California City Wants to Require Solar on Every New Home

[kristopher]

California City Wants to Require Solar on Every New Home
A Republican mayor campaigns for a historic requirement for solar on new homes.
HERMAN K. TRABISH: MARCH 1, 2013

...Yesterday in Lancaster, homebuilder KB Home celebrated its 1,000th new home with solar panels from SunPower. Speaking at the event, Mayor Parris announced his city will institute a first-of-its-kind requirement that solar be installed on every new single-family home built in Lancaster after January 1, 2014.

The new law will be written into Lancaster’s “Residential Zones Update” on residential solar. Along with a range of green building provisions, it specifies that new single family homes meet minimum solar system requirements.

“The purpose of the solar energy system standards,” it reads, “is to encourage investment in solar energy on all parcels in the city, while providing guidelines for the installation of those systems that are consistent with the architectural and building standards of the City.” It is further intended “to provide standards and procedures for builders of new homes to install solar energy systems in an effort to achieve greater usage of alternative energy.”

Residential homes on lots from 7,000 square feet must have a solar system of 1.0 kilowatt to 1.5 kilowatts. Rural residential homes of up to 100,000 square feet must have a system of at least 1.5 kilowatts.

The standards spell out simple, common-sense rules ...

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/lancaster-to-require-solar-on-every-new-home?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=headline&utm_campaign=GTMDaily

[Cleita]

1. Yes, we need to do this. We need to find a way to put solar on every roof in California,

especially Southern California and the Central Valley that gets the most sun. I think we could not only generate enough electricity for the state but have some left over to sell to other states.

[msongs]

2. solar and wind are free energy and oil companies don't like that. only cost is tapping in nt

[Cleita]

3. It's going to be a hard fight to overcome them.

The latest is that they have blocked in some places the ability to have a reverse meter to tap into the grid. This way you could sell your excess electricity back to the utility company. They definitely don't like that.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. Where are they blocking reverse metering for grid tie systems?

[Cleita]

7. Various cities with private power utility companies.

Read this: http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201205/grapple-smart-meters-171.aspx

[ProgressiveProfessor]

8. The issue over smart meters is mostly the RF, not the reversible features

All reversible meters available today are also smart meters with RF. That upsets some people, though I personally believe the concerns about limited duration low power RF are bunk.

[kristopher]

10. Cleita is correct because the utilities are set to be marginalized.

Energy Industry Pushing Against Renewables, Says CA Assembly Member

by Chris Clarke
on July 13, 2012 9:45 AM

California Assembly member Nancy Skinner, a strong advocate for renewable energy in the California Legislature, told a group of solar industry executives yesterday that the energy industry is mobilizing to fight renewables in Sacramento. According to Recharge correspondent Benjamin Romano, who observed the conversation in the hallways of this week's Intersolar North America conference in San Francisco, Skinner spoke bluntly about the power companies' attempts to obstruct renewables in California.

"We are experiencing a very big push-back, from the utilities, from various companies," "It's sort of like, 'Oh, you've given those renewable people too much,'" Skinner said.

"Now we are experiencing a very big push-back, from the utilities, from various companies," Skinner continued. "There's really a huge onslaught right now in Sacramento which is anti-solar, anti-renewable energy.... The legislature right now is getting a bit shaky because they're hearing so strongly from voices that will benefit far more from sticking with dinosaurs."

...Skinner, who represents California's 14th Assembly District in the East San Francisco Bay Area, has written a number of bills promoting renewable energy development in California, including 2010's AB 510, which doubled the state's net metering program. That program is one area in which the utilities have "pushed back." In May of this year the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) clarified its interpretation of AB 510, in effect doubling the number of possible new net metering accounts, a huge incentive for property owners to install small-scale solar. Utilities were outraged, and attempted an end-run around the CPUC by sponsoring legislation that would establish a far stricter net metering policy. As the solar lobbying group Vote Solar said in a June 29 blog post,

Opponents quietly amended AB 2514 -- formerly positioned as a harmless bill to study the impacts of net metering -- into a bill that would completely reverse our net metering win. The new proposal would explicitly order the CPUC to use the cap calculation methodology preferred by the utilities - effectively halving the number of California homes, businesses, schools and other energy customers who could receive fair credit for going solar.

More at: http://www.kcet.org/news/rewire/government/state-assembly-member-cites-big-pushback-against-renewables.html

Here, straight from the horses mouth, is the situation leading to motivation:

Duke Explores Rooftop Solar as Panels Slow Electricity Demand, CEO Says
By Jim Polson, Bloomberg
March 1, 2013

NEW YORK CITY -- Duke Energy Corp., the largest U.S. utility owner, may expand into rooftop solar as wider use of photovoltaic panels by customers cuts into demand for electricity in states including California, Chief Executive Officer Jim Rogers said.

Rooftop panels are gaining popularity as the industry faces “anemic” growth in power demand that may redefine the traditional utility business model, as this growth makes it difficult to predict long-term energy demand, Rogers said at an analyst meeting in New York today.

“It is obviously a potential threat to us over the long term and an opportunity in the short term,” Rogers said in an interview after the meeting.

“If the cost of solar panels keeps coming down, installation costs come down and if they combine solar with battery technology and a power management system, then we have someone just using us for backup,” he said.

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2013/03/duke-explores-rooftop-solar-as-panels-slow-electricity-demand-ceo-says?cmpid=SolarNL-Saturday-March2-2013

[limpyhobbler]

4. Seems like a good idea. This is the kind of thing we need a lot more of.

[NYC_SKP]

5. K/R (nt)

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

9. The home of my rival High School is doing something good?

Well, Good for them, about time....

[quadrature]

11. installing rooftop solar... a real good business... especially

if you have relatives and friends
on the city council.
charge as much as you like.

you get paid... the city council gets paid.
everybody wins