The City of San Francisco rates number one in the United States in terms of energy and climate change policy, programs, and performance per Sustain Lane (2008) Rankings U.S. 50 Most Populous Cities in the Nation. Sustain Lane is a proprietary, peer-reviewed, leading national survey that ranks the most populous U.S. cities in terms of their sustainability practices (Sustainlane.com).
Solar Sunset Reservoir
San Francisco will keep its lead by breaking ground on its Sunset Reservoir project this month. Charles Sheehan, Communication Spokesperson for the San Francisco Public Utility Commission speaks with Suite101 in a personal communication March 18, 2010. “The addition of the Sunset Reservoir project will dramatically increase solar energy generation from approximately 10 MW in the City currently, to 15 MW by the end of 2010.”
Once completed, the Sunset Reservoir Project will be the largest municipal solar installation in the State of California." Recurrent Energy will be the provider of the installation of the 25,000 solar panels to be installed.
Rob Roth of local San Francisco KTVU.com reports March 13, 2009 that “the Sunset Reservoir will be the largest solar panel project in the State of California.” The mammoth project will be “as large as 12 football fields in length and reduce the cost of solar electricity by 30%. The 45 million dollar project will triple the amount of solar generated electricity in the city, and create nearly 70 jobs, many from low income neighborhoods.”
Go Solar Wildly Successful
Further, “Our Go Solar Project has been wildly successful,” Sheehan continues. “Since the inception of the program in July 7 of 2008, the number of solar installations has more than doubled from 800 solar panel installations to just under 2000," the Communications Spokesperson tells Suite 101.
Coupled with the California Solar Initiative, Go Solar SF is a rebate program sponsored by the State of California, and federal tax credits, that could pay half the cost or more of a solar power system installed in San Francisco. Go Solar SF offers residents up to $5,000, and businesses up to $10,000 to install solar power. Low-income residents and non-profit organizations can get even more (SFwater.org).
The Environmental News Service International Daily Newswire (February 8, 2010) reports about yet one more program offered in San Francisco. In its article San Francisco Mayor OKs $150M Bond for Landowners’ Energy Upgrades, the Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) is described as another method of reducing greenhouse gases. This is a special voluntary property tax rooted in traditional land-secured municipal finance.
Special Voluntary Property Tax
The Newswire article describes how the financing to install solar panels works. “A local government creates an improvement district. A bond, secured by real property within the district is issued, and the bond proceeds are used to fund renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Property owners repay the debt service on the bond in fixed payments as part of their property tax bill. Each additional special voluntary property tax will be paid in full within 20 years.”
Mayor Tom Bates introduced the concept of a special voluntary property tax to Berkeley November 6, 2007. His Chief of Staff Cisco DeVries came up with the idea.“You are borrowing money from the city, and the city is getting repaid through property taxes,” DeVries told Doug Oakley, of The Berkeley Voice October 26, 2007. “The money you save on electricity bills will eventually pay for the cost of the system.”
Environmentalists are pleased with San Francisco’s lead in carbon emission free electricity. "The crisis of global warming demands immediate action," said John Rizzo of the Sierra Club SF Bay Chapter as quoted in Mayor Newsom Signs Legislation Establishing California’s Largest Solar Photovoltaic Installation at Sunset Reservoir on SFwater.org. "The Sunset solar project will reduce carbon emissions by over 100,000 metric tons of carbon over twenty-five years and help San Francisco lead California into a new green energy future."
Programs as Go Solar and PACE promise to further mitigate the city’s concentration of carbon based greenhouse gases.
References:
Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy (2010). Environmental Performance Index (EPI) Indicator Metadata. Retrieved March 20, 2010 from epi.yale.edu/Files, p. 59.
GOG101
Karen Hansen - Biography Karen is currently an Earth and Environmental Sciences instructor at a private college. In the past she has worked on ...
