Michael Hiltzik: How California's rooftop solar program became a victim of its own spectacular success

There's one aspect of California's program to spur the installation of rooftop solar panels that everyone can agree on: It has been spectacularly successful.

Launched in 1995 and pushed forward a decade later, when then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger set a target of 1 million solar installations, the program has handily exceeded that goal.

Today there are more than 1.2 million rooftop systems in place, most of them atop residential buildings. That has made California — where an estimated 15% of electric generation comes from rooftop systems — the national leader in the technology.

But now the program is showing its age. It has been so successful, in fact, that some of its unintended consequences have become too significant to ignore.

Chief among them is that the incentives awarded to homeowners installing rooftop solar solar systems have raised costs on consumers who haven't joined the trend — or can't. These include lower-income families, renters and occupants of apartment buildings.

"California's distributed solar policy hurts the poor," UC Berkeley energy economist . "It really is that