The AI Grid Creates the Opportunity. Distributed Solar Ownership Is the Answer.
California's energy affordability crisis and the AI infrastructure boom are converging into a rare policy opening. Investor-owned utilities can absorb hyperscale data-center demand — but only if policy channels data-center capital directly into community solar.
Without that consensus, the same cost-allocation logic utilities have long wielded against solar ownership applies with far greater force to every gigawatt of new data-center load landing on an aging grid — and ratepayers across the state will pay for it.
Distributed solar ownership is the only affordability hedge we control. A rare, bipartisan opening now exists to pair data-center growth with distributed solar equity in a single legislative package, turning the infrastructure crisis into a community benefit.
"Is AI the Best Thing to Happen to Solar?" — A Legal and Data Analysis of Utility Cost Allocation, Distributed Solar & the Path to Affordability
This report builds the evidentiary foundation for the DEPP Act and related legislation, designed to answer the legal and economic questions regulators, legislators, and opponents will raise. It:
The DEPP Act creates a voluntary, market-driven program that solves California's energy affordability crisis by channeling data-center capital directly into community solar — with no new taxes or utility rate increases.
The program connects data centers needing fast, reliable energy supply with communities needing affordable solar. It works through private contracts and public-private partnerships, and creates tangible benefits for data centers, host sites, community members, and local energy agencies alike.
Contact us → to learn how the DEPP Act works and how your organization can participate.
Support third-party effort routing data-center load onto clean energy through a Feed-In Tariff legislative approach.
Whether you want to support our research, join the coalition, request a briefing, or partner with us — there's a place for you in California's clean energy future.