Solar ยท Analysis
Panels for the city's rented flats: the SOMAH program
Most San Franciscans rent and never touch their own roof. One state program, SOMAH, puts solar on income-qualified apartment buildings and routes most of the credit to tenants' bills.
I. How a San Francisco building qualifies
Eligibility turns on the building, not the tenant. SOMAH is for deed-restricted affordable multifamily housing, roughly five units or more, in the territory of an investor-owned utility, which in San Francisco means Pacific Gas and Electric. A building generally qualifies if at least 80 percent of its units are reserved for households at or below 60 percent of the area median income (the midpoint income for the region, a line that moves a little each year), or if it sits in a neighborhood the state has flagged as disadvantaged.
A building owner, housing nonprofit, or property manager starts the application, usually alongside a solar contractor who already knows the program's paperwork. The incentive is paid out based on system size and on how much of the power is pointed at tenant units. It is not instant. Buildings wait in a queue, funding is parceled out by utility territory, and a complicated roof on a hundred-year-old Victorian can slow a design down for months.
II. Who actually gets the bill credit
Virtual net energy metering is the piece that makes SOMAH work for renters. In plain terms, it is a billing arrangement (virtual net energy metering, where one rooftop system's output is divided across several meters in the same building) that lets the panels credit individual tenant accounts instead of a single master meter. Program rules require that the bulk of that credit, a majority by design, land on tenants' bills rather than on the owner's common-area load.
In San Francisco, a wrinkle is worth naming. Many residents buy their electricity through CleanPowerSF, the city's community choice aggregator (a public agency, run by the SFPUC, that buys cleaner power on residents' behalf while PG&E still delivers it over the wires). The solar credit generally still flows to the tenant's account, because PG&E keeps handling the meter and the delivery charges, but the exact value of a credit depends on which CleanPowerSF rate a household is on, so the savings are real yet not identical from unit to unit.
III. How much roof it has reached
Statewide, the program is funded on the order of up to one billion dollars through about 2030, drawn largely from greenhouse gas auction proceeds, with a target of installing at least roughly 300 megawatts of solar on affordable housing over its life. Those are the headline figures the CPUC set when it launched the program, and like all long schedules they can slip.
San Francisco's share of that roof is modest, which is what you would expect in a dense city of small, shaded, often landmarked buildings. The program administrator keeps a public project list showing which buildings have been approved and how much capacity each one carries, and at last public report the local count read as a slow, steady trickle rather than a wave. If you want the honest number for this month, that tracker, not this desk, is where to find it.
IV. Worth watching this month
1. Whether the SOMAH project list adds any new San Francisco buildings this quarter, a routine signal but the clearest public read on local uptake.
2. The program's incentive levels, which are set to step down as statewide capacity targets fill, a change that can quietly reshape the math for a building still in the queue.
3. Any CPUC proceeding on the successor to net energy metering, which matters because it helps set what a rooftop credit is worth.
4. CleanPowerSF rate updates from the SFPUC, since the value of a tenant's bill credit rides on the rate that household pays.
5. The program administrator's budget and application-window notices, because annual funding is split by utility territory and can run tight before a cycle closes.
Frequently asked questions
Can I apply for SOMAH as a renter?
No. The building owner or manager applies, and the panels serve the building as a whole. What you can do is ask your landlord or property manager whether the building has looked into the program.
Does my landlord just pocket the savings?
By program rule, the majority of the bill credit has to go to tenants' own accounts through virtual net energy metering. A smaller share can offset the building's common-area power, but the design points most of the benefit at residents.
My building is market-rate. Can it use SOMAH?
No. SOMAH is limited to income-qualified, deed-restricted affordable housing. Market-rate renters have to look to other options, such as community solar subscriptions, which work differently.
Does it still work if I am on CleanPowerSF?
Generally yes. PG&E still owns the meter and moves the power, so the credit can still reach your account, though the exact value depends on your CleanPowerSF rate.
References
- California Public Utilities Commission: SOMAH, The state regulator's own page on how the program was authorized, funded, and targeted. Government source., www.cpuc.ca.gov/somah.
- California SOMAH Program (administrator site), Official program site with eligibility rules, the incentive structure, and the public list of approved projects., californiasomah.org.
- PG&E: Solar and net energy metering, The delivery utility's plain explanation of how solar credits and metering show up on a bill., www.pge.com/solar.
- CleanPowerSF rates, San Francisco's community choice aggregator and the rates that set the value of a tenant's credit., www.cleanpowersf.org/rates.
- California Energy Commission: solar and distributed generation data, State energy agency statistics on rooftop and distributed solar across California. Government source., www.energy.ca.gov.