Last year Bruce Karney organized a city-wide Solar Buyers Group that led to 119 families deciding to invest in rooftop solar photovoltaic systems. This level of activity made Mountain View the #3 city statewide for adopting residential solar in 2007, behind only San Jose and San Diego.
This year former Mayor Mike Kasperzak is leading a similar effort. Public information meetings will be held in March and April. See http://www.solarcity. com/tabid/133/Default.aspx for dates and locations.
As gasoline approaches $4 per gallon, we are all reminded that the price of electricity from PG&E has nowhere to go but up. State rebates for solar are ratcheting down, but, when combined with the $2000 Federal tax credit, they still pay about 30% of the cost of the system. A typical solar system will cost $12,000 – 18,000 after government incentives and will last 30-40 years.
For more information, please contact Mike Kasperzak at mkasperzak@mediates.com.
