City Begins Work on Solar Panel Plan

The City of Santa Barbara took the first steps toward installing enough solar panels on its Laguna Street properties to generate up to 400 kilowatts of electricity per hour. City Hall has mailed out requests for qualifications to potential partners. The plan is for partners to assume the cost of installing the photovoltaics – typically in the neighborhood of $3 million – then charging City Hall for the energy generated. City Hall would assign its partner certain rare rebates from Southern California Edison. The savings, coupled with tax rebates available to private developers, should bring the cost-per-kilowatt near what it would cost for conventionally generated electricity.