SAN FRANCISCO—Following a unanimous vote to adopt the first phase of the Million Solar Roofs program, called the California Solar Initiative, solar proponents praised the Public Utilities Commission while delivering more than 5,000 written public comments, adding to the 45,000 email comments sent in over the past three months.
“Finally we are getting somewhere when it comes to tapping into California’s abundant sunshine,” said Bernadette Del Chiaro, clean energy advocate for Environment California, a nonprofit, nonpartisan environmental advocacy group. “Today’s vote signals that California is serious about becoming the world’s solar power leader.”
Earlier this week, the PUC officially unveiled a plan to invest $3.2 billion over 11 years to build 3,000 MW of solar on a million homes, businesses, farms, schools and municipal buildings through consumer rebates. Today’s vote approved Phase One of the program - a tripling the amount of money available in 2006 for solar on businesses and municipal buildings from the current $50-100 million level to $300 million. This 2006 pot of money will go toward the current waitlist accumulated since mid-2005, when existing funds ran dry, as well as for new applicants in 2006. In addition, $58 million remains available for homeowners and small businesses to invest in solar panels via the California Energy Commission’s rebate program in 2006. The complete program, if approved in mid-January by the 4 eligible voting members of the PUC, will be the nation’s largest solar power investment and the first-ever program designed to make solar power mainstream and affordable, without aid of subsidies within a decade.
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Well, if the pUC is for it, it must be good, right?