SGIP – California’s Solar and Battery Incentive Program
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SGIP – California’s Solar and Battery Incentive Programis an extremely generous incentive program for homeowners who are installing both solar and battery storage on their homes. However, the program has been notorious for being highly confusing. However, an overhaul in 2017 made the program much more accessible to homeowners.
The SGIP program will cover most, or all, of the cost of a home battery installation for California residents with a rebate from the state. This incentive program provides a rebate based on the size of the battery you install, measured in watt-hours (Wh) or kilowatt-hours (kWh) which is equal to 1,000-watt-hours.
The size of the rebate eventually could depend on your utility, but currently all the utilities are operating on the same rebate levels:
Applicable Utilities:
- Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)
- Southern California Edison (SCE)
- San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) – the SGIP program for SDG&E is administered the Center for Sustainable Energy
- SoCal Gas (SCG)
Rebate Amount:
All utilities are currently providing rebates at the following level:
First 10 kWh of battery capacity: $0.35 /Wh
Additional battery capacity past 10 kWh: $0.25 / Wh
So how do you actually calculate the rebate?
Let’s say you decide to purchase a 12 kWh battery – which should be sufficient for the power needs of most California homes. Calculating the rebate is simple:
Rebate =
First 10 kWh of capacity = 10 x $0.35 x 1000 = $3,500
+
2 kWh of capacity (capacity past 10 kWh) = 2 x $0.25 x 1000 = $500
Total rebate = $4,000
So – how much does this reduce the cost of a battery for my home?
Along with the federal tax credit and other incentives meant to reduce the cost of solar panels California homeowners can use the SGIP rebate to virtually eliminate the cost of a home solar system. The rebate added together with the federal investment tax credit, can almost completely eliminate the cost of a home solar system. For example, for a 12 kWh battery, you might expect to pay around $11,500 before any credits or rebates are added in.
However, with the federal rebate of $3,450 (30% of $11,500) and the SGIP rebate of $4,000, you could receive a home battery system for $4,500 total cost ($11,500 – SGIP of $4,000 – federal incentive of $3,450).
How do I apply?
Any good battery installer will handle the SGIP application process for you, however, if you decide to apply for batteries on your own, you can consult the link at the bottom of the page to the official SGIP website, or contact your utility.
The contact numbers for questions for each of the utility territories are as follows:
Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E)
selfgen@pge.com
(877) 743-4112
Center for Sustainable Energy (program administrator for San Diego Gas & Electric customers)
sgip@energycenter.org
(858) 244-1177
SoCalGas
selfgeneration@socalgas.com
Southern California Edison
SGIPGroup@sce.com
(626) 302-0610
Further resources:
Much, much more about the program can be learned at the official website of the Self-Generation Incentive Program.
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