All industries are plagued with too many acronyms; the solar industry could top the charts, cluttering myriad technical, utility and financial acronyms into confusing babble-babble. Here are but a few solar sugar plums, from the basic to the sublime:
- BoS: Balance of System (the soft costs — aside from equipment and installation labor — that complete the cost of your solar system).
- CCA/CCE: Community Choice Aggregation/Community Choice Energy (an alternative form of cleaner energy supply … coming to Yolo County in 2017!).
- CPUC: California Public Utilities Commission (the governing/regulatory body that oversees PG&E and other investor-owned utilities in California; aka, friends of solar and consumer choice).
- eV: Electric Vehicle (aka, peanut butter to solar’s jelly).
- GHG: Greenhouse Gas (a [horrible] gas in the atmosphere that absorbs and emits radiation within the thermal infrared range).
- IRR: Internal Rate of Return (the interest rate at which the net present value of all the cash flows [both positive and negative] from your solar investment equal zero).
- ITC: Investment Tax Credit (the 30%, one-time federal tax credit you receive when you own your solar system).
- kW: Kilowatt (1,000 watts of energy).
- kWh: Kilowatt Hour (a measure of electrical energy equivalent to a power consumption of 1,000 watts for 1 hour).
- NEM: Net-Energy Metering (the program/mechanism by which solar system owners are credited for the electricity they generate).
- PTO: Permission to Operate (notification from your utility that your solar system is connected to the grid, thus commencing monetary credits).
- PPA: Power Purchase Agreement (an agreement to purchase electricity generated by a solar system [on your roof] that is owned by a third-party, tax equity fund … aka, a bad deal for homeowners vis-a-vis solar ownership).
- PV: Photovoltaic (PV cells in your solar panels are specialized semiconductor diodes that convert visible light into direct current electricity).
- TOU: Time of Use (a utility rate schedule whereby you are credited [for solar] and debited [for electricity use] based on the time of generation/use).
And, finally:
- PG&E: Our favorite utility (though they fight solar at every juncture :)
