NEM 3.0 sharply reduced what California utilities pay homeowners for exported solar. Without a battery, the math is much thinner than it used to be. With one, you stop selling cheap and start using your own power when it’s most valuable.
Use your own solar power instead of selling it back at low rates.
Cover peak-hour usage from your battery, not the grid.
A system designed around how NEM 3.0 actually works today.
Net Energy Metering (NEM) is how California utilities compensate homeowners for the solar electricity their roofs send back to the grid. Under the previous version of the program, NEM 2.0, exported solar was credited at roughly the same rate the homeowner paid to buy electricity. A kilowatt-hour out was worth a kilowatt-hour back. The math was simple: oversize the system slightly, sell back the surplus, end the year roughly even on the bill.
NEM 3.0 took effect in April 2023 and replaced that arrangement with the Net Billing Tariff. Under the new structure, the credit you receive for exported solar is based on the utility’s wholesale cost of energy at that hour — not on the retail rate you pay. The result: exported solar is now worth a fraction of what it used to be worth. Importing electricity from the grid still costs the full retail rate. The asymmetry is the whole story.
A solar-only home produces most of its electricity during the middle of the day. If the home is empty — everyone’s at work or school — that production flows back to the grid and gets credited at the new low export rate. Then, in the evening, the same family comes home and buys electricity back from the grid at the full retail rate. Under NEM 3.0, that exchange is a structural loss.
Even households that are home during the day rarely use enough power at noon to match what their panels produce. The surplus still goes to export. Under NEM 2.0, that surplus paid for the evening usage. Under NEM 3.0, it doesn’t come close.
A battery changes what your panels are doing during the day. Instead of exporting surplus production at low wholesale rates, the surplus charges the battery. The home keeps using its own stored energy through the evening peak. Less is sold cheap. Less is bought expensive. The exchange that NEM 3.0 made unfavorable largely stops happening.
This is the structural reason batteries went from a nice-to-have to a core part of every install that pencils out under NEM 3.0. The policy didn’t ban solar — it changed which configurations save you money. Solar with battery still works. Solar alone, in most homes, no longer does.
If you got a solar quote in 2021 or 2022 and didn’t move forward, the economics of that proposal are out of date. Any system that was designed to oversize and rely on export credits no longer works the way it used to. A new proposal under NEM 3.0 will almost always include battery storage as a structural component, not as an optional upgrade.
This isn’t a sales tactic — it’s how the policy shifted. A battery isn’t one of many features we’re adding. It’s the piece that makes the rest of the system save you money under the current rules.
Every qualifying install includes battery storage. We work with Tier-1 manufacturers only: Tesla Powerwall, Franklin Home Power, and Enphase IQ Battery. Battery sizing is part of the proposal — it depends on your home’s evening usage, the size of your solar array, and what you want backed up during outages. No separate purchase. No upfront cost.
A short utility bill review shows you whether your home qualifies, what size battery is right, and what the monthly numbers actually look like under the current rules. No cost, no pressure.
