ciscodv’s Recent Comments

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  Renters

  This is a good point and a difficult problem to solve as most renters pay their own utility bill for just their unit.  

  However, most multi-family buildings have central hot water heating that is maintained and paid for by the property owner.  This type of financing can be used by property owners of multi-family buildings to install solar thermal water heating.  This would reduce natural gas use substantially and, therefore, the owner's utility bill would go down.

  It's a start, anyway.On Everything you need to know about Berkeley's innovative rooftop solar program posted 1 year ago 8 Responses

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  Financing Response

  I have been involved in the Berkeley program and with helping other cities replicate it and can take a stab at answering some of the questions raised.

  The FIRST program uses a type of municipal revenue bond.  For each property, a small bond is sold to cover the upfront cost of the system and then a line item is added to the property owners tax bill to repay the cost, plus interest, over 20 years.  

  There is no "general obligation" of the city -- the revenue from the property tax line item is the security for the bond.  (This is standard in muni finance.)

  This program is basically self-funding, meaning it creates the funding it needs to operate through its own financing.  So there is no debt that counts against the City's debt limit, impacts its credit rating, or otherwise creates a direct liability to the City's general fund.

  A FAQ prepared by a team at UC Berkeley is here:
  http://www.renewfund.com/cityfirst/faqs

  The program is dependent on willing buyers in the municipal bond market.  As a practical matter, the crisis makes the program somewhat more expensive.  Bond buyers are requiring higher interest rates and that translates to a higher interest rate for program participants.   Lower rates are, of course, better.  But the program is still quite helpful and viable at a higher rate.On Municipal property assessment financing for solar and energy efficiency posted 1 year, 1 month ago 14 Responses