California is in the midst of a record-setting year in terms of generating solar power, according to a recent article in The Desert Sun. The first five months of 2015 have already seen the state’s high mark from 2014 substantially eclipsed with a single-day output of 6,078 megawatts on May 31.
The significant spike in the amount of solar energy being produced in California is thanks in large part to the state’s Renewables Portfolio Standard —which mandates that all electricity retailers purchase 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020. Another contributing factor is the decreasing costs associated with solar panels themselves. California’s increased solar output is still somewhat surprising, however, because many of the incentives to install solar panels the state had previously put in place are now expired.
How can municipalities fill the gap left by the no-longer-existent state incentives to ensure the continued growth of solar power generation? One way, which is already in the works, is to adopt measures that streamline the permit process for small-scale rooftop solar panel projects — which AB 2188 mandates by Sept. 30.
Another route municipalities can take is to facilitate the installation of solar panels on city and county building rooftops. Just last year, San Rafael approved a proposal to install solar panels on six city buildings, according to an article in the Marin Independent Journal. Once completed, these projects are expected to result in close to $1.4 million in energy savings for the City over the duration of the contract. For cities with budgetary constraints, power purchase agreements should prove to be a feasible option because they require no down payment for the initial installation of the panels.
The Renewable Energy Self-Generation Bill Credit Transfer (RES-BCT) program provides even more reason for municipalities to invest in the installation of solar panels on public buildings. The RES-BCT allows multiple municipal facilities to benefit from the installation of solar panels on one rooftop. All local governments in California are authorized to generate energy at one primary “generating account” and distribute any bill credits that may accrue to secondary “benefitting accounts,” so long as both buildings belong to the same municipality. The number of bill credits a generating account produces is determined by multiplying a generating account’s time-of-use energy component in a given time period by the amount of energy it puts back on the grid in the same time period. This program gives municipalities the opportunity to take advantage of excess energy that their solar panels generate by spreading that surplus to other city or county buildings that lack solar panels — resulting in significant installation savings.
