Leave it to Berkeley to bring solar to the people. Within the next few weeks, the über liberal Northern California city will allow property owners to pay for pricey solar electric systems—typically $15,000—simply by signing up for a 20-year surcharge on their property tax bill. The tax stays with the property even if the owner sells it (the solar panels would stay with the house).
The groundbreaking plan, known as “Berkeley FIRST” (Financing Initiative for Renewable and Solar Technology), works like this: A property owner hires a city-approved solar installer; the city then pays the contractor for the system and its installation, minus any state and federal rebates, and adds an assessment to the property owner’s tax bill to pay for the system. The extra tax includes administrative fees and interest, which are lower than what property owners can get on their own. The city would use its access to low-interest bonds and loans, just as it does when residents want to move utility wires and poles underground.
Property owners end up paying an extra $100 to $115 a month in taxes, and will get much of that back with savings on their electric bill. (And like other Berkeley solar customers, they can also sell back excess energy to power company PG&E.) In the first six months of the program, an estimated 25 to 50 homeowners will participate; any other interested homeowners, followed by commercial and apartment building owners, can then jump in.
Cisco DeVries, former chief of staff to Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates (and the special assistant to the U.S. secretary of energy in the Clinton administration) thought of the plan while brainstorming ways the city could meet its goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050 (as per the city’s recently passed Measure G). DeVries was struck by both the idea’s simplicity—“carbon is hard, but with solar, there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit”—and its replicability.
Indeed, after the program was announced a year ago, Bates’s office received a dozen calls or e-mails a day from cities all over the country asking about its progress, DeVries reports. Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown wanted the two city offices to collaborate on state legislation that would enable all cities to use the plan; PG&E offered tax attorney assistance; and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted the city $115,000 to cover the administrative costs of launching the program.
“What’s interesting is, this wasn’t just a case of liberal Berkeley doing something nutty,” DeVries says. “It’s just common sense.”
Read more stories by Jennifer Roberts.