This bill is symbolic, unlikely to spur much development.
Either way, I'm all for solar, but it typically isn't the most cost effective way to reduce carbon emissions or reliance on heavy polluting power.
For now, much more effective to simply require more stringent energy efficiency measures. Cheaper. Faster.
On a side note, solar PV production isn't as bad in SF as you might think with the fog. You can definitely hit a 15- 18% AC annual avg. capacity factor, orders of magnitude better than East Coast installs, and pretty cost effective sans govt. incentives given high cost of electricity out here. Lot of good performance estimate tools, out there, but NREL's PVWatts is pretty good for back of the envelope estimates: http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/
As some context, I was an economist focused on solar for a number of years.
Either way, I'm all for solar, but it typically isn't the most cost effective way to reduce carbon emissions or reliance on heavy polluting power.
For now, much more effective to simply require more stringent energy efficiency measures. Cheaper. Faster.
On a side note, solar PV production isn't as bad in SF as you might think with the fog. You can definitely hit a 15- 18% AC annual avg. capacity factor, orders of magnitude better than East Coast installs, and pretty cost effective sans govt. incentives given high cost of electricity out here. Lot of good performance estimate tools, out there, but NREL's PVWatts is pretty good for back of the envelope estimates: http://pvwatts.nrel.gov/
As some context, I was an economist focused on solar for a number of years.