California is by and far the largest market for solar in the U.S. and it has an appetite for a lot more. However, there are still numerous impediments that solar and the renewable energy industry faces at large. Carla Peterman, commissioner of the California Energy Commission, and Nancy Ryan, Deputy Executive Director of the California Public Utility Commission, discussed such impediments at the recent Inverter and PV System Technology Forum in San Francisco.

The future of the grid in California is likely going to look very different than today’s grid, according to Ryan.

“I envision a grid that can accommodate large quantities of distributed generation resources, which I expect to be increasingly photovoltaic,” she said. “It's also a grid which we look to, to provide balancing services in terms of dialing up and down usage at millions of points throughout the grid—thermostats adjusting in an automated way at homes and offices, refrigerators, freezers dialing up and down to keep that balance out there.”

The state’s already on the way, but still faces some barriers like higher permitting and interconnection costs for renewables, according to Peterman.

Her commission is focused on large-scale solar thermal and other large scale energy generations.

“I know firsthand the impact policies can have in driving photovoltaic system costs, in particular some of those more localized costs that pertain to balance of systems,” she said.

Last year Gov. Jerry Brown (D) signed into law SB X12 which codified the state’s 33 percent renewable portfolio standard into law and required for the first time, that the rules cover all utilities, investor-owned and public utilities, in the state.

Both the energy commission and the utilities’ commission are now developing the regulations to make sure the standards are achieved on time.

“These rules are just the beginning,” Peterman said. “Committing to achieving 33 percent renewables by 2020 is not enough. There are a number of challenges to the scaling of renewables to 33 percent and beyond.”

Some key questions need to be answered, according to Peterman.

“How do we scale renewables while maintaining grid reliability? How do we use the expanding market for renewables to ensure competition and least cost and best fit? How do we site large-scale renewable projects to minimize environmental biological land-use and cultural impact? And how do we better coordinate permitting across state federal and local agencies?” she said.

The energy commission is developing strategies in a statewide renewable plan this year to reduce some of these outstanding challenges in renewables.