Posted on 03/10/2013 9:01:26 AM PDT by Professional Engineer
Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, California, wants every new home in his city to host solar. And starting next January, that could be a reality.
Yesterday in Lancaster, homebuilder KB Home celebrated its 1,000th new home with solar panels from SunPower. Speaking at the event, Mayor Parris announced his city will institute a first-of-its-kind requirement that solar be installed on every new single-family home built in Lancaster after January 1, 2014.
The new law will be written into Lancaster’s “Residential Zones Update” on residential solar. Along with a range of green building provisions, it specifies that new single family homes meet minimum solar system requirements.
“The purpose of the solar energy system standards,” it reads, “is to encourage investment in solar energy on all parcels in the city, while providing guidelines for the installation of those systems that are consistent with the architectural and building standards of the City.” It is further intended “to provide standards and procedures for builders of new homes to install solar energy systems in an effort to achieve greater usage of alternative energy.”
Residential homes on lots from 7,000 square feet must have a solar system of 1.0 kilowatt to 1.5 kilowatts. Rural residential homes of up to 100,000 square feet must have a system of at least 1.5 kilowatts.
The standards spell out simple, common-sense rules for both roof-mounted and ground-mounted systems. They also deal with some interesting issues:
A builder’s model home must show the kind of solar system the builder will offer. Builders of subdivisions will be able to aggregate the houses’ requirements. If ten houses in a subdivision each have a 1.0 kilowatt requirement, the builder can install a single 10-kilowatt system, two 5-kilowatt systems or four 2.5 kilowatt systems. If a housing tract is built in phases, each phase must meet the requirement. Multi-family developments can meet the requirement with a rooftop system or a system on a support or shade structure.
Finally, builders “may choose to meet the solar energy generation requirement off-site by providing evidence of purchasing solar energy credits from another solar-generating development located within the City.”
Mayor Parris, who frequently promises to make Lancaster “the solar energy capital of the world,” expressed confidence that he has the City Council votes for approval, despite resistance from the building industry.
“I understand the building industry is not happy with this,” Parris said. “We will just have to take the heat. I could not do that without a City Council -- made up of people who want a political career -- with the courage to take that heat.”
The building industry should understand “that we work with them, not for them," he said. "They are not in a hurry to disrupt our partnership. Opposition would disrupt it.”
Even with resistance from some members of the building community, the market is shifting.
“There are a rapidly increasing number of solar homes being built,” said Matt Brost, SunPower's national director for new home sales. “One of every five built in California this year will be solar powered.”
Along with partnering with KB Home, SunPower has worked with other major home builders like Lennar Homes, Richmond American Homes, and Standard Pacific Homes.
Mayor Parris, a Republican, noted that Lancaster is “one of the most conservative Republican districts in the country. But Republicans are smart,” he said. “When you show them a solution, they will take it.”
Tags: green building, home builder, lancaster, california, residential solar, rooftop solar, solar energy system, solar home, sunpower
Solar power is dumb!!!
Eliminate the government subsidy and you eliminate solar power!!!
Can you say Agenda 21?
Or pay the Home owner for the extra power fed back to the network.
We purchased an older home with a hot water system that was installed in 1983. It works perfectly, no maintenance, and free hot water all year, plus some domestic heating as needed. It makes a great deal of economic and engineering sense. Full disclosure - it’s sunny 300 days/year where we live. Send mail if you want more detail.
Curious as to how the price to build in solar from the beginning compares to building a standard house and then retrofitting it later. seems as if the difference in the price of materials might be the main difference since there may only be one set of labor charges. I would like to see a spreadsheet analysis of the cost difference, it could change the payback calculations in a major way. I might even become a valid economic choice instead of a political/green choice.
Need more information for a valid comparison.
It might work in Lancaster there in the high desert.
Just think of all that extra water people will be using to wash off their solar panels.
My parents have had a passive solar system since ‘82. My dad is convinced that they never recovered the cost even though there was a huge subsidy in ‘82 when it was built.
I am skeptical that it didn’t. Thirty years of providing hot water approx 5 mos out of the year. 5 x 30 = 150 mos @ $50 per month = $7500. Not bad.
It was still running last year running and providing hot water in the summer months and mostly in the Spring and Fall. It never provided heat to the house even though the builders promised that it would.
My dad said that it used some low maintenance liquid and that was why it lasted so long.
Oh, he did have to pay for some repairs a couple of years ago ~$600.
We live in Colorado and get a lot of sun.
In Mexico most of the houses have black water tanks on their roofs, but no solar electric generation. They are poor there so they wouldn’t do it if it didn’t make economic sense. Lancaster is more hispanic than white and has plenty of heat so turning it into a Mexican town and learning Spanish will work for them.
If the Fed can force us to buy health insurance...
It’s only the beginning.
That's the truth.
Whats Arrogance from our "betters."
They’d still be missing out on the taxes. Sure the price of power would go down but then how long will it take to amortize the solar panel price of around .70 per watt. you’re looking at around $1,000 for 1.5K which will run a toaster or hairdryer. There are a lot of panels in the outback here but they’re up in the thousands of watts, very spendy but considering some stations are a long way from a power grid. They also use wind power.
So maybe someone there wants more money from the PV solar market. Crazy, ugly politics (corruption). I’m stuck with PV solar for electricity, being too far from the nearest hookup to get anything else. Electricity from the power grid is better for anyone who doesn’t build it all themselves—not quick and easy.
Requires much study in advance (including safety) and knowledge of the NEC (National Electrical Code), products/hardware, markets, etc. Requires maintenance. Battery storage design is a real pill in extremely cold climates (venting design problem, fishing for local inspector preferences, other problems).
Golf cart batteries or scrubber batteries are lower cost than fancy batteries by far (much more expensive AGMs and the like). Golf cart batteries only ship by freight (problematic and expensive for shipping to remote locations). Batteries produce hydrogen gas (must be vented, easily vented, but some inspectors require excessive venting).
I like this idea, or some variation. In one of his novels, Heinlein wrote about a variation using black pipe attached to the sides of a vardo.
I wonder how much money the solar companies donated to the good mayors political campaign
That's probably the purpose. The only result of solar is to force other ratepayers (in other California cities) to pay retail prices for unreliable power with subsidies and profits going to the solar companies. It is a scam from top to bottom. Here in Virginia my power company can buy reliable power 24x7 for about 4 cents a kWh or they can be forced to buy solar power from an unreliable provider for full retail price. Obviously they are choosing the former as much as possible but can't say so publicly.
I just bought panels on Amazon for a bit over a buck a watt. That said, it is still lousy payback for most folks including me.
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