2. Background
In Decision (D.) 06-01-024, the Commission, in collaboration with the CEC, created the CSI, an 11-year $3.2 billion incentive program with the goal of installing 3,000 MW of new distributed solar facilities on the homes and businesses of the customers of California's three largest investor-owned utilities (IOUs). In that decision, the Commission recognized that solar technologies may not be as cost-effective as other clean alternatives and committed to supporting the development of solar technology into a robust, and self-sustaining industry that can compete with more conventional technologies. To that end, the Commission allocated up to 5% of each year's adopted CSI's budget "... to RD&D that explores solar technologies and other distributed technologies that employ or could employ solar for power generation and storage or to offset natural gas usage, as well as market development strategies."5
Following the adoption of D.06-01-024, the Commission opened Rulemaking (R.) 06-03-004 to develop CSI program policies and rules and identified solar RD&D as one of the issues in that rulemaking. The scoping memo, issued on April 24, 2006, designated solar RD&D for Phase II of the proceeding.
The CSI program was enacted into statute when the Governor signed SB 1 in August 2006. Pub. Util. Code § 2851(c)(1), as enacted by SB 1, states the Commission shall:
". . . not allocate more than fifty million dollars ($50,000,000) to research, development, and demonstration that explores solar technologies and other distributed generation technologies that employ or could employ solar energy for generation or storage of electricity or to offset natural gas usage."
A subsequent Assigned Commissioner Ruling (ACR) set a schedule for addressing solar RD&D. Following that ACR, the Commission's Energy Division's staff, in consultation with the CEC staff, published the "Draft Staff Proposal for Research, Development, and Demonstration Plan" (Draft RD&D Proposal) on February 14, 2007. This proposal recommended an RD&D strategy, criteria for selecting projects, and a timeframe for the CSI RD&D effort. Energy Division's staff held a public workshop on February 26, 2007 to discuss the Draft RD&D Proposal and to solicit informal comments from the parties. Following the workshop, the Energy Division issued a revised proposal (Proposed RD&D Plan)6 and the assigned Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) issued a ruling on April 2, 2007 requesting parties' comments on the Energy Division's Proposed RD&D Plan. Comments were filed by PG&E, Edison, Americans for Solar Power (ASPv), The University of California, California Institute for Energy and Environment (UC/CIEE), San Diego Regional Energy Office (SDREO)7, and Stanford University. Reply comments were filed by Edison, SDG&E, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and University of Southern California (USC).
5 D.06-01-024, p. 36.
6 The Proposed RD&D Plan is attached as Appendix C to this order.
7 On May 3, 2007, SDREO changed its name to the California Center for Sustainable Energy (CCSE). We refer to SDREO by its new name.
