Berkeley’s Solar Boost
14 May 2008
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Berkeley has long been an environmental innovator, and the city is again taking the lead with a plan to loan residents the money they need to go solar. Homeowners will be able to tack the annual loan payments onto their property tax bill.
The proposal eliminates the two major financial hurdles to installing solar electric and water heating systems—the five-figure price tag, and the risk that costs won’t be recouped when the home is sold—by letting residents spread the cost over 20 years.
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A solar system for a smaller 1,500-square-foot home runs about $20,000, an amount even the most dedicated greenie may be reluctant to borrow from a bank. Berkeley’s plan makes it easy and relatively cheap to go solar. Annual payments will be around $1,200 to $1,320 a year—about what residents pay for conventional electricity—and they’re added to a bill property owners have to pay anyway. City number-crunchers say everyone wins.
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Solar may look increasingly appealing as energy costs rise. Fuel prices in Berkeley have jumped an average of six percent annually for the past three decades, DeVries says, adding that about half of Berkeley’s electricity comes from burning natural gas.
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thousand over the next decade. “Nearly every expert we have worked with on this financing initiative believes it can fundamentally change the market for solar,” says Bates.
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