San Francisco Solar Energy Incentive Program Info

A letter concerning the subsidy:

This coming Wednesday will be the most important hearing of the solar rebate program to date at the Board of Supervisors.  The Board’s Budget Committee can choose to shelve a proposal to freeze funding for the solar rebate pilot program.  By doing so, they would allow the solar rebate pilot program to move forward immediately.  On the other hand, the committee could act to freeze funding and effectively kill the solar program.

The Committee Agenda can be found at: http://www.sfgov.org/site/bdsupvrs_page.asp?id=29832

Our solar rebate program has been at the Board of Supervisors since December 11 of last year (almost five months) and has had four seperate hearings at Board committees and two hearings at the full Board of Supervisors.  Many of us working on this effort agree that this is the last effort we can make at the Board of Supervisors to move this program forward.  We believe strongly that this solar rebate program is critical to increase demand for solar  in San Francisco.  We’ve included strong incentives for local hiring that we are confident will result in real, lasting jobs for local at-risk youth trained through the City’s workforce training programs.  This proposal is the result of a year-long stakeholder process and input of dozens of community groups.

To address any remaining concerns of Supervisors, we have proposed amendments to the solar program that ensure strong language on local hiring requirements and increase incentives for low-income households and affordable housing developers to install solar on their rooftop.  We are open to the program rolling-out as a pilot with regular reports back to the Board of Supervisors on the program’s impact.

To support this effort and help achieve the support we need at the Board of Supervisors, please consider coming to the hearing and testifying on Wednesday, May 7 at 1PM.  (It’s the first item on the agenda so no waiting around will be required).  Please also consider reaching out to Budget Committee members and Supervisors to let them know of your support for moving this forward after five months of consideration at the Board.  Hearing from solar and environmental justice advocates will be essential for the committee to move this program forward.  I believe we have a strong chance to move it forward with a final push in the coming days.

Should you have any questions about the program or approval process in the meantime, please feel free to email or call me.

Thank you for your ongoing environmental advocacy!

Get the Word Out