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San Francisco, CA
October 8, 2009: San Francisco receives Recovery Act funding for Solar America Cities Special Projects.
San Francisco has served as a leader in the promotion of solar energy technologies in the commercial, residential, and municipal sectors since the early 1970s. In 2001, San Francisco voters overwhelmingly approved a landmark $100 million bond initiative to pay for solar panels, energy efficiency, and wind turbines for public facilities. In 2002 the city undertook a bold initiative to control its energy future by developing an Electricity Resource Plan that calls for 50 MW of renewable energy by 2012, 31 MW of which are designated for solar. The City and County of San Francisco have entitled their Solar America Cities project, “Solar San Francisco.” The initiative will strive to remove barriers to the deployment of solar technologies in San Francisco. And the initiative supports the city’s goal to reduce its overall greenhouse gas emissions to 20% below 1990 levels by the year 2012.
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Credit:San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
The Moscone Convention Center in downtown San Francisco has a 675 kW solar installation.
Credit:Joe Cassidy
Solar installation in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks District.
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Activities
In this project, San Francisco will pursue a three-point approach (see Project Activities below) to remove market barriers to solar deployment. San Francisco will work with key city stakeholders to overcome targeted barriers to solar technology market penetration and implement activities to expand the solar market, allowing San Francisco to achieve its solar vision.
- Develop a program to group commercial and residential customers into one or more large, aggregated purchasing pools to be marketed to two different types of prospective solar installers.
- Identify sites for large installations and market to those building owners.
- Develop a plan to address problems installing solar on multi-tenant buildings.
Partners
- City of Oakland
- Marin County
- Sacramento Municipal Utility District
- San Francisco Department of the Environment (Project Lead)
- Ohmji, Inc.
Debt-Financed Solar Water Heating Retrofits for Affordable HousingThe City will partner with Enterprise Community Partners to pilot a solar water heating financing model for affordable housing that uses the energy savings to service the debt needed to pay for the solar systems.
San Francisco Sustainable Financing Program (SF2)The City will conduct an outreach and marketing campaign targeting previously untapped markets that could benefit from property assessed financing, for solar water heating systems in particular.
Commercial Solar Power Purchase Agreement ModelThe City will develop a new solar PPA model to take advantage of federal incentives such as New Market Tax Credits and Community Reinvestment Act Credits and expand the market for midsize solar system installations.
Solar Financing for Public SchoolsThe San Francisco Unified School District and SF Public Utilities Commission will partner with a third party interested in combining a unique blend of incentives to develop a solar PPA structure for public schools at a per kW price below current PPA market rates.
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