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I can't but echo the sentiments of Merc reporter Vindu Goel: not bad for government work. A Berkeley, CA official has moved through the city council a proposal to finance residential and commercial solar energy and efficiency projects through low-interest municipal bonds, with the cost of the system paid back to the city through a tax assessment tied to the property. Brilliant in its simplicity, the idea overcomes one of the major hurdles of residential systems, which is homeowners' unwillingness to make a capital expenditure or take out a bank loan for a system with a payback of 10 years or more. The installed energy system belongs to the property, not to the current owner. Future owners inherit the system and also the obligation to pay for it (until it's paid off), in a sense the same way an owner or buyer pays for streets, water, sewer systems, etc. The proposal accomplishes this without any major new beauracracy; for that reason Mr. Ken Alex would seem wrong when he says that "there's no reason you couldn't have a statewide assessment": actually, there is, since property taxes are assessed and collected at the municipal level. While we'd love to see this program spread rapidly, the state of California already has one Solar Initiative in place. They should focus on working out the kinks in that, and then perhaps expanding it, before trying to tackle something else.
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