Milestones: A million solar roofs

Teaming up with the ‘Solarnator’

By 2005, Californians had installed only 20,000 solar energy systems — enough to meet only a tiny percentage of the electricity needs for a growing population of 35 million and counting.

That made no sense to state Sen. Kevin Murray of Los Angeles, who introduced a bill calling for one million solar roofs on the state’s homes, businesses, farms and schools.

Home builders, a major force in California politics, opposed the Murray bill, objecting to a provision requiring the installation of solar panels on every new home. Environment California urged Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, known to moviegoers for his role as The Terminator, to become the Solarnator and fulfill his promise to lift up solar power.

With our help, the Solarnator delivered.

As Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers agreed to a compromise 10-year, $3 billion solar rebate program, Environment California mobilized public support behind the bill in communities across the state. The home builders dropped their opposition and the bill became law on Aug. 21, 2006.

Celebrating a solar milestone

A little more than 13 years later, at a Dec. 12, 2019 event, former Gov. Schwarzenegger and Gov. Jerry Brown joined Dan and Environment California’s Bernadette Del Chiaro (now the executive director of the California Solar and Storage Association) in celebrating California’s one millionth solar roof — a 50-fold increase since 2005.

The Million Solar Roofs Initiative helped drive down the price of rooftop solar from $9.45 per watt in 2006 to $3.80 per watt in 2018, helping to persuade home builders — who opposed the original Million Solar Roofs bill — to support an Environment California-backed policy requiring solar on all new homes. The state adopted the policy on Dec. 5, 2018.

About this series: PIRG, Environment America and The Public Interest Network have achieved much more than we can cover on this page. You can find more milestones of our work on clean energy below. You can also explore an interactive timeline featuring more of our network’s clean energy milestones.