Enhanced Community Renewables Program

Through California's Enhanced Community Renewables Program, you can buy a share of a nearby community renewable energy project (typically solar) directly from a developer and receive a bill credit from your utility based on your share of the system's electricity production—no rooftop installation needed. The program is available to residential customers of PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E, though enrollment is capped statewide at 600 MW total. To participate, contact your utility or an eligible project developer to purchase a share and enroll in your utility's ECR program.

The Enhanced Community Renewables component allows you to develop and sell shares of community renewable projects to residential, commercial, institutional, and agricultural customers, with customers receiving utility bill credits for their proportionate generation. Projects must meet California's eligible renewable resource standards and securities requirements (including a lawyer's securities opinion with specified qualifications); as of January 2024, 38 MW of ECR capacity has been procured statewide against the 600 MW statewide cap, with opportunities in both unrestricted and environmental-justice-reserved capacity pools.

The ECR program is one of two components under California's Green Tariff Shared Renewables (GTSR) Program, established by SB 43 (2014) and overseen by the CPUC, with implementation by PG&E, SCE, and SDG&E. The program caps enrollment at 600 MW statewide (153 MW GT procured, 38 MW ECR procured as of January 2024), with 100 MW reserved for environmental-justice communities; costs are borne only by participating customers. Projects are eligible across multiple renewable technologies and customer sectors, and the program operates indefinitely until the 600 MW cap is reached.