California's Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (SOMAH) Program benefits participants on many levels:

We would absolutely recommend the SOMAH Program. In spite of changing TOU rates and the uncertainty of NEM policy changes down the road, the financial benefits of multifamily solar in the Central Valley remains significant. Installing solar makes a statement of intent to produce clean energy – and to produce it locally.

The benefit to our tribe is the opportunity for our tribal members to have savings on their electricity bill, and I encourage any tribes who may be interested in going after the same type of funding and opportunity to bring it to their community and their tribal members.

A lot of the times we come up short at the end of the month. So any sort of money we can save is helpful, and multiplying it over the months, it's a good amount that we're saving with solar. And it doesn't only benefit me, it benefits everybody in these apartments. I'm very grateful for that.

I'm most excited about continuing the solar installations across our portfolio and showing our peers in affordable housing how it's easy to do—and that it makes a difference. I definitely recommend the program to every affordable housing provider. It delivers clean energy, not just for residents, but for the whole community.

The SOMAH Program plays a vital role in this effort by facilitating equitable access to the cost-saving benefits of solar for both property owners and residents.

The money savings makes us most excited, being able to save $50 a month will really help out. We'll be able to go on a family vacation and buy clothes.

The projects that we have done at Saint Mary's include putting in the solar system, changing the entire water heating system, from gas to electric and all of the ventilation system for the community rooms, as well as for the hallways. We know that the total cost has been about $1 million, and the incentives that were received by us through SOMAH, BayREN, TECH and LIWP total about $900,000- and we only had to expend about $100,000 to complete all of these changes at the project. So clearly, there's a tremendous amount of incentives.

We can generate power upstairs and directly supply electricity to each household. The installation of solar power can save on electricity costs for us residents. Because we are all low-income seniors, having electricity costs subsidies is crucial.

Working with the SOMAH project doing multi-families, I really learned a lot doing the commercial side of solar. I think others should get involved with the SOMAH Program for training purposes and helping the community to learn a lot of good skills that can get you hired in the fields you may not have imagined that you can work in before and you're helping out the people that live around you in your community long term.