Berkeley Makes Sun Power Affordable

Berkeley, California has approved a new financing scheme that gives loans to homeowners who install rooftop solar panels.

The program finances city-backed solar loans through a small addition to the property taxes of each participating home, eliminating the need to find up-front cash to install panels which can cost as much as $30,000.  Using property taxes to repay the solar loan also ensures that home values rise to reflect the addition of energy-efficient technology.  If a home sells before its solar loan is fully repaid, its new owner will take over the loan repayments and reap the electricity savings. 

The next step for Berkeley is to line up a source of capital to begin offering the loans, which are expected to have a 20-year life and be repaid by a $180 monthly property tax increase.

This plan, which is similar in concept to a local law passed several months ago by Babylon, New York and mentioned by this blog, which provides low-interest loans to residents to pay for energy efficiency upgrades to their homes.  Providing public money for renewable energy or energy efficiency upgrades is a win-win in our book. We hope this is the start of a trend.