Sungevity Blog / home solar systems

SF Solar Victory – the largest municipal solar program in the US!

On July 1st, the San Francisco Solar Energy Incentive Program took effect! Passed by the SF Board of Supervisors, GoSolar SF is a visionary 10-year solar incentive program that will make $3 to $5 million a year available as incentives for homeowners and commercial businesses to install solar. This landmark program, one of the largest municipal solar programs in the country, demonstrates San Francisco’s commitment to tackling climate change and achieving energy independence in San Francisco

Program facts:
• For the 2008 year, $1.5 million dollars has been made available as incentives for homeowners to install solar.
• The program is retroactive and will cover solar installs from December 11, 2007 onwards.

GoSolar SF’s program’s history, brought to you by one of its principle architects: JP Ross.

The idea for the San Francisco program emerged from a Solar Task Force convened by City Assessor-Recorder Phil Ting. Ting recognized the need to increase solar energy usage in the City. San Francisco currently ranks last in the Bay Area for solar installed per capita, at 6.15 Watt/person. To put this into context, there are 51 Watts/person in Napa County. In addition, the average cost of installing a solar system in San Francisco is 7% higher than the average Bay Area cost because of difficult installation conditions, an arduous permitting process and higher installation costs associated with the racking needed for flat-roof installations. The Solar Task Force set out to speed the growth of solar installations in the city.

See the Solar Task Force’s proposal here.

Step 1: Tackling the permit process road block
One of the main barriers facing installers was the slow permitting process for solar systems. Solar contractors had actually stopped selling in SF because the permitting process was difficult and arbitrary. Contractors shared horror stories of getting stopped by arcane historic building ordinance with no relevance to the solar system in question. Through a series of meetings with the Department of Buildings and Inspections (DBI), the Solar Task Force came to agreement on an expedited and greatly simplified permitting program. Under the new program, solar permits for systems under 4 kW are now granted over the counter!

After the permitting victory, the Solar Task Force decided to tackle the bigger challenge of how to grow solar installations in San Francisco in view of the high cost of doing business in the City. The Task Force proposed an incentive program to bring down the initial investment cost needed for solar systems and to create a low interest loan program to help homeowners pay for their solar system.

Creating an incentive program is always a difficult task. The long-term benefits are weighed against the upfront costs and short-term needs often come out ahead in the scales. The campaign to get the SF solar program up and running was a series of challenges, setbacks, and coalition building. After countless meetings with various Supervisors, on December 11, 2007, the program was announced. It was a false victory as the Board of Supervisors had some questions about the incentive program and moved to cancel it. The day of the SF solar program seemed like it would never come….

Undaunted, the Solar Task Force, with its strong coalition of environmental groups, committed solar companies, and the support of Assessor Ting and Mayor Gavin Newsome’s office, campaigned for 6 months to restart the program. Supervisor Dufty took the reigns and sponsored the ordinance and the SF Task Force mobilized again to get it passed by a vote of 8-3 on June 10th, 2008. Thanks are due to Supervisors Alito-Pier, Ammiano, Chu, Elsbernd, Maxwell, Sandoval, and Markarimi for helping your city create a solid foundation for a sustainable future.

JP Ross, currently Sungevity’s VP of Strategic Relationships, began working on a more sustainable solar future for San Francisco back in 1999 while working at Greenpeace. He campaigned to pass Proposition B, a $100 million bond initiative to pay for the installation of solar panels, wind turbines and energy conservation technologies on City-owned property in San Francisco. In 2003, he joined Vote Solar and in early 2007, he joined the Solar Task Force. As Vote Solar’s Policy Director, JP worked tirelessly during the San Francisco campaign. Vote Solar, a non-profit organization with the mission of stopping global warming and increasing energy independence by bringing solar energy into the mainstream, was critical to the development of the San Francisco Solar Energy Incentive Program. Here at Sungevity, we salute this great work and look forward to working with San Franciscan homeowners as they move forward and go solar.

Learn more by clicking here.

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Worried about gas prices?

Aren’t we all! Not to add to your worries, but did you know that electricity prices increased by 10% between 2005 to 2006 nationally and are likely to rise at even higher rates in the coming months and years?

Strange as it may seem, energy utilities are also subject to fossil fuel price increases. Prices for natural gas and coal, which supply 60 percent of California’s utility electricity, have risen even more than oil prices. There are several causes for this and the majority of economists and market analysts believe that the energy market will continue to be pressured by rising energy costs. Check out this graph, created by the US Department of Energy, that shows projected and past cost increases for residential electricity in the US.

Why is this happening now and what does it mean for you?

For utilities, it’s getting more expensive to create power. Fuel and purchased power costs account for about 95 percent of the recent increase in utility operational costs. Demand for electricity, despite new advances in energy-efficient appliances, is on the rise. Infrastructure investment costs, or what it takes to maintain the grid, are forecast to be around 14 billion dollars a year in coming years. What’s more, in addition to rising costs for fuel sources, there are other costs associated with fossil fuels—40 percent of US carbon emissions come from electricity production.
Forgetting the environmental costs for a moment, take a closer look at each fossil fuel source and its role in spiking energy costs:

Oil, or petroleum, amounts for a small percentage of the United States’ fuel mix but it is now at record prices of $145.85 a barrel (as of July 3rd), the highest levels ever recorded. Accelerated demand and decreased supply due to the lowest production capacity in years contributes to these price jumps. Although oil does not contribute greatly to power generation, it significantly affects the cost of other fuels and is used in the mining and shipping needed to procure fossil fuels.

Natural gas accounts for nearly 20 percent of all power generation, and costs about 63 percent more than it did a year ago. Dramatically increasing natural gas prices have a particularly strong impact on electricity prices because natural gas-powered generators dictate prices in many short-term or spot power markets in the US. Natural gas has grown in popularity, edging coal out as a relatively “cleaner” burning fuel source; this popularity has helped raise prices even further.

Coal accounts for half of all power produced in the United States today and its cost has risen 20 percent in the last two years. In some areas, the increase has been much higher.

Uranium, the primary source of nuclear energy, which represents 19 percent of all power generation, has also increased in price by about 40 percent since 2001.

All of these things taken together means your utility is probably raising its prices.There is some good news. Utilities are using increasing amounts of renewable and distributed generation resources.

So, unfortunately, it’s not just your gas tank that you have to worry about. In California, only a small amount of electricity consumption is fixed by law. The price increase for additional electricity consumption is skyrocketing. The good news here is that there are solutions to controlling these runaway costs. Becoming your own power source by installing solar is a great step towards gaining your independence from gas and energy prices. There are many other ways that you can reduce your overall electricity consumption. We recommend this site for simple ways to cut down your energy consumption in daily life.

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How’s the weather where you live? Is there enough sun for solar?

Everyone is excited about the recent announcement that San Francisco is about to take real action on climate change, but the folks at Grist.org think this is a foggy idea. So, we checked it out. Is San Francisco too foggy for solar?

Solar systems in cooler cities like San Francisco are very productive because solar production is reduced when panels and inverters get too hot. This happens in cities that bake in the sun all the time, and can actually result in slightly lower solar energy production.

While fog figures prominently in our mindset about San Francisco, San Francisco compares quite well with all cities in California for solar production according to the California Solar Initiative’s website. When you take into account an entire year of sun hours, the city as a whole has great solar potential. The days that we really need power, the hot days when the air conditioners crank on, are the days with no fog. That’s when solar systems are producing maximum power.

San Francisco compares well with all cities in California for production according to the California Solar Initiative’s website (http://www.csi-epbb.com/). A Sungevity Kit A in San Francisco would only produce 5% less than if it were placed in LA or San Diego, and about the same if it were in a hot fog-less city like Fresno, Bakersfield and Sacramento.

To see this graph look even better than it does here, check out the Solar Task Force presentation.

Like we said in a response to Grist’s piece, Germany has the largest solar market in the world and they have the solar potential of Nome, Alaska. Good sunlight hours are determined by many factors.

Bottom line: San Francisco is just one great spot among many for solar, and the city’s new initiative is an amazing step in the right direction.

We hope this information helps clear things up!

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