Despite a bill to create a rebate programme for energy storage systems purchased in California being dropped from a recent round of legislative decision-making, the state’s industry still has a “bright future”, commentators have said.

An analyst at Navigant Research has said he was surprised to see Tesla dominate California’s SGIP (Self-Generation Incentive Program) applications, with the Silicon Valley car and tech company accounting for half of all requested funds.

California’s Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP), the scheme to incentivise the use of distributed energy, opens for applications at the beginning of next month, weighted to favour energy storage.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has reformed the Self-Generation Incentive Programme (SGIP) that finances the installation of distributed generation technologies, to now benefit long-duration technologies that previously missed out on the incentive, through the extended US$83 million a year for behind-the-meter storage.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision that reforms its Self-Generation Incentive Programme (SGIP) to provide US$83 million a year until 2019 for behind-the-meter technologies, not least, energy storage.

California governor, Jerry Brown, is expected imminently to sign off new legislation extending a funding programme said to be a vital lifeline for the state’s nascent energy storage sector.