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By David R. Baker Updated 8:50 am, Friday, October 17, 2014
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Proposed-S-F-law-would-put-a-solar-panel-on-5827997.php
San Francisco could soon require solar panels on most new construction in the city and push owners of existing apartment buildings to plant photovoltaic arrays on their roofs.
“If you ever go to the top of a tall building in San Francisco and look down, you see the potential for sustainability on every single roof in the city,” said David Chiu, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Chiu plans to introduce a resolution next week mandating that all new buildings include solar panels, rooftop gardens or both. That requirement would apply to commercial and residential buildings alike, wherever feasible.
Chiu acknowledged that it might not be feasible everywhere. Many of the towers rising downtown have limited roof space, often occupied by heating and cooling equipment. Similarly, not all single-family homes are well suited for solar, even if their owners can afford it.
“Certainly for commercial buildings we believe this is absolutely feasible,” said Chiu, who is also running for a seat in the California Assembly. “If it were up to me, we would do it on larger residential (buildings) and then see what’s possible on smaller residential. But at this point, we need to get the conversation going.”
Chiu’s proposal, called Solar Vision 2020, seeks to curb the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and ***** a thriving local industry in one broad stroke. It would make permanent an existing San Francisco program that gives homeowners, businesses and nonprofit groups money to defray the cost of installing solar arrays, a program set to expire in 2018. It would establish a goal of roughly doubling the amount of solar electricity generated in the city, from 26 megawatts today to 50 megawatts in 2020.
“Solar generates clean energy, and it generates jobs,” said Jeanine Cotter, CEO of the Luminalt solar installation company in San Francisco, who backs Chiu’s proposal. “And those are good jobs that we’re not exporting.”
Solar Vision 2020 would also set an aggressive target for installing solar panels on rental housing in the city, including existing apartment buildings as well as new construction.
Chiu’s proposal calls for installing enough panels each year on “tenant-occupied residences” to generate 2 megawatts of electricity. For comparison, a typical solar array on a single-family home generates 3.5 kilowatts to 4 kilowatts. In other words, to meet the goal, San Francisco building owners would need to install enough panels every year to generate as much energy as 500 individual home solar systems.
That would probably require some new incentive program, Chiu said.
“Many landlords have told me that if we just had the right financing mechanisms, they’d be interested in doing this,” he said.
Tim Colen, director of the urban development group Housing Action Coalition, warned that the program could ***** construction costs. California already has the nation’s toughest standards for energy efficiency in new buildings, standards which save on heating and cooling bills but add to upfront costs.
“I can’t argue with what David’s saying — we have to drastically reduce our carbon footprint,” said Colen, whose group includes many developers and advocates for “smart-growth” policies. “But how do we do this fairly in a way that doesn’t include unpleasant, expensive surprises? ... Cumulatively, all of the energy and water saving standards we want add to the cost of residential construction, at a time when we’ve got a crisis in affordability.”
David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Proposed-S-F-law-would-put-a-solar-panel-on-5827997.php
San Francisco could soon require solar panels on most new construction in the city and push owners of existing apartment buildings to plant photovoltaic arrays on their roofs.
“If you ever go to the top of a tall building in San Francisco and look down, you see the potential for sustainability on every single roof in the city,” said David Chiu, president of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Chiu plans to introduce a resolution next week mandating that all new buildings include solar panels, rooftop gardens or both. That requirement would apply to commercial and residential buildings alike, wherever feasible.
Chiu acknowledged that it might not be feasible everywhere. Many of the towers rising downtown have limited roof space, often occupied by heating and cooling equipment. Similarly, not all single-family homes are well suited for solar, even if their owners can afford it.
“Certainly for commercial buildings we believe this is absolutely feasible,” said Chiu, who is also running for a seat in the California Assembly. “If it were up to me, we would do it on larger residential (buildings) and then see what’s possible on smaller residential. But at this point, we need to get the conversation going.”
Chiu’s proposal, called Solar Vision 2020, seeks to curb the city’s greenhouse gas emissions and ***** a thriving local industry in one broad stroke. It would make permanent an existing San Francisco program that gives homeowners, businesses and nonprofit groups money to defray the cost of installing solar arrays, a program set to expire in 2018. It would establish a goal of roughly doubling the amount of solar electricity generated in the city, from 26 megawatts today to 50 megawatts in 2020.
“Solar generates clean energy, and it generates jobs,” said Jeanine Cotter, CEO of the Luminalt solar installation company in San Francisco, who backs Chiu’s proposal. “And those are good jobs that we’re not exporting.”
Solar Vision 2020 would also set an aggressive target for installing solar panels on rental housing in the city, including existing apartment buildings as well as new construction.
Chiu’s proposal calls for installing enough panels each year on “tenant-occupied residences” to generate 2 megawatts of electricity. For comparison, a typical solar array on a single-family home generates 3.5 kilowatts to 4 kilowatts. In other words, to meet the goal, San Francisco building owners would need to install enough panels every year to generate as much energy as 500 individual home solar systems.
That would probably require some new incentive program, Chiu said.
“Many landlords have told me that if we just had the right financing mechanisms, they’d be interested in doing this,” he said.
Tim Colen, director of the urban development group Housing Action Coalition, warned that the program could ***** construction costs. California already has the nation’s toughest standards for energy efficiency in new buildings, standards which save on heating and cooling bills but add to upfront costs.
“I can’t argue with what David’s saying — we have to drastically reduce our carbon footprint,” said Colen, whose group includes many developers and advocates for “smart-growth” policies. “But how do we do this fairly in a way that doesn’t include unpleasant, expensive surprises? ... Cumulatively, all of the energy and water saving standards we want add to the cost of residential construction, at a time when we’ve got a crisis in affordability.”
David R. Baker is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: dbaker@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @DavidBakerSF