A Solar Berkeley

October 25th, 2007 Alex

The City Council of Berkeley will be voting on November 6th on a plan for the city to help finance the installation of solar panels for property owners. The owners would pay back the costs over a 20 year period. It sounds like a pretty good plan and it will be nice to see the city of Berkeley take an initiative to promote being green to the city. The cost of installing a solar panel can cost at least $15,000 and many people do not have the money to pay for the installation up front. The solar panel installation would be paid for by the city and the property owner will get an extra tax bill to pay off the system. As a result, the property owner would be saving on his/her electricity bill every month and the tax cost would be about the same as the savings.

What sucks about this however, is that if the owner sold the property, the tax would still stay with that owner even though the solar panel stays with the property. So in other words, if a property owner were to go through with this deal, they should plan on living in that same house for 20 years! I guess technically, if you were to get your own loan for a solar panel installation, it would work the same way. This is a big step towards making the city a more responsible and eco friendly place and hopefully the plan will pass.

via SFGate

Entry Filed under: Solar Energy