It will still be about five months before San Diego maxes out the number of rooftop solar systems that can sell electricity back to the utility, according to San Diego Gas & Electric.
California regulators said they will extend the popular net metering program that has driven the installation of rooftop solar. But the ability to sell electricity back to utilities is capped at 5 percent of the region's power use, according to the California Public Utilities Commission.
Solar is popular here and SDG&E predicts that cap could be reached by summer. The utility monitors the cap closely, according to a spokeswoman.
"We actually provide twice daily updates, right on the SDGE.com homepage, as to when the cap will be reached," said Amber Albrecht, a SDG&E spokeswoman. "We're very transparent and provide that regular update as far as our progress in getting there."
Net metering will continue for existing systems once the cap is reached, but no new systems will be able to take advantage of the program.
Albrecht said the limit was set by the California Public Utilities Commission and San Diego is 80 percent of the way there.
"Five percent of the total amount of energy being used in that service area. So for SDG&E we actually have the largest amount of rooftop solar per capita and it looks like we're going to be reaching that program limit in, sometime in the summertime," Albrecht said.
The solar industry got two major boosts in December.
Federal solar tax credits were extended for five years and California regulators announced they will revise but keep net metering, despite a strong push by utilities to eliminate the practice.
