEM 3.0.
But now the program remains unchanged.
“We are extremely disappointed in the court of appeal’s decision on remand from the state Supreme Court. Instead of looking at this case with fresh eyes and doing the due diligence of reading and interpreting the statute, the court of appeal rushed to judgement, siding with the pro-utility CPUC and its utility allies,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, senior VP for California at EWG, in a press statement.
NEM 3.0 was initiated in April 2023. The net billing framework shifted to an hourly time-of-use rate for compensating residential solar customers based on when exported energy was needed most on the grid. This change was made, in part, to encourage more energy storage adoption at a residential level, but energy export compensation for PV was reportedly cut by 70 to 80% compared to California’s previous net metering programs.
By the end of 2023, California was expected to lose 22% of its residential solar workforce. Energy storage has grown in the state — with Berkeley Lab reporting a 60% attachment rate in 2024 — but rooftop PV hasn’t recovered in the leading state for solar.
“We may have just set the clocks forward an hour but this decision sets California back a decade when it comes to building a clean energy future. It isn’t just Washington D.C. setting us back on energy affordability and reliability. California is providing more than its fair share of forced errors,” Del Chiaro said.
