California's solar energy proposal supports low-income households in millions of dollars

California officials on Thursday changed their plan to grant credits for rooftop solar installations in order to promote renewable energy and appease critics who want incentives to be dispersed more equally, according to a report. With the addition of hundreds of millions of dollars in additional subsidies for low-income customers, the new proposal does away with a monthly charge for solar households to connect to the grid.  Critics assert that this actually favors more affluent Californians, who dominate the renewable energy grid. The "net energy metering," a state law that grants credits to solar energy users for producing additional electricity and transmitting it back to the grid, has been changed, according to regulators. [caption id="attachment_61351" align="aligncenter" width="1732"] Image: VioNettaStock / Getty Images[/caption] According to the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), the plan will not affect current home solar owners, who will continue to get their current payout. It dropped an earlier plan from December of last year that would have charged Californians with new solar installations an outrageous $8 per kilowatt each month in order to pay for the cost of maintaining the grid. According to reports, the proposal would also reduce export prices, or credits, that consumers earn for exporting any extra solar energy to utilities. The average export rate in California would drop from $0.30 per kilowatt to $0.08 per kilowatt, according to the California Solar & Storage Association (CALSSA), a business organization for the renewable energy sector. However, the solar industry is currently assessing the proposed decision.