San Diego Community Power Program Launch Expands Access to Solar Battery Savings for Thousands of Households
- Oct 1, 2025
- by Jill Monroe
SAN DIEGO – San Diego Community Power, the community choice energy provider serving cities and unincorporated areas across the region, announced today the launch of their Solar Battery Savings program – a multiyear investment that will help put solar power in reach for thousands of households while strengthening the region’s clean energy grid.
Backed by nearly $55 million over the next five years, the program is designed to make solar-plus-storage systems more affordable for local families, with funding dedicated to providing extra assistance to historically underserved communities.
“With the Solar Battery Savings program launching, we are giving San Diegans more tools to cut energy bills, keep the lights on during outages and build a cleaner and more resilient grid,” said County Supervisor Terra Lawson-Remer, Chair of the Community Power Board of Directors. “This program helps us build out our rooftop solar network — and creates lower bills for families, cleaner air for our kids and good-paying jobs for local workers.”
The Solar Battery Savings program provides upfront rebates and ongoing performance incentives for residential customers who install new solar-plus-storage systems or add batteries to their existing solar setups. Participants receive:
- Lower upfront costs through installation rebates.
- Bill savings by using stored solar energy during expensive evening hours.
- Backup power during outages.
- Performance payments of $0.10 per kilowatt-hour for discharging stored energy on weekdays between 4 p.m. and 9 p.m.
To support equitable access and awareness, Community Power will also hold a series of customer education workshops, providing residents with opportunities to learn about solar battery systems, program benefits and how to apply. Workshop details will be available at www.sdcommunitypower.org.
“Customer education is at the heart of this launch,” said Colin Santulli, Community Power’s Director of Programs. “We want families across our region to understand how this program can deliver savings and resilience, and we are investing more resources than ever to connect directly with our communities.”
The launch builds on the success of a 2024 pilot that drew more than 1,600 participants, resulting in more than 2,200 batteries installed across the region.
The 2024 pilot included more than 50 approved contractors, many that are small, diverse and locally owned businesses. Those partnerships will continue with the relaunched program to ensure long-term workforce development and equitable industry growth.
“The local solar industry has faced a tough stretch in recent years, with pressures coming from state and national policy shifts as well as changing global market conditions,” said Jake Marshall, Greentech Renewables San Diego Operations Manager. “Community Power’s Solar Battery Savings program was a bright spot last year for our industry and our communities. This isn’t just a program that benefits customers of Community Power, this is a program for San Diego solar and electrical contractors — a local program for local workers.”
Community Power is continuing to expand local partnerships with contractors, workforce organizations and community groups. Prior to the launch, Community Power worked closely with Greentech Renewables and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 569 to train contractors and expand local participation.
“Programs like Solar Battery Savings create good-paying, local jobs that support working families while ensuring that customers benefit from safe, reliable installations,” said IBEW Environmental Organizer Cristina Marquez. “Having a skilled workforce is essential to building our clean energy future.”
The program expands Community Power’s growing list of customer incentives — marking yet another investment by the agency in clean energy, battery storage and bill savings for customers across the region.
The permanent program launches with $18.8 million in funding for the 2025-2026 fiscal year that began on July 1. The long-term goal is to deliver 90 megawatt-hours of local battery capacity, contributing to Community Power’s larger goal of 150 megawatts of distributed energy resources by 2035 – enough electricity to power between 60,000 to 150,000 homes for a year.
For more information about the Solar Battery Savings program and upcoming customer workshops, visit www.SDCommunityPower.org.
San Diego Community Power is a community choice energy program that gives customers an option to run their businesses and homes on significantly higher levels of renewable power at competitive rates. San Diego Community Power serves nearly a million customers in San Diego, Chula Vista, Encinitas, La Mesa, National City, Imperial Beach, and the unincorporated communities of San Diego County. Learn more at SDCommunityPower.org.