I’m officially dubbing my San Francisco series “The San Francisco Chronicles”. I think it’s a cute, albeit corny, play on words and tribute to the local paper. I hope you agree.
It seems I had a bit of misinformation regarding the SF solar loan program. Evidently, it’s been implemented already, and it’s nothing like a regular loan (sorry guys!). Instead of a traditional loan, SF chose to follow in the footsteps of Berkeley, having the loans financed via property taxes. This method solves a few problems, one of which was how to transfer the loan to a new owner when the property exchanged hands. The loan now stays with the house and is the responsibility of whoever owns the property to pay, via property taxes.
The loans are financed by banks and backed by property tax revenues. According to GreenTech Media, this “allows home and business owners to pay the city back through property taxes over 20 years, including interest at rates locked in through a special tax district created for the program.”
However, unlike Berkeley, the loan program will be usable for range of home energy projects, including replacing outdated energy guzzlers like boilers. This aligns with the city’s plan to incentivize retrofitting existing buildings to increase energy efficiency.
It sounds like a great program that will make solar power more readily available. I haven’t been able to locate much on the San Francisco program, but here is information on Berkeley’s: http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/ContentDisplay.aspx?id=26580
