San Francisco announces first solar project

This often fog-shrouded city announced its first solar project in a $ 100 mm, voter-approved quest to become a national leader in harnessing the sun's rays. Mayor Willie Brown announced a $ 7.4 mm project to install solar panels on the roof of the city's mammoth Moscone Convention Centre, a year after voters passed a bond measure to install as many panels as the rest of the nation does in a year.
The upgrade will cut San Francisco's power bill by $ 639,000 annually, said the city's Public Utilities Commission.

Many photovoltaic panels are planned for the rooftops of hospitals, schools and other city- and county-owned buildings as San Francisco strives to generate more than 10 MW of solar power each year, enough for 7,500 homes.
High electric rates and a desire to cut pollution have prompted many US cities to consider major solar projects, said Adam Browning of the Vote Solar Initiative, a non-profit group that encourages cities to use renewable energy. He said his group is discussing bond campaigns with interested parties in New York and Hawaii.
California gleans only 1 % of its electricity from solar power, according to the state energy commission. The state gets 12 % of its energy from renewable sources, including solar, wind, and geothermal, and a new law requires it to raise that level to 20 % by 2017.

Though industry advocates note that solar panels more than pay for themselves over time, start-up costs remain prohibitive for many residents and businesses. However, greater demand has boosted production and is gradually lowering costs, said Ron Pernick, co-founder of Clean Edge, an Oakland-based energy consulting firm.
It costs about 12 cents per kWh to produce solar energy -- more than the roughly 4.5 cents per kWh it costs to make electricity using wind, but less than California's investor-owned utilities charge residential customers under 2001 rate hikes.