Chapter 5 · California Policy — NEM 3.0 in Depth
5.4 What "saving money" actually looks like under NEM 3.0
The right model is "self-consume plus battery peak-shaving."
In the ideal day:
- Daytime (10am–3pm): solar powers the home directly, charges the EV, and fills the battery.
- Evening (4pm–9pm, peak prices): battery discharges to cover household load.
- Late night (9pm – 6am): pull a small amount of off-peak power from the grid if needed.
If you stick to the NEM 2.0 "sell power back for profit" mindset, you will almost certainly lose money under NEM 3.0.
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5.3 Four design rules under NEM 3.0
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5.5 Charging by "production" is the biggest scam of the NEM 3.0 era
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