Your bill went up.
Here's what actually changed.
California rewrote the rules for home solar in 2023, and most of what you will read online was written before that. This page explains where your money actually goes, what changed, why a battery is now part of the conversation, how the four ways of paying for a system differ, and what keeps your lights on when the grid fails. No pitch attached.
Who Switch is
Switch is a sales company. That is the whole of what we do, and we would rather say it plainly than let you work it out later. We knock doors across Northern California, we work out whether solar and storage makes sense at your house, and we show you the numbers. If someone from Switch knocked on your door, they work for us.
Continuum is a separate company, and it is worth being clear about which one does what. We handle the conversation, the design and the numbers. Continuum handles everything physical: the engineering, the permits, the equipment and the installation itself. They are a California-based solar and storage EPC — engineering, procurement and construction — with more than twenty years of work behind them.
Switch sells it
We knock the door, look at your bill and your roof, design the system and show you the real numbers, including the ones that argue against doing it.
Continuum builds it
Engineering, permitting, equipment, installation and inspection, then service for the life of the system. Code-compliant work, signed off properly.
That separation is deliberate, and it is good for you. The people on your roof do this and nothing else. We could have picked whichever EPC quoted us the lowest number — plenty of sales companies do, and you can usually tell from the roof. We went the other way and chose the most trustworthy installer we could find, because a sales company that puts its name next to bad work does not get a second decade.
Continuum is building to still be here in twenty years to service what they installed, which is the only promise in solar that means anything once the sales conversation is over and the panels are up.
They treat homeowners like family, and we hold ourselves to the test that follows from that: would you be comfortable giving our name to your sister? If the answer is no, we have not done the job properly.
Solar is not right for every house. Bad roof orientation, heavy shade, a low bill, or plans to move soon can all make it a poor deal. We would rather tell you that at the door than sell you something that doesn't pencil.
What you are actually paying for
Almost nobody reads their electricity bill closely, and the part that surprises people is not the price of electricity. It is how little of the bill the electricity actually is.
A PG&E bill, split in two
| Part of the bill | What it is | Roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Generation | The electricity itself, the part someone actually produced | About 12¢ per kWh |
| Delivery | Poles, wires, maintenance, wildfire costs and public programs | About 30¢ per kWh |
| What you pay | The two added together, before time-of-use pricing moves it | About 41¢ per kWh |
Generation is under a third of it. Delivery is the rest. That single fact explains a lot of things that otherwise look strange.
- Why switching generation providers barely helps
- If your generation comes from a Community Choice Aggregator rather than PG&E — MCE, Ava, Peninsula Clean Energy, Pioneer and others — you are shopping for a better price on under a third of your bill. It can be worth having. It is not going to change your life.
- Why solar works differently
- A kilowatt-hour your roof makes and your house uses is one you do not buy at all. You avoid the generation charge and the delivery charge together. That is why producing your own power moves a bill in a way that switching suppliers cannot.
- Why the evening is where the money is
- On time-of-use plans, summer weekday evenings between 4pm and 9pm run substantially higher than the average — commonly in the range of 45 to 50¢ per kWh in peak season. That is also when your house uses the most and your panels have stopped producing. It is the single most expensive gap in your day.
Figures are approximate, drawn from PG&E's residential E-TOU-C schedule as of March 2026. Your own rate depends on your plan, your climate zone and whether a CCA supplies your generation. Rates change. We will read your actual bill rather than quote you an average.
If SMUD is your utility, almost none of that applies
This trips up a lot of homeowners, and a fair number of solar salespeople. SMUD is a publicly owned utility. It is not regulated by the California Public Utilities Commission, so the statewide NEM 3.0 rules written for PG&E, Edison and SDG&E do not govern what happens in Sacramento. SMUD sets its own.
- SMUD has its own solar rate
- It is called the Solar and Storage Rate, and it has applied to new solar customers since 1 March 2022. Like NEM 3.0 it replaced full net metering, but it is a separate scheme with its own numbers and its own timetable.
- Exports are paid at a published rate
- SMUD's export compensation rose to 9.6¢ per kWh on 1 June 2026, up from 7.4¢. Unlike the investor-owned utilities, SMUD reviews that figure only every four years and has committed to moving it no more than 30% in either direction when it does. You are not guessing about the next decade.
- If you already had solar, you are probably fine
- SMUD customers approved before 1 March 2022 stay on their original net metering terms through 31 December 2030. Adding a battery with SMUD incentives, replacing the system or moving house can end that, so check before you change anything.
- SMUD pays you to add a battery
- SMUD runs a battery incentive through its My Energy Optimizer Partner+ program. A qualifying new home battery earns a one-time enrolment incentive, paid per kilowatt-hour of eligible capacity, when it is enrolled within 90 days of receiving permission to operate. Enrolled batteries can also earn recurring quarterly payments for letting SMUD draw on them at moments of grid stress. You keep your backup power; SMUD is buying access to the headroom.
- The battery incentive is shrinking on a schedule
- From 23 September 2026 the enrolment incentive is 300 dollars per kWh of eligible capacity, up to 6,000 dollars per household. Until 22 September it was 500 dollars per kWh, up to 10,000. SMUD has stepped this down before and will again, so the number you are quoted depends on when your project is actually submitted, not when you first talked to someone. Ask any rep to show you the current figure in writing from SMUD.
- This stacks with the financing question
- A SMUD battery incentive is separate from the federal picture, and it does not care whether you bought the system or leased it. It is one of the few places left where adding storage in Northern California is directly subsidised.
- The math is genuinely different here
- SMUD's retail rates are lower than PG&E's, which means the same system saves a different amount on the two sides of the county line. Anyone who quotes you PG&E savings for a SMUD house is not doing the work.
SMUD figures accurate as of September 2026. Programme terms, incentive levels and deadlines are set by SMUD and change on their schedule, not ours. We will confirm the current numbers for your project in writing before you commit to anything.
What NEM 3.0 changed
California regulators replaced net metering with a system called the Net Billing Tariff, usually just called NEM 3.0. It took effect in April 2023 and applies to new solar customers of the three big investor-owned utilities: PG&E, Southern California Edison and SDG&E. If SMUD is your utility, the section above is the one that applies to you instead.
Before, under NEM 2.0
Power you sent back to the grid was credited at roughly the same rate you paid to buy it. A kilowatt-hour out was worth about a kilowatt-hour in. The grid worked like a battery with no hardware.
Now, under NEM 3.0
Exported power is credited at the grid's avoided cost instead of the retail rate. Those credits change by hour and by season, and on average they are worth far less than what you pay to buy power back. Midday exports are worth the least of all.
The three things that follow from that
- Timing is now the whole game
- Export credits are lowest in the middle of the day, when every solar roof in the state is producing at once, and highest on late afternoons and evenings, especially in late summer. Power you buy is also most expensive then. The value is no longer in how much you generate, it is in when you use it.
- Solar alone does less than it used to
- A system with no storage sends its surplus to the grid at midday for a small credit, then buys power back at the expensive evening rate. It still reduces a bill. It just does not offset it the way the same system would have in 2022.
- If you already have solar, this is not about you
- Customers who interconnected under NEM 1.0 or NEM 2.0 keep their original terms for 20 years from their interconnection date. NEM 3.0 applies to new systems.
The details vary by utility, rate plan and interconnection date, and the rules continue to be revised. Treat this as an orientation, not as advice about your specific house. We will show you the actual numbers for your address and your current rate plan.
Why a battery is now part of the conversation
Under the old rules a battery was mostly for backup power. Under NEM 3.0 it is the piece that makes the economics work, because it lets you keep your own power instead of selling it cheaply and buying it back expensively.
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It moves your solar to the evening
Your panels overproduce at midday and your house uses the most power after work. A battery charges on the cheap surplus and discharges during the expensive evening window, so you buy far less at peak prices.
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It keeps the lights on when the grid goes down
This surprises people: solar panels on their own shut off during an outage. They have to, so they do not electrify lines that somebody is working on. Without a battery, a blackout leaves you as dark as the neighbour with no solar at all.
With a battery, your essential circuits keep running — the fridge, the internet, lights, medical equipment, a well pump. Through a storm, a planned public safety power shutoff, or a grid failure in a heatwave.
What gets backed up is a decision made at design time, not an afterthought. Tell us what has to stay on and we will build the system around that.
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Sizing matters more than brand
A battery too small for your evening load leaves you buying peak power anyway, and one much larger than you need is money sitting on your wall. The right size comes out of your actual usage data, not a rule of thumb.
Where the savings actually come from
Nobody can tell you what you'll save from the sidewalk. What we can tell you is the four places the money comes from, so you can judge any proposal — ours or anyone else's — on whether it accounts for them.
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Power you don't buy
Every kilowatt-hour your roof makes and your house uses in the same moment is one you are not buying from the utility at retail price. This is the largest and most reliable piece.
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Peak hours you avoid
With storage, the power you use between roughly 4pm and 9pm can come off your own battery rather than off the grid at its most expensive rate. On time-of-use plans this is where a large share of a bill lives.
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Credits for what you export
Surplus still earns something. Under NEM 3.0 it is a smaller number than it once was, and it is worth more in the evening than at noon. Any honest proposal treats this as a modest line, not the headline.
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Rate increases you sit out
California electricity rates have risen substantially over the past several years. A fixed payment on a system does not move when the utility raises rates. Be sceptical of any projection that assumes a steep, guaranteed annual increase forever, including ours if we ever show you one.
How people pay for solar
There are four routes. None of them is the right answer for everybody, and the differences between them matter far more than the differences between equipment brands.
Scroll the table sideways to compare all three.
| Cash | Loan | Prepaid lease | Lease or PPA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Who owns the system | You | You | The finance company | The finance company |
| Upfront cost | Full price | Usually none | The lease, paid in full at the start | Usually none |
| Monthly payment | None | Fixed loan payment | None, it is already paid | Lease payment, or a rate per kilowatt-hour produced |
| Federal tax credit | None. Ended 31 Dec 2025 | None. Ended 31 Dec 2025 | Claimed by the system owner, reflected in your price | Claimed by the system owner, reflected in your rate |
| Who maintains it | You, under the equipment warranties | You, under the equipment warranties | The system owner | The system owner |
| If you sell the house | Stays with the home | Pay it off or transfer it to the buyer | Transfers with the home, nothing left to pay | Buyer assumes the agreement, or you buy it out |
| Best suited to | Owners who have the capital and want the lowest lifetime cost | Owners who want to own the system without paying upfront | Owners with the cash who would rather someone else carry the equipment risk | Owners who want no money down and no equipment risk |
Two things to check before you sign anything
- Dealer fees on loans
- A very low advertised interest rate is often paid for by a fee folded into the system price. Ask for the cash price and the financed price side by side. The gap between them is the real cost of the financing.
- Escalators on leases and PPAs
- Many agreements raise your payment by a set percentage every year for twenty or more years. Ask what the escalator is, and ask to see the payment in year twenty, not just year one.
The federal tax credit no longer applies if you buy the system
This is the single biggest change in home solar right now, and a lot of what you will read online has not caught up with it.
The 30% federal residential credit, Section 25D, was ended by legislation signed in July 2025 and expired for systems placed in service after 31 December 2025. If you buy a system in 2026 with cash or a loan and own it yourself, there is no federal tax credit. Anyone still quoting you 30% off a purchase is working from last year's script.
The separate business credit, Section 48E, does still apply to third-party-owned systems — leases, PPAs and prepaid leases — and currently runs through the end of 2027. The finance company owns the system and claims it, and the value reaches you as a lower price or a lower rate rather than as anything on your tax return.
That is why the four options on this page are not equivalent any more, and why a prepaid lease is worth a serious look even if you have the cash to buy outright. Which one wins depends on your numbers, and we will run both.
Accurate as of September 2026. Tax law moves, and we will not quote you an incentive we cannot confirm in writing. Confirm anything tax-related with your own tax advisor — nothing here is tax advice.
Questions worth asking any solar rep
Including us. If a rep cannot answer these clearly and in writing, that tells you what you need to know.
- What is the cash price of this system, separate from the financing?
- What production estimate are you using for my roof, and what tool produced it?
- What does my bill look like in month one, and what is left of it?
- What escalator or rate increase is built into this proposal, and what happens if rates rise more slowly than you have assumed?
- Who do I call in year seven if the battery stops working, and what exactly does the warranty cover?
- What happens to this agreement if I sell the house?
Get the real numbers.
Send us a recent electricity bill and your address and we will come back with what solar and storage would actually do at your house, including the case for not doing it.
Switch, Northern California. Sales partner of Continuum.