San Diego hopes to lead California in solar panel installations
Articles — By forcechange on December 5, 2008 12:04 pm
San Diego may be the first major city in California to take advantage of a new state law that allows government to assist in the financing of solar panel installations for homes and businesses. Under the proposal by Mayor Jerry Sanders, participants will be able to pay for solar panel installations through their property tax bill over a 20 year period. The privately financed loans would have a fixed interest rate and could be transferred if the property was sold.
The proposal, if approved by the San Diego City Council, would become law early next year. This would coincide with the federal law that goes into effect on January 1 that gives a 30% tax credit for residential and commercial solar installations.
These two new schemes should dramatically increase the number of solar installations in San Diego since the main hurdle has traditionally been the large up-front costs. Under the new proposal, those costs would be spread out across 20 years and could result in payments of around $150 per month.
Sustainable energy expert, Irene Stillings, notes that, “what this does is give an immediate positive cash flow to the homeowners because they are going to be able to see these incredibly lower utility bills.”
Additionally, there is very low risk to the government from this program, since the financing is tied to a tax lien on a property. Therefore the government would get paid even before the mortgage. As the mayor’s spokeswoman noted, “the government always gets its money.”
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Solar panels are being used by corporatons as the government pass laws that allows them to be financed. I think this is really good — although some think that they’re not doing enough — because step by step, we can rely less and less on fossil fuel, thereby reducing our carbon footprint.