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<br />Existinl! Residential Retrofit:
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<br />Placing PV systems on existing residencies offer the best opportunity to serve the largest portion of the
<br />existing community directly, but they also can be the most expensive in terms of unit cost, marketing,
<br />and the expenditure of organizational resources. Residencies vary greatly in their attributes: they have
<br />different orientations, shading, roof material, roof layouts, roof age, and load characteristics. To reach
<br />the greatest number of willing residences, SEI proposes development of a "Solar Buyer's Club" program
<br />with elements similar to the highly successful Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) Pioneer I
<br />and II models of standardization. There will be standard eligibility criteria, standard designs for
<br />residential applications, standard equipment, and uniform installation - in other words, a common
<br />"cookie cutter" approach that avoids costly custom designed solutions for every application, resulting in
<br />the most economical program cost.
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<br />The "Buyer's Club" and standard building block approach would reduce costs of marketing, equipment,
<br />installation, and inspection. The essence of the program will be to define the desired eligibility criteria.
<br />Program staff will be trained to perform site surveys and identify perspective residences that have the
<br />desired features, such as orientation, shading situation, and roof type (layout, roof material, and age).
<br />Standard system designs will then be developed, for example standard 1.5 and/or 2.5 kW PV system
<br />design.
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<br />A Request for Participation would be sent to solar dealers and installers inviting them to participate in
<br />the buyer's club program. Qualified providers participating in the buyer's club would agree to offer a
<br />discount to buyer's club members reflecting their reduced transactional costs. In addition, permit fees for
<br />participants would be minimized. Assistance in obtaining incentive reservations, permits and
<br />interconnection agreements with the electric utility can be offered.
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<br />New Residential DeveloDments:
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<br />New residential developments offer the opportunity to do things right at the start, aggregate transactions,
<br />and lower costs. Roseville's BEST Home program is an example where a "stick and carrot" like
<br />approach has the promise to achieve impressive solar installation results for a low program investment.
<br />The first step may be to require that all new residential developments have a minimum percentage of
<br />new homes, e.g. 20%, with solar PV systems as a standard feature. The second step would be to require
<br />the next increment, say 30%, to be "PV ready", e.g. have the appropriate roof structure and area in the
<br />desired orientation with strategically placed electrical conduit and roof penetrations in place. Finally,
<br />incentives may be offered to round out the package, such as reduced fees, expedited processing and/or
<br />relaxed regulations for exceeding the minimum requirements and/or achieving energy efficient or zero
<br />energy homes.
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<br />By rolling the PV system costs into a home mortgage under such a volume program, the incremental
<br />monthly payments attributed to the PV costs will typically be less than the savings in utility/tax costs,
<br />resulting in a positive net cash flow for the home owner. Considering the projected increase in future
<br />energy costs, Livermore has the opportunity of being a national community leader by fostering
<br />responsible energy stewardship and energy independence and security. Technical and program
<br />assistance can be offered to developers on appropriate PV components, system design, installation
<br />techniques, construction procurement and planning, as well as dealing with the incentive programs.
<br />Builders, as has been seen in the SMUD programs and in other community programs such as
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<br />5050 Laguna Blvd, Suite 112-324, Elk Grove, CA 95758/916-213-5978, 916-684-7046 (fax)
<br />deosolliilaol.eom (omail), CA Lie. #820411
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