Page One

Voters transform S.F. into solar power leader

By Karen Gaudette The Associated Press
Wednesday November 07, 2001

SAN FRANCISCO — San Franciscans overwhelmingly approved a $100 million bond issue on Tuesday that would make the fog-shrouded city the nation’s largest municipal producer of sun-generated electricity. 

Proposition B had 72 percent support with two thirds of the precincts reporting. The measure would allow the city to issue the revenue bond and build solar and wind power systems. Another solar measure, Proposition H, which would also allow the city to issue future bonds to fund public and private renewable energy projects without voter approval, had just 53 percent support. 

Proponents — including the Chamber of Commerce as well as homeowners, city officials — say that within a year, San Francisco would produce up to 20 megawatts of sun-driven electricity — more than any other city in the country — by placing solar panels on the rooftops of city-owned buildings and schools. 

The city could add as much as 50 additional megawatts over the next three years and almost double the country’s available supply of solar power, which currently stands at about 80 megawatts. A megawatt is enough electricity to power roughly 750 homes. 

“We’re going to turn the United States around in the solar race,” said Danny Kennedy, coordinator of Greenpeace’s clean energy campaign in California. “There will be market demand for U.S. manufacturers within the country.” 

An additional 30 megawatts would come from wind turbines placed elsewhere in the Bay area. 

Though nearly half of all solar panels in use around the world are made in the United States, domestic customers make up only 15 percent of the market in a country where electricity generated using fossil fuels typically comes cheap. 

 

Germany and Japan, whose governments heavily subsidize solar panel purchases, consume 55 percent of the world’s solar power. 

 

In sunny California, less than 5 percent of the state’s electricity comes from solar power, though residents have nearly used up millions of dollars in state rebates that slash the cost of installing solar panels almost by in half. 

Though San Francisco’s often overcast weather would reduce the amount of electricity generated, experts say the solar cells still will be an effective energy source. 

The push for renewable energy has gained steam nationwide since the events of Sept. 11 as some lawmakers urge independence from foreign oil and a diverse array of fuel sources. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., have introduced legislation to renew the federal tax credit for wind power and expand it to include solar, biomass, geothermal and other renewable energies. 

The revenue bond would help make solar’s cost more manageable. City Supervisor Mark Leno has said the more cities that push for more renewable energy, the quicker technology will improve and the more the price will drop.