Miami-Dade looks into tax financing of solar for homeowners

Miami-Dade Commissioner Katy Sorenson pushed a piece of legislation through the Commission calling on the Mayor to develop the "Berkeley model" for renewable energy financing.  Basically a person who lives in an area offering this type of service (currently the City of Berkeley and Palm Springs County, California, Boulder Colorado and a couple other places in the country) can "op-in" to a taxing district like you have for street lights or landscape maintenance.  But instead of mowing the commons of a development, the property owner can use funds to install solar or do major efficiency enhancements like super-efficient windows or an A/C or cool roof and pay back the loan through an assessment on their tax bill.

The resolution calls for a plan to come back for the legislative body's review in three months.

You can read the resolution here

and if you really want a glimpse of what nonsense the Board of County Commissioners can be, watch how long the "debate" dragged out because perennial opponent to Sorenson - Natash Sejas tried to kill the idea and ended up voting against the item along with allies Diaz and Martinez: Video  and click on item 11A9 on the left.

Miami-Dade to fast-track solar installation permits

As a result of the Building Code meetings with industry representatives, Miami-Dade County got the Board of Rules and Appeals to agree to a number of changes that will benefit solar.

For one, solar equipment will be considered "green" for the purposes of qualifying for the free "fast-track" of building permits in the unincorporated county. I hear the County is in talks with interested cities to get them to adopt similar fast tracking for green buildings and solar.

Another biggie is that the County will now consider solar panels as being "non-permanent" equipment so they can be installed as designed instead of being treated like air conditioning equipment and other "permanent" rooftop equipment.

Now if we could get a couple more products through code approval. The County may have a plan for that too. We'll have to wait and see if the Department of Energy approves the recent energy efficiency block grant program list, but there's a strong chance that the County may get the green-light on a project to reduce "market barriers" and help companies with the cost of getting product approval.

Florida Renews Solar Rebate and adds loan program for Thermal (updated)

I was recently at the Green Cities conference in Orlando where some numbers were presented by a representative with the NRDC that stated that the Solar Rebate program was replenished with $5 million from the Florida portion of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus bill) and will be using another $9 million for some sort of revolving loan fund for solar thermal to provide micro-loans up to $4500 for up to 5 years at a rate of 2-4% interest.

- update: There seems to be another pot of money to be used to replenish the rebate, doubling the total amount available, which would provide the funds to make good on the backlog and provide new funding for this fiscal year. This post has been edited to reflect that change.

There's another $20 million for solar schools / shelters which was a pretty successful program for getting demonstration sized solar onto schools for a couple years under Governor Bush. This would be a significant bump in funding and if FSEC is involved, I know they were trying to up the size of the installations to 10 kw so they could provide some off-grid emergency shelter functionality too.

You can find the details on the Florida Energy and Environment Commission website page on ARRA and an explanation on all the ways the State wants to spend $126 million on energy programs on this adobe document from the same web page.

The good news is all those nail-biting solar customers who went out on a limb and installed approved solar systems last year and applied for a rebate should get a check, but we're now relying on stimulus money to keep the program alive for just another year.

We need a public benefit fund in this State. Connecticut spends more on solar PV than Florida for goodness sake! And we need to provide a separate funding block for efficiency and thermal or PV will continue to eat up all the funds. As much as I love PV, thermal will have a much faster penetration into the market because of faster payback, less complicated installation and maintenance, and way less roof needed to go solar. Maybe the loan program concept will work since it will take the sting out of the initial up-front cost, but there's nothing like reducing your total out-of-pocket to pump up interest.

Solar thermal is the one part of the Florida alternative energy industry that struggled and survived through the down decades, and they need a fair shake when it comes to the incentives too. There's my shout-out for our scrappy solar thermal companies out there.

On that front, news to report about the Miami-Dade code recommendations. Post to follow soon when I get details. Good news for thermal and PV installations in Southeast Florida.

Solar VS the South Fla Building Code - round 2

Alright, so it ain't a prize fight, or any kind of fight for that matter. I just needed something catchy to grab a reader or two.

The second meeting of the joint Dade/Broward building code appeals boards is set - this time in Broward. I got word that the meeting will be on March 23 at 10 AM at the West Broward Regional Library in Plantation.

A bunch of industry reps showed up the first time, and I expect that there will be a similar turnout - maybe better since many of the participants came from Broward or points north. Miami's indigenous solar industry being small enough to count on one hand. Getting these code issues straightened out could change that.

Interesting Blog about local solar installation

I came across the blog of Ken Fields - a local inhabitant of Miami Beach and something of an entrepenerial spirit from what I can see.

He's undertaking the installation of a solar photovoltaic system on a flat-roof home using AGT FlexLight Solar Modules. These are solar laminate strips instead of the classic panel systems. The advantage that AGT has is that their product meets Miami-Dade product approval making permitting much simpler. The downside? You need more roof to produce adequate power.

Mr. Fields installation looks like its about 5 kW and is already generating power.

Way to go!

Check out his blog to see some of his experiences during the installation (and now operation) of one of the first solar electric systems in Miami Beach.