The Solar Rights Alliance works to expand the use of solar energy in California. It does this by opposing legislation that makes it more difficult for homeowners, renters, churches, and schools to afford solar panels, specifically opposing legislation relating to solar permits, taxes, and penalties. ¹ It also provides educational tools to help Californians better understand the processes of “buying, maintaining, and improving [their] solar systems.” ²

Legislative Advocacy

Solar Rights Alliance strongly opposed California Assembly Bill 942 in 2025. Solar Rights Alliance argued that the legislation would have abridged two million contracts between homeowners with rooftop solar energy and California utilities. ³ This bill would have resulted in anyone with solar panels being required to pay a solar tax, even if they continue providing energy to the state’s power grid. The Solar Rights Alliance argued that this bill was illegal because California originally agreed that “consumers who signed up for solar before April 2023 […] can stay on their ‘net metering’ plan for twenty years, which is the minimum warranty for solar panels [and] the contract’s twenty year guarantee remains in place even if the home is sold.” ⁴  The legislation was substantially modified by the state Senate in July 2025. ⁴

The administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) pursued the legislation because “As the overall cost of living increases in the state, the Legislature must mitigate cost shift inequities and reduce utility bills by evaluating programs funded by utility ratepayers.” ³ The Solar Rights Alliance argued that the Newsom administration and utility companies are being dishonest about the costs and cited a document by Crossborder Energy that calculated that rooftop solar in California actually saved all energy users in California about $1.5 billion ⁵ in 2024. ⁴

Guides

Background Information

The Solar Right Alliance’s background guide covers legal rights to solar, the capacity of solar, and the cost of solar in California. One article discusses the right of solar panel owners to not be legally obligated to buy power from utility companies, and to not owe utility companies for lost sales. ⁶ It also wrote an article about solar being able to keep up with peak electricity demand in the summer but needing batteries to be used to its full potential. ⁷ The Solar Rights Alliance wrote an article discussing solar’s potential cost savings, claiming that solar energy could reduce the cost of California’s energy grid by $120 billion by 2050. ⁸

Solar Opponents

The Solar Right Alliance’s solar opponent guide covers public and private groups that oppose the expansion of solar energy in the state of California. It claimed that one of the biggest opponents to solar power is utility companies. In one article, it claimed that utility companies in California donated $212 million to politicians between 2000 and 2024, with $2.6 million going to Governor Gavin Newsom (D). ⁹ The Alliance also suggests that the state government itself has spread false information about solar panels. It claimed the Public Advocate’s office is not an independent organization, but rather is a direct extension of the government and is looking for data that supports the goals of elected officials.  ¹⁰

2. “What We Do.” Solar Rights Alliance. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://solarrights.org/about/.
3. “AB-942 Net Energy Metering: Eligible Customer-Generators: Tariffs.” Legislature.ca.gov, June 2, 2025. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202520260AB942.
4. “Newsom Admin, Utilities Push to Break 2 Million Solar Contracts.” Solar Rights Alliance, June 4, 2025. https://solarrights.org/blog/2025/06/04/dont-break-the-solar-contract/.
5. “How California’s Rooftop Solar Customers Benefit Other Ratepayers Financially to the Tune of $1.5 Billion.” Economics Outside the Cube. Accessed June 28, 2025. https://mcubedecon.com/2024/11/14/how-californias-rooftop-solar-customers-benefit-other-ratepayers-financially-to-the-tune-of-1-5-billion/.
6. “You Have the Right to Make Energy from the Sun. This Legal Article Explains Why.” Solar Rights Alliance, December 15, 2024. https://solarrights.org/blog/2024/12/15/you-have-the-right-to-make-energy-from-the-sun-this-legal-article-explains-why/.
7. “No, We Don’t Have Too Much Solar in California. This Chart Shows Why.” Solar Rights Alliance, December 13, 2024. https://solarrights.org/blog/2024/12/13/curtailment/.
8. “Rooftop Solar Can Reduce the Cost of the Grid by $120 Billion by 2050.” Solar Rights Alliance, June 3, 2024. https://solarrights.org/blog/2024/06/03/rooftopsolarsavesmoney/.
9. “The Utilities and Their Allies Spent More than $1 Billion Influencing Politicians, Nonprofits, Academia, and More.” Solar Rights Alliance, November 13, 2024. https://solarrights.org/blog/2024/11/13/utilitypayments/.
10. “The Public Advocates Office: Spreading Utility Lies About Solar.” Solar Rights Alliance, September 3, 2024. https://solarrights.org/blog/2024/09/03/publicadvocate/.