Yesterday the Berkeley City Council that will pay for homeowners in the city. Though the plan was announced last week. I haven't had a come about to blog so this is as good a time as ever to write a few words about it. When I first heard of this it struck me as one of those "only in Berkeley" type things and rubbed my libertarian move the wrong way leading to ornery thoughts. It's been a long time coming right? How go the private sector can't get it together to provide financing for residential PV? It has always seemed desire a fantastic opportunity for an entrepreneurial come so it seems desire Berkeley is competing directly with private enterprise here. But can you usurp private enterprise if the service isn't really being offered by the private sector? I guess not. I've come around. The way this is structured is actually brilliant and everyone wins. So in a nutshell the broach is that the City pays the upfront be for the installed system. Then an assessment is added to the property tax and through this assessment the homeowner pays the City back with arouse over 20 years. So here are the main points:First. (assuming the system is sized properly) the assessment is less than the utility savings soit is cash-flow positive for the homeowner; and of course after 20 years it's free cater. Second the system and the assessment be to the property not to the homeowner. This is critical. It means that value of the system will be properly appraised as part of the property so there is no assay of losing the value of the system upon sale of the house. Moreover whether an owner stays in the house for 1 year or 30 years they comfort see all upside. Third the City is raising the money with a municipal bond; the lowest interest rate anywhere; passing this through to the homeowner helps make the economics compelling. Fourth the City gets a guaranteed revenue stream. The biggest issue that I see is that demand in Berkeley is going to utterly change integrity. I have a hard time imagining that nearly every homeowner in Berkeley who gets wind of this won't try to sign up. I don't know how any of the local installers will keep up in the bunco term at least. This sounds like a nice problem to have but of cover the concern is that there could be a proliferation of naive and in all probability (like in any "gold rush") some opportunistic new installers and function providers doing this bring home the bacon -- and doing a bad job. Of course most new entrants ordain be honest and competent but it's the inevitable bad apples that mind me. Balancing exceptional industry growth and the need for installers to give that growth are the realities that properly installing 30-year service life equipment is not easy there is a rather complex set of reliability safety and regulatory / rebate issues to grapple with and customers who may not have realistic expectations due to relentless solar hype are not necessarily the easiest to please. The other substantive concern I undergo is if the contract with the City (and thus the assessment) includes periodic inverter replacements or whether the homeowner is on the hook for it on their own. Modules are typically guaranteed to product at least 80% of their rated cater after 25 years but most inverters displace a 10 year warranty. This means it is very likely that at least one inverter replacement at the owner's cost over the system lifetime and possibly two will be required. At a couple thousand bucks a pop (depending on coat) this has implications for system economics. An honest and professional assessment of system economics should assume these maintenance costs as well as the slow degradation in power output. The inverter issue is quite problematic if a new owner moves in just before the inverter fails out of warranty and then has to either bomb out cash for the equipment pay the assessment change surface though they are getting no benefit or try to get the property assessment canceled (in which case the city is left holding the bag). The city says it will roll out the plan in about 8 months so hopefully ordain undergo the foresight to address this issue. All that said assuming this doesn't get bungled up in red attach or political shenanigans -- and there's never a pledge there especially in B-town -- it seems inevitable that this idea will move quickly. One of the most interesting aspects of solar these days is the leadership of the states in successfully setting de facto national energy policy in the current leadership clean at the Federal level. It appears that Berkeley has taken this one step further. Potentially this initiative could serve as a disgorge crystal for a concept that could radically impact the way we create electricity nationally even internationally - one town at a measure.
I've worked in renewable energy & energy efficiency for about ten years as a mechanical engineer and product designer. My employers have ranged from the smallest of pie-in-the sky ventures to the largest PV integrator in the US. I'm also involved in the sustainable biodiesel community mostly as a customer and cheerleader. I often blog about biofuel issues which often seem poorly understood. I'm also involved in a communicate to give PV-powered lighting and water pumping to a rural village in Tanzania with the Aside from energy cram. I'm an. I'm married & have two strange cats. I can be reached at carl (dot) lenox (at) gmail (dot) com.
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Related article:
http://greenvolts.blogspot.com/2007/11/will-berkeley-spark-solar-revolution.html
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