San Francisco looked eager to get out ahead with aggressive solar incentives. But it is now running into nitty gritty difficulties. San Francisco residents have smaller roofs meaning that any individual installation is smaller and unprofitable under the innovative financing now being offered by companies like SolarCity.

Not only is Milpitas exploring an extensive municipal solar project which may cover city hall and 15 other major buildings, they are exemplifying the increasingly sophisticated collaboration characterizing the Bay Area on clean energy:

City staff has been working with local and regional cities and public agencies, including the Association of Bay Area Governments and Joint Venture Silicon Valley, to develop efficient and cost effective processes for evaluation of public facilities for feasibility of solar powering, review of options available for financing and installation of those solar panels on public facilities, he said.
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The contract with CH2M Hill will be based on time and materials, for an amount not to exceed $75,000, for a term of one year. About $55,000 in funding will come from redevelopment tax increment funds; $10,000 from the water fund; and $10,000 from the sewer fund.

Rafael @www.ClimateAtBay.net

Just in from Kurt. More at the Mercury News.

Just in from Kurt...

Foster City Eliminates Fees To Install Solar Panels

Foster City, CA; June 15, 2007

In an effort to encourage local businesses and residents to pursue alternative energy sources, the City Council in Foster City recently voted to eliminate all building fees associated with installing solar (photovoltaic) panels. Permits are still required but no fees will be charged.

Last year the City Council reduced fees for installation of solar panels by one half. This year they decided to eliminate the fees altogether. “We find that very few permits are issued in Foster City for solar panels. We want to make sure that people are making decisions about solar energy on the merits of the option, not on the cost of the City permits,” said Council member Linda Koelling.

All residents and businesses in Foster City wishing to install solar panels are encouraged to call the Community Development Department at 650-286-3232 prior to beginning the project for a free consultation on the permitting process.

For two years the Loma Prieta Chapter of the Sierra Club's Global Warming team led by Kurt Newick has been doing a bang up job of getting cities to reduce their fees on solar installations. Kurt and company have helped make possible the quadrupling of solar wattage installed in our area from 2005 to 2006!