How Fighting Climate Change Benefits California Homeowners

An introductory note from the writers: Welcome all! California’s population and wealth make it one of the most expensive to live in. Fortunately, if you’re a California homeowner tired of the expenses, there are several strategies that reduce expenses and help alleviate the global climate crisis simultaneously. We hope you learn something new, save money, and help keep the great state of California clean by reading this blog, happy reading!

This blog will be updated every two weeks with all the latest developments that CA homeowners can benefit from as well as posted on several homeowner groups on social media.

CA Electricity Prices

Mar 7th, 2022

As of 2022, California homeowners pay around 20 cents for the kilowatt hour for household electricity. Unlike CA, most Midwest and Southern state energy prices are significantly less, with Tennessee prices hovering around a low 10 cents per kilowatt hours. In terms of yearly costs, a CA homeowner paying $200 per month for electricity pays $2,400 per year, twice more than Tennessee. Reasonably, it is clear why so many homeowners are frustrated with energy prices that continue to rise. Especially considering the inflation impacts of COVID-19 over the past two years, energy prices have continued to skyrocket. Solar offers a promising solution. After CA solar tax credits, the average solar panel installation cost is around $10,000. Over a 20 year period, installing solar has the potential to save over $50,000 when all utility costs, inflation, and incentives are considered. California also offers the greatest solar incentives out of any state in the United States. (via the US Department of Energy)

With the unpredictable world we live in today, solar panels offer an inflation-proof solution to the energy problem. In fact, over the past 10 years, residential solar panel prices have gone down by 64% illustrated by the graph below from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

Not only is solar inflation-proof, it has the potential to DECREASE in price even further, a strategy no CA homeowner should miss.

CA Gas Prices

We first want to take a moment to acknowledge the current Russian invasion against Ukraine and express our solidarity with the people of Ukraine. Unfortunately, the European crisis has only proved just how unpredictable our world is. In addition to the COVID-19 inflation that has caused gas prices to soar in all parts of the world, an issue all CA homeowners are familiar with, the war has only exacerbated the issue. The average gas price in California now is around $5.50, up from $3.73 a year ago (source: the American Automobile Association). In some CA cities, the price has soared to well over $6.00. The exorbitant price increase can be summarized by the graph below with data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The price increase has alarming implications with a longer timescale. A homeowner commuting 25 miles a day in a car with an average of 25 miles per gallon, spends $5.50 per day on gas. That is more than $2,000 per year and $20,000 over 10 years. This figure is promised to become much higher of course, considering inflationary factors. As a comparison, $20,000 is about the price of a cheap car on the current market. While the average price of an electric vehicle (EV) is around $10,000 more expensive than the average gas car (source: CNBC), this cost will be equalized in only around 5 years. EVs also have the potential to last much longer than gas cars, 300k miles versus the gas car’s 200k miles (source: AARP.org). In addition, electric technology is only getting more efficient. With newer and better electric motors, battery technology, and computing power, EVs will only continue to get better. Electric vehicles do require resources to be charged, but if homeowners couple it with solar installation on their homes, they will be able to run their cars essentially for free. New start-ups (such as Sonos) are even working towards combining the two, making solar cars that potentially never need to be charged. Additionally, CA has many EV tax benefits as well as the fact that EVs can use HOV lanes without restriction, making navigating CA traffic much easier. With a promising future ahead for EVs and a volatile and inflation-prone fossil fuel market, EVs and solar are the best path ahead for CA homeowners.

Solar Incentives

According to Google’s Project sunroof, California has the highest amount of solar: approximately 331,810 buildings have solar panels installed in CA. The second highest number is given to Florida, which only has 105,364 buildings with panels. This is a decrease of almost 66% and the numbers only get smaller; the third highest goes to Arizona, which has only 39,725 panels reported.

However, there are so many incentives, both federal and state, that promote installing solar in California.

Compare this to a state such as Iowa, which has significantly less solar.

The Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency displays the amount of solar incentives per state on their website:

You can see that the majority of states are of a lighter blue color, meaning they have a smaller amount of solar incentives. On the flip side, California is very dark blue. It follows that the amount of solar panels is correlated with the amount of incentive to install them. Since there are so many financial benefits you could be eligible for if you install solar as a California resident, it makes sense to invest in it.

State governments should also provide more solar incentives so that we can increase the number of solar panels we have nationally, in order to combat climate change more effectively.

Local Climate Impact

Over the past decades, the amount of carbon put into our atmosphere through burning fossil fuels has increased exponentially. The carbon creates a blanket over the Earth, trapping in heat, warming up the planet, and leading to a whole host of dangers that threaten our very existence. The graphs demonstrate this point using data from the US Government’s Earth System Research Laboratory, Global Monitoring Division.

Pristine California beaches, that Californians everywhere love to vacation in, could soon be a thing of the past. Through data compiled by the LA Times, the Pacific has already risen about 9 inches since over a 100 years ago. Every year, CA authorities spend more and more time and money in replenishing the sand in our beaches that is eroding at an alarming rate. While we can replenish beach sand right now, we may not have that luxury in the coming decades. The sea level on California coasts is projected to rise by 9 feet by the end of the century. No amount of multi-billion dollar sand replenishment projects can combat that.

CA beaches might be completely gone within the next few generations, never to be enjoyed again. While there are many contributors to carbon emission, electricity production and transportation account for nearly 40% of all carbon emissions. Actions taken by millions of CA homeowners and homeowners worldwide in installing solar and using EVs has the potential to significantly curb this amount and help save our world. May the beauty of California beaches be enjoyed by generations and generations to come.