{"id":9924,"date":"2026-04-01T08:37:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T12:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gridalt.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=9924"},"modified":"2026-09-21T15:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T19:15:24","slug":"from-running-the-program-to-shaping-the-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/live-grid-wp.pantheonsite.io\/es\/the-current\/from-running-the-program-to-shaping-the-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"From Running the Program to Shaping the Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some of GRID Alternatives’ strongest policy wins didn’t start in a hearing room. They started on rooftops.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2008, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) selected GRID as the statewide program administrator for the Single-family Affordable Solar Homes (SASH) program, a ratepayer-funded incentive program that helped income-qualified homeowners go solar. SASH launched in 2009. Under SASH and its second phase (SASH 2.0), GRID installed solar on close to 10,000 homes before the program’s incentives were fully reserved at the end of 2021.<\/span><\/p>\n

Running SASH meant bringing the program to life in homes, in permitting offices, and on rooftops throughout California. That experience taught GRID exactly where the program’s design helped income-qualified families and where it fell short of reaching the communities facing the greatest environmental and economic burdens. It also made clear that the need for the program\u2019s support would continue long after funds dried up. GRID put those lessons to work.<\/span><\/p>\n

Turning field experience into a policy win<\/b><\/p>\n

Once the initial round of SASH funding was spent, GRID sponsored a bill – California Assembly Bill 217 – that extended the state\u2019s low-income solar programs and provided $108 million in additional funding to keep benefits flowing to communities in need. Then, as the program\u2019s sunset approached, GRID worked with a broad coalition of partners to advocate for a successor program that would build on the work that SASH started.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Directed by California Assembly Bill 327 and CPUC Decision 18-06-027, the CPUC created a new, more targeted program in 2018: Disadvantaged Communities \u2013 Single-Family Solar Homes, or DAC-SASH<\/a>. Modeled after SASH but focused on frontline communities, DAC-SASH serves low-income households in one of the top 25 percent most disadvantaged communities statewide, based on the state’s CalEnviroScreen tool. It runs through 2030, provides $8.5 million in incentives annually, and builds job training into every project it funds. GRID was selected as the program administrator, the same role it had played for SASH, only now aimed squarely at the communities most left out of the solar market.<\/span><\/p>\n

What that policy win built<\/b><\/p>\n

The CPUC’s most recent independent evaluation of DAC-SASH, covering 2022 through 2024, shows how the program is delivering real community benefits:<\/span><\/p>\n