I have lived in San Diego since 2006, other than a brief stint in Chicago, and I have practiced law the whole time. I have a spouse and two kids, and our home is on the border between Kensington and City Heights.
I have been a renter everywhere I have lived. Chicago. Gainesville, Florida. Williamsburg, Virginia. And here. In every one of those homes, the big decisions about the building, including the roof, belonged to someone else.
The conversation that stuck with me
Where I live now, I wanted solar. I asked my landlord if he would put panels on the building. He said no. It didn’t pencil out for him.
I am not criticizing him. I understand. It’s his building, and he has to make the numbers work. He was reasonable and I was reasonable, and we both still ended up with nothing. Two people who could each have gained from cleaner power, and no good way to get there.
Why plug-in solar caught my attention
Plug-in solar is small. Many renters in other countries hang a couple of panels on a balcony and plug them into an outlet. It doesn’t ask a landlord to pay for a roof system, and it’s the kind of thing a renter might be able to take along when they move.
I don’t know yet how well that works for San Diego renters and landlords, and I won’t pretend I do. That is what this project is researching: what the new California law does and doesn’t settle, what a fair arrangement between a renter and an owner looks like, and what questions a person should answer before spending a dollar.
What I believe
Things get done when everyone benefits. If an idea only works for one side, it doesn’t last. So the first goal here is that renters benefit, and that the way it happens is good for the landlord too. If we get it right, the benefits reach well past one apartment: cleaner air for everyone in San Diego, a better future for our children, and neighbors who worked something out together instead of fighting about it.
Where this stands
In October 2026 I formed San Diego Plug-In Solar Cooperative, Inc., a California worker cooperative corporation, to carry this work. A worker cooperative belongs to the people who do its work, and each of them gets one vote, however much money anyone puts in. That is how I think something meant to help renters should be built. It is still early. The cooperative has no product for sale, and nothing on this site is a promise. I am recruiting a team of like-minded professionals who care about getting solar power to San Diego’s renters. If you rent, own, or manage property in San Diego and want to follow along, tell me. And if you’ve had a conversation like mine, I’d like to hear how it went.
Curtis G. Carll
San Diego