Low Interest Loans for PV Installation

California enacted AB 811, 7/21/08, that allows cities and counties to make low-interest loans to homeowners and businesses to install solar panels, high-efficiency air conditioners and other energy-saving improvements.

The loans are paid back through property taxes.  If the property is sold the new owners assume the loan along with the home improvements.  California requires investor-owned utilities to get 20% of their electricity from renewable sources by 2010 and 33% by 2020.

Read the news article.

Read AB 811.

California Amends Shade Tree Law

California bill SB1399 was signed into law 7/24/08 by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The bill takes effect January 1, 2009. SB1399 amends the 1979 Solar Shade Control Act by making disputes over trees and shrubs that cast shade on a neighbor’s solar panels civil matters rather than crimes. Trees planted before solar installations are exempt.

The law was prompted by a Sunnyvale, California couple who ordered to top their redwood trees to allow sunlight to fall on their neighbors’ solar panels.

Read our earlier article.

Read the specifics of BILL NUMBER: SB 1399.

Online Solar Estimate

Sungevity of California will do an estimate for the cost of adding solar energy to your home without one of their employees coming to your house.  Sungevity’s software application essentially eliminates the money and time it takes an installer to visit your house, take measurements and prepare the estimate.

Sungevity’s website provides a box for your address and without even seeing your residence gives you a quote for adding solar energy to your house.  Within 24 hours your quote arrives, including the savings over 25 years.

Their software application uses Microsoft Virtual Earth which gives data from different angles, letting Sungevity calculate pitch.  The data provides a fairly accurate estimate.

Currently Sungevity only operates in California, but plans to operate in other states.  They are looking at either employing subcontractors or selling their estimator service.

Lease Solar Engergy

SolarCity, California’s leading provider of solar power systems, has completed the largest commercial solar power installation in San Jose on eBay’s North campus. The 650 kilowatt (kW) installation — including 3,248 individual solar panels — spans 60,000 square feet on multiple buildings.  The system will be unveiled later today in a ceremony to recognize eBay’s first building built to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED gold standard. SolarCity estimates that solar-generated power will save eBay approximately $100,000 in electricity costs within its first year of operation.

SolarCity allows customers to lease, rather than buy, the photovoltaic solar panels for their roofs.  Under SolarCity’s lease program, customers with a small home could pay as little as $70 a month for a 2.4 kilowatt system, Rive, Chief Executive of SolarCity told Reuters. Customers who sign up before July 31st put no money down on their system. After that, upfront costs should be between about $1,000 and $3,000, Rive told Reuters said.

“We can essentially make it so that everybody can now afford clean power,” Rive said.
The leased projects will be financed through Morgan Stanley, and SolarCity said it will serve as a one-stop shop for both installation and financing.  SolarCity is expanding to Oregon, Arizona and has plans to go to the East Coast.

Solarbuzz | Reuters