|
About Us
|
The City of Santa Monica has an ambitious goal to become a net-zero, energy independent city by 2020.
Solar
Santa Monica helps residents, businesses and property owners reduce
energy consumption and generate clean, renewable energy onsite. Our Contractor Network is a tool to help you find a licensed, reliable contractor.
|
Solar Santa Monica is brought to you by:
|
|
New Legislation Impacts Solar
Over the weekend of October 10, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed two bills that slipped into law without much notice, except by those of us watching very closely. Both of the bills will impact Solar Santa Monica, but not without some controversy.
You have read in this newsletter that the City of Santa Monica has supported legislation to enact an effectively-priced Feed-In Tariff in California that will make it profitable for all property owners to consider solar. (A feed-In tariff is a fixed payment made to a solar (or wind) owner who "feeds" energy into the grid. Germany's generous feed-in tariff has led to its becoming number one in world solar capacity.)
SB 32 - Feed-In Tariff. This bill requires utilities to purchase all electricity produced by small (up to 3 MW in size) producers. The good news for the producer -- he or she gets paid for making the solar investment. The good news for the utility is two-fold -- it gets power coming from close to where it's needed, and it (the utility) gets to count that power toward meeting its RPS (Renewable Portfolio Standard) requirements. But the program does have weaknesses.
Price. The price for the feed-in tariff as proposed in SB 32 has not been set, but one proposal is for a "reverse auction." That is, the producer that offers the utility the lowest bid will get a contract. Clearly, the larger the installation, the more likely it is to enjoy construction and financing efficiencies and thus be able to offer a lower bid. In Santa Monica, a typical solar system ranges from 2 kW for a small home to 200 kW for an office building. Small producers like these will probably be shut out of the market.
Cap. Utilities don't have to buy any "new" electricity once renewables reach 750 MW (less than 1% of our needs) - so the impact, even if larger installations come on line, will be limited.
Multi-metered dilemma. Under the current solar initiative, a property owner of a multi-tenant building has no way of recapturing his investment through rents if he decides to install solar. This is known as the "split incentive," a classic barrier to energy improvements. Since the goals of Solar Santa Monica are to install over 100 MW on every feasible rooftop in the City, the Solar Santa Monica Advisory Board continues to explore what policy options may be available to ensure that small systems owners, and in particular owners of multi-tenant buildings, receive a reasonable return on investment.
AB 920 - Net Metering This bill expands the existing net-metering program so that if a solar owner produces excess power (over and above what he or she uses over the course of the year), that power will be purchased by the utility. This is definitely an improvement, because up until now any excess was "given" to the utility for free. However, AB 920 also has weaknesses:
Price. The amount the solar owner gets paid for his excess power will be set by the CPUC. Until we know what that will be, potential investors will hold off.
Cap. When the net-metering customers' production reaches 2 ½% (Southern California) or 3 ½% (Northern California) of the state's peak demand, the utilities can stop issuing new contracts. The fact that these caps could be reached within the next uear means that AB 920, for all its logic, will also have limited impact.
California took a big step toward supporting solar with the California Solar Initiative, and these new laws add some sweetener. But a robust feed-in tariff could open the market to segments that are now shut out, and truly propel the state to solar leadership. Solar Santa Monica continues to work to that end! | |
|
Proposed Green Building Ordinances Looking for Public Input
 For years, the City of Santa Monica has been a leader in green building standards. The current green building ordinances have been developed by the Office of Sustainability and the Environment (OSE), specifically by Brenden McEneaney, the City's Green Building Programs Advisor.
Adopting new standards is a challenge - they must balance the environmental goals of the State and City and the economic and professional realities facing builders and developers. At the same time adoption procedures and education for builders and residents must be considered.
The changes were drafted to coincide with the new State energy standards that will take effect January 1, 2010. These proposed changes impact project applicability, green building checklist, solar pool heating, energy efficiency, water conservation and construction and waste diversion. One highlight is the requirement for HERS raters to verify efficiency; another deals with the size of toilets. If you are property owner or a developer, click here to see the details of the proposed changes. The City requires any proposed ordinance changes to receive input from the community prior to going to the board. The event held on Monday evening included about 20 stakeholders including architects, green consultants (LEED, Green Point Raters, etc), city staff, residents, press, builders, and a pool contractor. If you missed the meeting and want to provide input, send it directly to Brenden via email. After another month or so of public input, the proposed ordinance changes will go to the City Council. Council will consider the proposed ordinance and may send it back to staff for revisions. Upon final approval there will be a second reading of the proposed ordinance, which would go into effect 30 days thereafter. Solar Santa Monica supports the new green building ordinances because more efficient buildings require less energy, therefore less solar to offset energy demand. To find out more about the green building ordinances, visit www.smgreen.org. To learn more about solar in Santa Monica, visit www.solarsantamonica.com.
|
Solar Santa Monica Lending Library
Part 2 Last month we sought to whet your appetite with a description of the Kill-A-Watt meter. That tool is perfect for measuring power draw for small household appliances. If you want more information on your larger appliances - heater, washing machine, electric dryer - you'll be interested in this month's feature: Black & Decker Energy Saver Series, Power Monitor Model EM100B. The Power Monitor is available for you to borrow at the Solar Santa Monica office.
Stuart Cooley, Solar Santa Monica's efficiency engineer, tested the equipment.
I first read about the Power Monitor in the do-it-yourselfer magazine, MAKE. Readers recommended the Black & Decker monitor for measuring day to day electricity usage.
The monitor has two pieces. The first piece looks like a TV remote. You 'initialize it' by filling in some basic information from your electricity bill and from your own electricity meter, and then hitting the reset button. The second piece looks like a headset with microphone, but it installs on the glass dome of your meter. You'll need a flat blade screwdriver . (The Black & Decker website has illustrations of the kinds of meters it fits on.) The "headset" part goes around the meter, and the "microphone" part is positioned so it can bounce a light off the rotating dial of your meter, measuring how fast the dial is spinning.
Once everything is installed, you'll be able to see how much power you're using right now (kW), how much you've used since the beginning of the month (kWh), and what your bill looks like (dollars). If you have one device you want to measure , you can zero everything out, then turn on the device and measure it separately.
Borrow the Power Monitor from the office. If it works, and you want to buy your own, figure around $100 on Amazon. It does not connect to your computer. It comes with at two-year warranty and according to the advertising material, will help you "Lower your electric bill up to 20%!" Of course, the device alone doesn't do anything - that's up to you. But as Stuart says, "What isn't measured can't be managed."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
