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 is fine if the owner chooses, but big brother needs to stuff it.
Congratulations to the voters of Lancaster, California. LOL! Good job!
No hailstorms out that way, I presume...
Solar just might make sense in certain parts of the world.Or even in certain parts of this country.Solar hot water in Florida,Texas,Arizona or California might make sense over time.But *mandatory*? Gimme a break.
I wonder how much the department of solar energy compliance will cost, and what kind of weapons their swat team will be armed with...
Sounds expensive. Nice green way to keep out the riff-raff.
I wish I could say LMAO, but these days, you may be close to the mark.
They’ll team up with big sis and her MRAPs.
I would like to mess with solar myself. I’ve had an idea or two cooking about some simple to build one off installations for water heater here at home.
I predict a housing boom in Lancaster this year followed by a multi year bust.
However, I am looking to include a small solar panel and battery to power a ventilation fan and LED lights in a storage shed because running power will be too expensive. Nothing wrong with solar if it makes economic sense. Just let the market decide instead of a busybody government,
1.5 kilowatts, about enough to run our microwave oven.
Hey, Mister Mayor - If you show people a solution and they take it, why do you need a law to make them take it?
This is what happens when the people allow tyrants to be tyrants - they encourage MORE tyrants to come out of the proverbial closet.
Since zero is getting away with being a tyrant, other tyrants are beginning to emerge.
Until/unless WE do something to reclaim control of our government and our elected officials, this situation will only continue to get worse. The coice is between having the uprising now or having a worse uprising later.
coice = choice
Lancaster = Sandblaster
Pretty soon the only home some people will be able to afford will be a lean-to or an old refrigerator box. However, refrigerator boxes will be few and far between and the tools needed to construct the lean-to will be deemed too dangerous to own.
Maybe BP should weigh in. Oh wait. BP just closed down it’s solar unit. Guess after many years and billions of $$$ they finally figured it wasn’t yet viable. Hmmmm. Now if we could just get rid of those other blights on the landscape. Yes those beautiful wind turbines. Driving in the middle of NFW Nebraska we were subjected to these awesome giant bird killers stretching in to the horizon. (At least I think it was Nebraska? Middle of somewhere in the plains.)
They could use hot air from bloviating bureaucrats or maybe captured methane from farting cows.
I hear that Boeing is holding a FIRE SALE on its left over 787 LiIon batteries. If you want to run your microwave at night, give them a call.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.