Novel Financing For Residential Solar Power
Jul 2, 2009 – It is a down economy and yet everyone wants to do their part to save the planet and reduce their own personal energy costs. What about the upfront costs in a recession? Matt Jenkins reports in the July-August issue of Miller-McCune in an article titled, “$olar System”, on the novel plans of Francisco DeVries in Berkeley, California. California has less than 0.5% of its homes with photovoltaic systems despite its reputation for green and sunshine. Now, based on his proposal, the Berkeley City Council has created the Sustainable Energy Financing District. Under the program, homeowners join the District, the District issues municipal bonds to finance the systems and the homeowner pays a monthly tax assessment, presumable with the funds that are saved in energy costs. Check out all the details in the article. Many other cities and towns have already contacted Berkeley to see if the details make sense for their communities.
