RSI- Kings-based solar contractor laying off 56

Hanford-based Renewable Solar Inc (RSI) has filed a state WARN notice that the company would be laying off some 56 employees by the end of the year. The solar contractor firm currently has 180 employees, says president Dusty Howze.

Howze says the company had built numerous solar and battery storage infrastructure for customers in the area but that new rules backed by the state PUC have cut customers reimbursement formula by 75% compared to the old Net Billing Tariff (NEM).The rules relate to exporting excess solar energy to the grid.

The new rules were backed by private utilities like PG&E. The older NEM2 rule said that for every kilowatt-hour (kWh) of excess energy your panels pushed to the grid, you were credited at the full retail rate of electricity (typically $0.30 to $0.45 per kWh).

By contrast the new rule allows the private utilities to pay far less -about $0.05 cents in avoided costs – what it would cost in the daytime hours when solar energy is abundant.
The upshot is that rooftop solar on homes and private commercial solar contracts are less attractive for customers.

That’s the business that RSI is in- building sometimes large 5MW private systems. Howze says they are now “adjusting our business model” that now means work they do will be spread out to other parts of California and not clustered so much locally.

Many of RSI’s energy projects have been at area dairies.

Danell Dairy near Hanford