CleanTechies
  • Home
  • Articles
    • Clean Transportation
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Green Building
    • Renewable Energy
    • Recycling & Waste
    • Water & Conservation
  • Contact
    • Editorial
      • General Inquiries
      • Article Submission
    • Advertising
      • Advertising & Sponsorship
      • Guidelines
      • Media Kit
  • Are you a CleanTechie?

CleanTechies

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Clean Transportation
    • Energy Efficiency
    • Green Building
    • Renewable Energy
    • Recycling & Waste
    • Water & Conservation
  • Contact
    • Editorial
      • General Inquiries
      • Article Submission
    • Advertising
      • Advertising & Sponsorship
      • Guidelines
      • Media Kit
  • Are you a CleanTechie?
Tag:

tax credits

Why Haven’t Cities Covered Their Buildings in Solar?

Why Haven’t Cities Covered Their Buildings in Solar?

written by John Farrell

The city of Beaverton, OR, is getting a new solar array that will offset energy use at an underground reservoir, saving taxpayers $95,000 per year, with no upfront cost. Ventura County, VA, has a 1-megawatt solar array on its jail facility, that’s cash flow positive. Denver, CO, has nearly 4 megawatts of solar, with power sold to the city on contract and no upfront cost.

If cities can cut their energy bills and save energy from day one, what’s standing in the way of a PV pave-over of every public building in America with a suitable roof?

Opportunity
The potential for rooftop solar PV (on any building) to meet American electricity demands is phenomenal, with enough suitable, sunny rooftops to provide nearly 20% of the power in every state.

rooftop-solar-opportunity-technical-potential-ilsr

Public buildings are in almost every community, many with the flat roofs perfect for solar. For example, K-12 public schools in Minnesota could host enough solar to power nearly 125,000 homes.  In New York City, Mayor Bill deBlasio’s new energy initiative promises to install at least 100 megawatts of solar power on public buildings. In Washington, DC, the city recently issued a request for private sector partners to install 10 MW of solar on nearly 50 city-owned buildings.

Solar potential on schools is pretty remarkable, according to SEIA and the Solar Foundation.  In Austin, TX, public buildings could host over 50 MW of solar. In San Francisco, it’s 31 MW.  If the share of public building space for schools in these cities mirrors Minnesota (where schools represent about half the square footage of all public buildings), then all public buildings (schools, libraries, city property) in each city could host nearly 100 MW or 62 MW, respectively, of solar.

The solar potential is matched by the solar economic opportunity. Maximizing rooftop solar on schools in Minnesota could cut energy bills for the school system by 30%, saving $110 million per year. Every dollar saved is a public good, another dollar that can be spent on teachers, or librarians, or police officers. And with solar leasing or power purchase agreements, schools can tap into this energy savings opportunity with very little upfront money. [note: direct solar ownership typically trumps these third party ownership models, but not when federal incentives are inaccessible to the public sector]

Policy Barriers
As mentioned above, the poor policy choice to use the tax code for federal solar incentives as tax credits makes the public sector ineligible. Additionally, although the 3rd party ownership model has arisen to solve this design flaw, it’s only legal in about half of U.S. states.  In the remainder, state law either prohibits or is ambiguous enough to make this deal structure too risky to attempt.

Screenshot-2014-10-30-16.11.25

What’s Holding Cities Back?
Despite the policy barriers facing cities going solar, there millions of unused, publicly owned rooftops in places where the state and federal rules are not barriers. Why?

It could be bureaucracy. A representative of Borrego Solar said of the process to install solar on a city building in Beverly, MA, that, “the approval process involved five city council meetings, three subcommittees and two public meetings.”

It could also be city inexperience with electricity infrastructure. Despite its rapid growth in the past decade, prior to this time few cities had ever owned or installed electricity generation of any sort on their property. And admittedly, the complexity of net metering, incentives, and ownership structures pose a substantial barrier to determined solar lovers, whether or not they are cities.

It could be something else entirely.  Have a story to share about getting solar on a public building in your community? Have you worked with a city to install solar? Share your story in the comments or with me at jfarrell@ilsr.org!

 



November 3, 2014 1 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Deadline for LEED Certification Before Year End Approaches

written by Walter Wang

With construction projects facing deadlines to be eligible for tax credits, drop dead dates to meet contractual obligations and otherwise needing to obtain LEED certification by December 31st, submission deadlines to the Green Building Certification Institute are fast approaching.

Appreciate that a couple of weeks ago (i.e., the

Continue Reading


November 11, 2013 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Renewable Energy Powers More U.S. Electricity Than You Think

written by Walter Wang

A main complaint against renewable energy is its small scale. Critics claim that it makes up too small a piece of the U.S. energy pie to matter. And therefore, in a chicken-and-egg argument, renewable energy is undeserving of subsidies and tax credits to help the new industry get up and running. A recent Wall Street Journal article looks

Continue Reading


October 8, 2013 1 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

How to Convince Wall Street to Invest in Energy Efficiency

written by Walter Wang

In the depths of the Great Recession three years ago, California’s chief fiscal officer John Chiang gathered his deputies and posed a question: “Is there any way we can put capital on the ground in California to put people back to work in ways that would make sense for the long term?”

After some debate, they settled on what they called

Continue Reading


August 28, 2013 1 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Ford Enters Electric Car Price War, Drops EV by $4,000

written by Walter Wang

Ford announced it will drop the price of the battery-powered 2014 Focus Electric—just weeks after company executives said the automaker would avoid the trend of lowering EV sticker prices. By dropping the price of the Focus Electric by $4,000, Ford joins an ongoing electric car price war in which $199 a month leases have become popular.

Continue Reading


July 11, 2013 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Solar Power Tax Incentives and Credits in Hawaii

written by Walter Wang

Hawaii is one of the American states cracking ahead to make a switch to clean, solar power. We have reported several achievements Hawaiian Electric Co. reaching 20 megawatts of solar photovoltaic energy on the island of Oahu.

As usual, government incentives play a key part in

Continue Reading


April 24, 2013 1 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Election Concludes – Will This be an Era of Alternative Energy?

written by Walter Wang

The U.S Presidential Elections have finally come to a close as a victorious Barack Obama gets another four years as President of the United States. A lot of people still have hope that with his re-election, things will change for the better. As a citizen who values the environment, what exactly can we expect from the newly re-elected president?

Continue Reading


November 9, 2012 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Clean Energy Investors Want Some Level of Certainty

written by Walter Wang

In my quest to understand investors’ reluctance to assert themselves in the renewable energy space, a common theme continues to emerge: uncertainty. Where no one doubts that demand for oil and coal will continue for some time, and that the government subsidies that support them will remain a part of U.S. law, no similar confidence exists that the world will put

Continue Reading


February 17, 2012 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Five Solar Rebates Every California Homeowner Should Know

written by Walter Wang

Sunny California is prime real estate for solar energy, and a number of California rebates make home solar systems highly affordable for Golden State residents. The only downside to these programs is that some have limited funding. Homeowners interested in solar panels will want to act soon to take full advantage of all the savings.

Continue Reading



February 8, 2012 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Green & Competitive Advantage – The Learning Curve

written by Walter Wang

Companies are constantly looking for a way to obtain competitive advantage in the marketplace. In fact, the more points of advantage, obviously, the merrier. Options may include lowest price point, market-changing widget, halo branding, introduction of a never-before-seen technology or idea and even

Continue Reading


December 28, 2011 0 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

The Importance of Not Picking Winners

written by Walter Wang

The fact is, governments have long provided massive subsidies for the fossil fuel and nuclear industries–and despite the fact that these industries are amongst the most profitable in the world, and continue to raise prices while inflicting tremendous damage to the environment, these subsidies continue unabated.

Continue Reading


November 16, 2011 1 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Seven Strategies for Solar Sales and Marketing

written by Walter Wang

Solar power has many unique advantages that help with solar sales and marketing.  All it takes is a sunny day and a rooftop for solar panels to produce clean green electricity.  They have no moving parts, make no noise, and can produce clean energy for decades right on your roof.  For those who love everything

Continue Reading


August 2, 2011 0 comment
3 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Is Energy Efficiency Still the Red-Headed Stepchild of US Energy Policy?

written by Walter Wang

Yesterday, Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) introduced a "comprehensive energy bill" entitled the "Fulfilling U.S. Energy Leadership Act" or "FUEL."  The bill is available for download here. 

According to his press release:

Continue Reading


June 18, 2011 3 comments
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest

Debate Over Ethanol Subsidies Heats up in Washington

written by Walter Wang

Washington currently provides approximately $5 billion worth of annual tax credits to U.S. farmers growing crops for ethanol production.

The question of ending the subsidies is fracturing the Republican leadership in Washington, National Public Radio reported.

Continue Reading


June 17, 2011 1 comment
0 Facebook Twitter Google + Pinterest
Newer Posts
Older Posts

CleanTechnica.TV

Listen to CleanTech Talk

CleanTech Talk

Free CleanTechnica Newsletters

CleanTechnica's main newsletter (daily)

CleanTechnica's EV newsletter

CleanTechnica's wind newsletter

CleanTechnica's solar newsletter

CleanTechnica's weekly newsletter

Support Our Work

CleanTechnica Clothing & Cups

Recent CleanTechie Bios

Amy McMorrow Hunter

Keith Allen

Tom Scheel

Patrick Corcoran

Christine Bennett

Mike Casey

Henk Rogers

JB Straubel

Lynn Jurich

Matt Moroney

Kyle Field

Paul Francis

Chelsea Harder

Griff Jurgens

Scott Cooney

The content produced by this site is for entertainment purposes only. Opinions and comments published on this site may not be sanctioned by, and do not necessarily represent the views of CleanTechnica, its owners, sponsors, affiliates, or subsidiaries.


Back To Top