If I lived there I'd have an off grid solar setup given how much sun there is. It only makes sense. That said it's way too hot so I would not want to live there in first place.
You're right- logically. It isn't nearly that easy here, though, for reasons outside of logic. There are several unfortunate obstacles, but two main ones.
1. Part of the agreement with the
state and
utility monopolies includes the inability for a
customer to get out of the utility agreement, even if it was from a previous owner. Even if you are connected to the grid but produce 100% of your own solar, you would still have to pay various fees and taxes on it, even if the grid actually did nothing for you. The short version is that once a property is connected to the grid, it cannot be disconnected. The only exception is destruction of the property (through fire, demolition, etc). After that destruction, there is no carryover requirement, so you could go off-grid. For some situations, it would make sense to go that route.... well, if it weren't for...
2. Property taxes (there is a point to this, bear with me). In California, residential property taxes are simply calculated as a
base rate times
your purchase price valuation, and that valuation goes up by exactly 1% annually, regardless of market or other factors. This is all automatic. Because of this tax situation, the majority of property owners in CA pay very low (real) property tax rates, since property values grow by far more than that 1% tax valuation every year. Also, demolition is considered as all walls demolished. So, if you have a tiny house, you can turn it into a mansion and keep the same property tax valuation... so long as you maintain that one original wall in tact. Now, that "demolition" from above is what matters. Sure, you can go "off-grid," BUT you will have to destroy all walls, which means a new property valuation, and you will need to build/buy a new house. Then and only then can you go off-grid. Obviously, there are very few situations where that would make sense financially. (And before you say "just go with a camper!", CA has thrown a wrench in that method as well. There is now "personal property tax", paid every year, for RV's and such, to keep people from getting out of property taxes.)
Then just go solar on-grid, right?! There are also issues with that here now. The subsidies that we were told would eventually be perpetual (because of the environment) are probably going to be stopped sooner than later (because of electric companies, politics, and greed). Another big one is the mandatory change to "smart meters." That's just a big F-U to solar owners. With this new setup the times you will be producing power give you far less money, but as a double-whammy, you get charged more when you are using instead of producing. For solar it all boils down to meaning that you will have to produce 4x or more power than you consume just to break even.
The above is a short synopsis. There also loads of zoning and other reasons why it never caught on in CA. I've ran the numbers every way that I could to try to make solar work for environmental/ethical reasons, but the financial disincentives are overwhelming in CA. This is despite the abundance of this natural and clean energy source, and our state's claims of environmental friendliness.