In late February, California Governor Schwarzenegger’s office released the details of the California Million Solar Roofs bills (SB 1 and SB 1017). The two bills together will create a ten-year incentive program to help Californians install one million solar electric rooftops on homes and businesses throughout the state by 2018.
In a previous story in Democratic Energy, we covered the study done for the Vote Solar Initiative that quantified the enormous value of on-peak solar power in California. The study found that solar installations in California have a value ranging from 23.1 to 35.2 cents per kilowatt hour.
The Governor’s Million Solar Roofs Initiative would do the following:
SB 1 – Full Text:
This bill would establish the Million Solar Roofs Initiative, administered by the Energy Commission, with the goals of placing 1,000,000 solar energy systems, as defined, on new and existing residential and commercial customer sites, or its generation capacity equivalent of 3,000 megawatts, and placing solar energy systems on 50 percent of new homes within 13 years. The bill would establish the Million Solar Roofs Initiative Trust Fund and would continuously appropriate moneys deposited into the fund to the Energy Commission for purposes of carrying out the Million Solar Roofs Initiative.
Other provisions:
SB 1017 – Full Text:
This bill will provide a tax credit for solar systems by extending the existing incentive that was set to expire at the end of this year. There will be a 7.5 percent tax credit for every dollar spent on a solar system above and beyond the rebate received from state or federal sources. There is a property tax provision that prevents property reassessment upon the installation of a solar system.
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