Energy / Berkeley, California: 2010 Smarter City - Energy

By Mary Logan Barmeyer

Published: June 28, 2010

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Mayor Tom Bates created Berkeley FIRST—the first program of its kind in the world—to allow residents to pay for solar installations as a voluntary long-term assessment on their property tax bill. Credit: City of Berkeley

It’s no surprise that progressive-minded Berkeley is a leader in smarter energy practices. The city is oft praised as a haven for green living, and its track record when it comes to energy simply gives us more proof that it is walking the walk.

Berkeley’s solar financing system, BerkeleyFIRST, was recently praised by Vice President Biden as a national model for green-energy incentives. This innovative program allows property owners to use funds from the city’s Sustainable Energy Financing District to install photovoltaic systems on their homes and to pay it back through a special property tax spread out over the course of 20 years. This mitigates the financial challenges homeowners face in making their homes energy efficient by greatly reducing upfront costs and converting the payments to the equivalent of an equity line or mortgage. And if the homeowner wants to move? Simple. The next owner acquires the responsibility of payments for the solar panels.

The pilot program, which wrapped up in November 2009, was the first in the U.S. to use this method of financing, and it was so successful that a CaliforniaFIRST program is currently in the works. What’s more, CaliforniaFIRST plans to expand the program to include solar thermal and energy-efficient renovations. And the model is catching on elsewhere—just like Vice President Biden advised, states and municipalities across the country are looking at Berkeley for their cues on energy financing and have been adopting legislation to put such programs in place.

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As for other energy issues Berkeley has been tackling, retrofitting residential buildings is at the top of the list. The vast majority of the city’s homes were built before state-mandated energy-efficiency standards for residential construction, so there are a lot of homes letting valuable energy (literally) slip through the cracks. Berkeley is working toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent in the residential sector. The city is currently discussing public/private investment plans to get residents to seal leaks, insulate and upgrade. Upfront costs may be significant (and here’s where an expanded CaliforniaFIRST program to help with financing might come in handy!), but GHG emissions could meet the city’s reduction goal, create jobs and save residents $300 million by 2020.

Click here for more of Berkeley’s clean energy initiatives.

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Tagged: energy, berkeley-ca

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Lynn Taylor (not verified)

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Lynn Taylor (not verified)

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Energy / Berkeley, California: 2010 Smarter City - Energy

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