An Albany FIRST initiative

[Katia & Nick]

Albany needs to become a "solar city" with as many solar and renewable energy systems installed as efficiently and quickly as possible.

Why? Because the damage of carbon based energy is so great we need a rapid shift away from it. Because changes in energy production need to be grass-roots based at the consumer level as the carbon lobby (oil, coal, auto) is not motivated to change. Because a role model of how to do this rapidly needs to be established to show other communities it can be done. Because we need solar-based electrical distributed throughout the grid to encourage and support electric vehicle use.

Berkeley has a great idea to motivate property owners to invest in renewable and solar energy quickly. It's called Berkeley FIRST

How can we make this happen in Albany ASAP and facilitate it more rapidly by using Albany's strong sense of community to organize neighborhoods into group purchasers of systems for economy of scale? This was recently accomplished by a motivated grandmother in Marin ... Albany can do it too!!

If we wait for each individual home owner to slowly acquire their own system and slog through the research and installation process on a one-by-one basis, the rapid shift to solar needed (especially when we all get those plug-in hybrids!) will not come about quickly enough.

Albany has the potential to be the first real "solar city" in the bay area. Let's put our heads together and realize this potential!!

[Katia & Nick]

Hey, everyone!!
I've been receiving comments to my personal page rather than on the forum page. Please submit comments to the forum so everyone can see what is being discussed and the level of interest in this subject... See below for some recent comments to me form Miya and Dan that I have cut and pasted into the forum.

I did some more research and found out that a firm called SolarCity did a community solar installation of about 45 systems in Berkeley in conjunction w/ the Willard Park Home Owner's Association. I've got an e-mail into the blog-master to find out who to contact for more info.

My next step is to look at how Albany can divide up into community groups for supporting the push for an Albany FIRST initiative drive and to approach installers for group PV system installation discounts. One idea is to parallel the fire depts safety coordinator program as these people have already shown community spirit and have connections w/ their neighbors.

I'd like to get a group going that will spearhead both the Albany FIRST concept and work to get neighborhoods organized for group solar installations. Is anyone up for Sat morning meetings @ Pripri Cafe to brainstorm and work this issue? The Cafe opens @ 9a.m. and I was thinking of establishing a standing meeting @ 9:30 for this. Please respond to this forum so I can see the level of interest.

At 8:27am on February 6th, 2008, Miya said…
Hi Katia,
I read the article attached to your posting about a solar city through a shared purchase plan.
Please email me if you'd like to meet and talk about this more.
Thanks!

Comment At 10:14pm on February 2nd, 2008, Dan Lieberman said…
hi Katia-
Berkeley's solar incentive was discussed by the Sustainability Committee and we agreed that we should have City of Berkeley staff present more info to the committee. I believe it's been scheduled for this month or next. I'd encourage you to show up to a SC meeting and comment during the public comment period. Hope that info helps - thanks for writing!
Dan

[Dan Lieberman]

hi- i'm interested but can't make it this Saturday... i volunteered my backyard for a tree pruning tutorial offered by the city arborist!
Dan

[Miya]

I would like to participate in such a meeting!

Saturday at 9:30 works for me (though I prefer 10, 10:30). If you get more interest for a different time, I am open to other meetings times too.

Can we publicize this gathering through other channels such as Facebook or Craigslist?

[Dan Lieberman]

You might be interested in this new case study report from LBNL. Here's a description and link:

Berkeley Lab is pleased to announce the latest installment in the series "Case Studies of State Support for Renewable Energy." This new case study is titled "Property Tax Assessments as a Finance Vehicle for Residential PV Installations: Opportunities and Potential Limitations." It describes the mechanics of a new type of photovoltaic
(PV) financing program recently proposed by the City of Berkeley, California, and being considered by other cities throughout the U.S.
Specifically, these cities propose to offer their residents the ability to utilize increased property tax assessments as a means of repaying over time the up-front cost of installing PV systems.

Although this type of program has a number of appealing features, two fundamental program characteristics -- government involvement and an attractive interest rate -- may cause the IRS to consider such programs to be "subsidized energy financing," which in turn would reduce or eliminate the ability of program participants to take advantage of the Federal investment tax credit for solar. This case study explores this particular issue through both a rudimentary review of relevant tax law, as well as a quantitative analysis of the potential financial benefit of such programs relative to commercially available financing alternatives, and how much of that relative benefit might be eroded by the possible loss of the Federal credit.

The case study can be downloaded from:
http://eetd.lbl.gov/ea/ems/cases/property-tax-finance.pdf

[Katia & Nick]

Very interesting. So maybe it is better to go for reduced cost through multiple neighborhood installations such as the 45 home installation done with the Willard Park Neighborhood As... I'm contacting one of the organizers to get more info.