Bright Future As Berkeley Starts Solar Program
March 1, 2009 by editor
Filed under Homes, Solar News
Homeowner Jeanne Pimentel shows off her new solar panels to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates. She'll pay for them over 20 years in property taxes.
Two Berkeley homeowners received checks for their new solar panels on Friday, becoming the first to flip the switch on the city’s much-ballyhooed, closely watched solar financing program.
“I’m a guinea pig, but there’s no way I could have afforded solar otherwise,” said Jeanne Pimentel, an editor who has 11 solar panels on her Allston Way home. “Because of this, I can help solve our energy problem without putting any money up front.”
Berkeley’s program allows property owners to pay for solar panels through a 20-year assessment on their property taxes. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. rebates and new tax breaks guaranteed in the federal stimulus package reduce the cost further, so most homeowners begin saving on electric bills immediately.
Twelve states, including New York, Washington and Colorado, and 50 California cities, including San Francisco and San Diego, are following Berkeley’s model and are closely watching how the program unfolds.
California Governor Schwarzenegger’s Green Challenge
California Governor Says He’ll Stick To Environmental Plans, Despite Economic Crisis
President-elect Obama is 30 days from office. For a window on his future, turn west for a moment to a chief executive who is already up to his neck in the nation’s troubles.
This month, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger warned of financial Armageddon, as California faced a potential $40 billion deficit that threatened jobs, roads, schools and public safety. At the same time, he’s pushing some of the world’s toughest environmental laws to make California a leader on climate change.
California Utilities Commission Approves Disputed Sunrise Powerlink Solar Power Line
December 19, 2008 by admin
Filed under Solar News
Map of Sunrise Powerlink and protected natural lands - Click to enlarge image
The first skirmish in what promises to be a war of attrition between groups that want maximum supplies of renewable energy and groups that want maximum protections for landscapes and endangered wildlife ended Thursday when the California Public Utilities Commission, in a 4-to-1 vote, approved a 123-mile, $1.9 billion power line from El Centro to northwestern San Diego.
The line from the desert sands of the Imperial Valley would bring in enough energy - wind and solar energy, the commission expects - to power more than half a million homes and businesses in San Diego.
The Sunrise Powerlink Transmission Project proposed by San Diego Gas and Electric Co. provoked anger among local environmental groups, which were successful in persuading the commission not to allow the line to run through the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.
