Lifestyle
Solar energy for renters has taken off in 10 states. Not in California
The tiny town of West Goshen, Calif., was exactly the kind of place that community solar was designed for.
Near Visalia, most of its 500 residents live in mobile homes, where companies won’t install rooftop panels without a solid foundation. And until recently, they used propane for heating and cooking, with price fluctuations in the winter posing hardships for low-income families.
Community solar, in which residents get a discount on their bills for subscribing as a group to small solar arrays nearby, was designed to help low-income residents, apartment dwellers, renters and others who can’t put panels on their own roofs.
Over the last 11 years, New York, Maine, Minnesota, Massachusetts and other states have built thriving community solar programs. But California has built, at most, only 34 projects since 2015, and experts say that’s a generous accounting.
“We’ve had community solar for a dozen years, and it simply has not produced anything of scale and anything of note,” said Derek Chernow, director of Californians for Local, Affordable Solar and Storage, a developer trade group that’s pushing to get a more robust program off the ground. “Projects don’t pencil out.”
The West Goshen residents were among the lucky few, becoming part of a community solar project in 2024.
“It has kind of allowed us to kind of breathe a little bit,” said resident and community organizer Melinda Metheney. Her bill has dropped by about $300 in the summer months, thanks to the 20% community solar discount, stacked with other low-income discounts and clean energy incentives, she said.
West Goshen’s panels sit about 10 miles out of town, in a field surrounded by farms. Energy and climate experts agree California must add much more clean energy to its grid, some 6 gigawatts by 2032, the California Public Utilities Commission said in a new plan last week.
Assemblymember Christopher M. Ward (D-San Diego), who in 2022 authored a bill to create a more effective community solar program, said the state needs to double its annual solar installation rate to reach that goal and is not on track to do that using only large utility-scale solar farms and individual rooftop arrays.
“We need mid-scale community solar,” he said.
Energy and climate experts agree California must add much more clean energy to its grid, some 6 gigawatts by 2032, the California Public Utilities Commission said in a new plan last week. Above, solar panels at Extra Space Storage in Pico Rivera.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
He and a coalition of environmental groups, solar developers and the Utility Reform Network, a ratepayer advocacy group, worked to put his 2022 law into effect. They coalesced around requiring utilities to pay community solar developers and customers for the electricity they feed to the grid using the same formula they use for people who install rooftop solar.
But in May 2024, the California Public Utilities Commission decided to go with a late-in-the-game proposal backed by the state’s investor-owned utilities to pay community solar at a lower rate.
The agency, along with its public advocate’s office, argued that crediting solar developers at the higher rate would raise bills for customers who don’t have solar, who would still have to shoulder the cost of grid maintenance. It’s similar to the argument they’ve made to cut incentives for rooftop solar.
The new program relied on federal money, including the Biden administration’s Solar for All, to sweeten the deal for developers. But the utilities commission spent very little of the $250 million available under that grant before the Trump administration tried to claw it back last summer, and now it is held up in litigation.
At a legislative oversight hearing last week, Kerry Fleisher, the commission’s director of distributed energy resources, blamed the loss for the new program’s failure to launch.
“There’s been a tremendous amount of uncertainty in terms of the Solar for All funding that was intended to supplement this program,” Fleisher said. “That’s part of the reason why this has taken longer than normal.” She said the commission still plans to release a program in the next several months.
Ward, the San Diego lawmaker who wrote the community solar bill, called the program “fatally flawed” in an interview.
He’s now considering a bill to bring the community solar program more in line with what he initially envisioned — higher incentives, requirements for battery storage, and compliance with state law that mandates new houses be built with solar.
A study last year funded by a solar trade group found that could save California’s electric system $6.5 billion over 20 years. But Ward’s effort to revive his program last year failed to pass the Assembly appropriations committee.
“All the other states in our country that have adopted similar community solar program models, they are working,” said Ward, adding that 22 states have programs comparable to the one solar advocates want in California. “The writing on the wall suggests that, exactly as we feared years ago, this was not the way to go.”
California Public Utilities Commission spokesperson Terrie Prosper called California “a leader in cost-effective, least-cost solar deployment overall compared to any other state,” in an emailed statement.
Under the commission’s definition, the state has brought on 34 projects, representing 235 megawatts of community solar. But studies from groups such as the Institute for Local Self-Reliance and Wood Mackenzie use different definitions for community solar, and they show California far behind at least 10 other states.
Meanwhile, advocates and developers involved in successful community solar projects in California say they were difficult to get off the ground.
Homes in the Avocado Heights area of Los Angeles County are part of a community solar project.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
One that came online in May in the unincorporated communities of Bassett and Avocado Heights in the San Gabriel Valley provides solar electricity to about 400 low-income residents. They get 20% discounts on their electric bills for subscribing to panels installed on two Extra Space Storage building rooftops in Pico Rivera.
Organizers said it took nearly five years to find the right location and comply with utility requirements. They also got a grant in addition to funding provided by the state utilities commission’s solar program.
It “would not have happened if it hadn’t been for the grant,” said Genaro Bugarin, a director at the Energy Coalition nonprofit that proposed and coordinated the project.
Brandon Smithwood, vice president of policy at Dimension Energy, the developer for the project in West Goshen, said he still hopes to see a community solar program in California that compensates projects for the way they help out the grid.
“We’ve seen it can work, and we know what we have won’t work,” Smithwood said at the hearing.
“I’m a Ralph Lauren fool,” Louis Johnson Jr. said of the boundless inventory of polo shirts and denim in his closet. He has so many pieces that some people in his life call it a dry cleaner. “I will never wear the same outfit,” he said. “Never in my life twice.”
Blue was the theme of the day when we met on a Saturday afternoon in April: a denim work jacket that overlaid a multicolored polo with stripes of blue and green and pink, which was finished off with a silk scarf featuring touches of colors found throughout the outfit. He also wore a Seattle Mariners baseball cap, paying homage to his Pacific Northwest hometown. When I asked what inspired the day’s look, he said that he usually starts coming up with an outfit by looking up and asking, “What does the sky look like?”
Johnson, 58, is the owner of Harlem Haberdashery, a clothing boutique known for styling notable Black celebrities and athletes. Mostly though, he considers himself an image consultant, continually finding inspiration in the people who walk by his shop each day. “I just look at everybody and see what they’re wearing, see creative stories,” he said.
When Halle Bailey moved from Georgia to Los Angeles as a wide-eyed preteen nearly 15 years ago, the city felt like a wonderland of possibility.
“Being from the South, when you first come to L.A., you’re like, ‘Hollywood. Wow. This is where all the celebrities are,’” says the Grammy-nominated singer and actress. At any moment, she thought she might cross paths with Halle Berry — the similarly named actress she’s often mistaken for — on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
In Sunday Funday, L.A. people give us a play-by-play of their ideal Sunday around town. Find ideas and inspiration on where to go, what to eat and how to enjoy life on the weekends.
But after living in the city for a while, Bailey, now 26, says she realized L.A. is made up of all sorts of different pockets — ones “where people are really Hollywood, bougie” and others “where people are chill, like hippies,” she says. Her favorite neighborhoods are Silver Lake, Venice and “places where people are just like, yeah, one love,” she says, laughing.
These days, Bailey is one of the celebrities people would be thrilled to see strolling down Hollywood Boulevard. She’s built a career that bridges music, TV and film: By 13, she and her sister Chloe Bailey — together known as Chloe x Halle — had signed to Beyoncé’s label; she’s earned six Grammy nominations (including one for her debut solo album released last fall); and she played young Nettie in “The Color Purple” and starred as Ariel in Disney’s live-action “The Little Mermaid,” a blockbuster role she’s recently been reflecting on.
Bailey’s next venture? Starring in her first romantic comedy, Universal’s “You, Me & Tuscany,” which hits theaters April 10. She plays Anna, a young woman who impulsively crashes at a empty Italian villa by pretending to be the owner’s fiancée.
“It felt good to play a young woman who was grown, but still discovering herself,” she says. “I felt like I was playing the essence of the Halle who is finding herself now.”
On her perfect Sunday in L.A., Bailey would have a day of fun with her 2-year-old son, Halo. Here’s what they’d do.
This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.
7:30 a.m.: Wake up and jump into mommy duties
I love mornings. I leave my curtains open while I sleep because I like when the sun wakes me up. We all doomscroll, which is kind of bad to say, but the first thing I check is my phone. Then I have mommy duties right at 8 a.m. Sometimes before [Halo] wakes up, I get a chance to do some things for myself like go outside and sit in the sun for some meditation or stretching. I don’t get to do it every day, but I try. Or I’ll make some tea or a smoothie and just have a moment of gratitude for waking up that day.
8:30 a.m.: Crank up the music
Once Halo is up, we do breakfast right away. I don’t know why I’m super into boiled eggs right now [laughs]. But I love a boiled egg in the morning with either avocado or hash browns. My baby loves hash browns too. I try to make a balanced breakfast and then from there it’s kind of party time.
We’ve been blasting the new Jill Scott album and it’s really cool how the music you play in your house can just change the mood, the vibe and bring good energy into the space that you’re in. And on a Sunday, I don’t know if it’s just because of the way I was raised, but automatically I think, “OK, I need to straighten up for the week. I need to get the house reset.” So maybe I’m cleaning up the kitchen or organizing toys, or making sure the bathroom is straight, or washing clothes while the music is blasting and we’re dancing around, having fun.
12 p.m.: Solo time while the baby naps
I’ll take a lunch break. If I’m in the cooking mood, I love making comfort food like chicken and rice with cabbage and mac and cheese. Something that is just warm and comfy. If I’m not doing that, I’m ordering Wing Stop or Chipotle. I would chill outside for a while until my son’s nap time, which is around 12:30 p.m. He’ll sleep until like 3:30 p.m., so then I have two hours to myself and sometimes I do nothing. Sometimes I just need to sit down and I’ll be on my phone on TikTok or I’ll watch a show. I recently binged the new “Love is Blind” season. I also started watching “Real Housewives” again, but, like, the beginning seasons. I really love the show “My Strange Addiction.” It’s just so hilarious to me. Those are some guilt-free shows that I turn on and my brain can turn off.
I might even go into the studio if I’m hearing a melody in my head or pick up my guitar. Sometimes I might take a nap too, and that feels really good on a Sunday.
4 p.m.: Go on an easy sunset hike
If I feel up for leaving the house, we’ll go for a walk, to the park or maybe even a sunset hike. I’ve always been a nature girl and I feel like it just grounds me, and I’m able to center myself, especially for the start of a new week. There’s a lot of really beautiful hikes in California, but I’ve found ones that are easy and safe to take a baby on so I’m not stressing if he’s running ahead of me or behind me. On a Sunday, you just want to rest, so you’re not trying to do a full-blown workout. Sometimes we’ll get halfway through and then we’ll turn back and go home [laughs].
Near Studio City, there’s a really good one called Fryman [Canyon]. It’s hard in the beginning, but as you get higher it gets easier and you see the view, and you’re just like, “I can do this.” We recently went to Point Dume, which I had never been to, but I saw the view on TikTok. It’s a really beautiful beach hike in Malibu and I love it there. The hike up is super easy, but there’s a field of flowers that you walk through to get to the viewpoint where everyone takes pictures overlooking the beach.
6:30 p.m.: Bath time
I love a bubble bath. If my son is with me that night, we do a whole fun toys in the bath type of vibe. But if it’s a solo night, it’s like candles, lavender bubbles, lights are dim, jazz music is playing in the background, like Billie Holiday, and that is the ultimate reset.
7:30 p.m.: Dinner and a show
If I have a sitter, I might go out to dinner. I like Lucia, which is a Caribbean restaurant in Hollywood. I think the first time I went, they had a really good oxtail mac and cheese. When I went back the menu had changed and I ordered the jerk chicken, which was also good. Also, I’ve been loving the Blue Note recently. I saw Esperanza Spalding there last year.
10 p.m.: Watch something low–stakes before bed
Sometimes I try to force myself to turn off all screens, all phones and go to bed because I need the sleep. It’s either that or I’m up watching something. I just really like watching things that make me feel like I can laugh and I don’t have to think about it. I get really emotionally invested in shows. If I try to watch “The Pitt” at the end of the day, it feels so emotionally exhausting. During the day is OK, but at nighttime, I just need to laugh.
The Met Gala steps are a stage where celebrities strive not merely to look pretty, but to create indelible, avant-garde fashion moments. The most memorable looks tend to commit to the often abstract theme and take risks not typically seen on award show red carpets. Sometimes that works; other times it ends in disaster.
This year, guests stepped onto a mossy-looking, trompe l’oeil cobblestone carpet surrounded by a backdrop that recalled a Monet canvas. It was fitting for the evening’s brief: “Fashion is art.” It may be a bit on the nose for an event whose raison d’être is to raise money for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s fashion-focused Costume Institute.
There were fake nipples and molded torsos; flowers and feathers; dripping jewels and one delightful burst of bubbles.
For close followers of our past most stylish lists, what follows is a shift in approach. Typically, we bring you a distillation of the looks that got people talking — the good, the bad and the most interesting. This year, since we now give you a chance to vote on your favorite looks, we’re saying, unequivocally, that these were ours (presented in no particular order).
Naomi Osaka
In this Robert Wun gown, spurts of blood — in the form of delicate feathers — spring from incisions in the fabric.
No other garment had quite the same movement as this frosty, fringed frock by Tom Ford that shimmied whenever Taylor struck a pose.
Chase Infiniti
Inspired by the “Venus de Milo,” this primary-colored Thom Browne gown is a no-naked take on naked dressing.
Troye Sivan
In a sea of sequins and other opulent baubles, what at least presented as a pair of distressed denim trousers — by Prada — was like a palate cleanser.
If Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” made a meal of her signature accessory.
Beyoncé
A look that was worth the decade-long wait for the star’s reappearance at the Met Gala.
Gracie Abrams
Gold adornments and jewel accents made Abrams look completely Klimtian in this peachy Chanel gown.
It’s goth meets grande dame. No engagement ring needed to get the people talking.
Alexi Ashe
For the real heads: the Yves Klein Blue body-print dress from spring 2017, one of Phoebe Philo’s last collections at Celine.
Glenn Martens
Other men on the carpet looked as if they had tried needlessly hard when Martens, the creative director of Maison Margiela, appeared in this undeniable tuxedo. This is how every man should dress.
A profusion of bubbles continuously spouting from this teacup dress brought some joie de vivre to the carpet.
Alexa Chung
It should be illegal to look so good for so long on so many red carpets.
Tory Burch
Many tried corsets; several donned sheer skirts. But none managed to look quite so delicate, elegant and demure as Aboah did, in custom Simone Rocha.
Tessa Thompson
More Yves Klein Blue, in whimsical curlicues by Valentino.
Stella Bugbee, Jacob Gallagher and Marie Solis contributed reporting.
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