‘I make up a little chart every day,’ Kin said. ‘This past week was sunny, so I was electricity neutral about every other day, which I’m excited about.’ Friday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to sign legislation that will make it possible for more Californians to sell the electricity they produce back to their utilities at retail prices. The legislation, written by Assemblywoman Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), doubles to 5% the overall amount of energy that California’s investor-owned utilities must buy back. Previously, state law required electric companies to sign so-called net-metering contracts for up to only 2.5% of their load. Solar advocates said the net-metering boost would allow consumers to recoup their investment faster, which is critical to California’s goal of installing a million rooftop arrays by 2017. Some 50,000 California homes benefit from net-metering today, a number that would need to grow rapidly if the state is to reach its goal of obtaining 3,000 megawatts from rooftop solar. California leads the nation in solar energy, accounting for more than 65% of all the solar installed in the U.S., Skinner said. ‘Net metering has been absolutely fundamental to that success,’ she said. But […]