PV System - New Commercial Building PV Requirement

[ArtC]

Hello,
Question on solar requirement for commercial building. 2022 Energy Code (CA) states to provide PV & Battery system for all new construction. My project is a new 3 story self storage building. It's on a lot with several existing buildings, one of them with PV system already installed. Existing PV system was designed to provide compliance for the rest of the buildings on the same lot (including the new proposed building). Plan checker is still states PV system and battery is required on the new building. I don't think that was the intent of code but is there something in the code that I can provide as an argument/exception?
Thank you.
Art

 

[Joe.B]

First, are you using the "Performance" or "Prescriptive" compliance approach for achieving energy code compliance?

If you're using the performance approach, your energy report will tell you what you have to do.

If you're using the prescriptive approach, Section 140.10(a) will tell you how much PV you need, and 140.10(b) will tell you how much battery storage is required. Both (a) and (b) have exceptions, but they require far more analysis than can be achieved by Q and A here.

Do you have access to the code? If not, here's a link:

Codes

www.dgs.ca.gov