Residential Solar & Storage
Make electricity from sunshine to power your home.
When you have solar panels on your home, you produce clean energy locally, and that helps you save money and become more energy-independent. Adding battery storage may also boost resilience by keeping your lights on during power outages, and lowers your energy bill when you deploy stored energy during peak rate times.
Ava Community Energy encourages our customers to install solar on their homes and businesses, especially when paired with battery storage. While we supply our communities with clean, reliable energy, there are additional benefits that homeowners and businesses can realize by installing solar and storage onsite:
Benefits of Solar and Storage
- Save Money: By generating your own electricity, you can significantly reduce your monthly electricity bills. Solar panels harness the sun’s energy, allowing you to use home-made, renewable power instead of relying entirely on the grid. Battery systems store the low-cost solar you produce, and then deploy that energy in the evenings, when electricity costs are highest, maximizing your savings.
- Increase Resilience: Solar panels combined with battery storage can enhance your home’s resilience during power outages. The battery stores excess energy generated during sunny days, which can be used when the sun isn’t shining or during blackouts. This ensures that you have a reliable power source at all times.
- Generate Greener Energy: Solar energy is a clean, renewable resource. Unlike fossil fuels, solar power does not produce harmful emissions. By using solar energy, you contribute to the fight against climate change and help promote a sustainable future.
Ava serves over 70,000 accounts with onsite solar. Learn more about how solar billing works for Ava customers below.
Solar Installation & Billing for Ava Customers
Things to Know
Customers interested in adding rooftop solar must apply to PG&E for interconnection approval. You do not need to contact Ava regarding your solar installation—PG&E will notify us if/when you have a system installed.
When you have solar installed, you’re still an Ava customer. When you generate excess electricity, Ava will purchase it. And when you need to buy electricity from the grid, Ava will sell it to you.
How Solar Billing Works
As a solar customer, you pay Ava and PG&E for electricity from the grid and receive credits for exports to the grid. If you are a Net Energy Metering (NEM) PG&E bundled customer (not on Ava service), you pay PG&E a monthly minimum charge, and then the rest of your charges and credits are trued up annually. On Ava service, PG&E continues that process for their part of the bill (transmission, distribution, and fees—but not generation), and you have a separate bill page showing your generation credits and debits with Ava. When on Ava service, you get your choice of annual or monthly true-up for our charges. If you are a Solar Billing Plan (SBP) customer, you pay Ava and PG&E for charges each month. Your credits are trued up annually with Ava (in April) and PG&E.
If you’re a current solar customer, you can check your PG&E bill to see if you’re on Net Energy Metering (NEM) or Solar Billing Plan (SBP). If your solar application was approved after April 14, 2023, you’re probably on SBP. Click a button below to learn more about these billing plans.
Our Resilient Home program is currently closed for new enrollments. A new program is coming in 2025.