San Diego Solar Power Strongest in California

It’s official: San Diego is California’s solar energy leader in number of active solar panels. According to nonprofit group Environment California, San Diego has the most solar rooftops and the largest solar power capacity of any other city in the Golden State.

And San Diego holds no small lead. The city’s 2,262 solar roofs bests that of second-place Los Angeles by nearly one thousand rooftops. San Francisco, the bastion of green California cities, comes in third just ahead of nearby San Jose. Although, to the best of my knowledge, San Francisco still ranks number one in solar rootops per capita.

San Diego’s two-thousand-plus solar rooftops generate 19.4 megawatts of electricity, enough for 12,000 homes.

So how did a city that less than ten years ago didn’t even register on the solar map grow to be our nation’s most solar-powered city? According to San Diego officials, there are several reasons, including lots of sunshine, headquartering the California Center for Sustainable Energy, and fast-track permitting for solar projects.

Starting this fall, San Diego will also incorporate a Berkeley-esque incentive program that will pay up front for homeowners’ solar systems, which they’ll pay back through 20 years of individual property tax increases.

Source: San Diego Union-Tribune

Posted on August 20th in Solar News by Dan.