L.A. program lets DWP pay customers to generate solar power - latimes.com

L.A. program lets DWP pay customers to generate solar power - latimes.com

Initially, customers generating power in the city will receive 17 cents a kilowatt-hour, a price that gradually will decline for later projects to 14 cents; projects in Owens Valley, also home to DWP ratepayers, will receive 14 cents a kilowatt-hour. Single-family homes probably won't be able to participate because most aren't large enough.
"We've acknowledged we're paying a slightly higher incentive to make absolute certain we get major players here," Nichols said. "We're starting a pioneering program. We didn't want to put out a price, hold a party and nobody comes."
Jim Jenal, founder and chief executive of rooftop solar company Run on Sun in Pasadena, said he worries the program will leave the city's nonprofits in the lurch.
Clean L.A. Solar carved out four megawatts for smaller projects, such as the North Hollywood apartment building. These can generate anywhere between 30 and 150 kilowatts per hour. The remaining 16 megawatts in the first portion of the program were reserved for large projects that can generate 150 kilowatts to 3 megawatts per hour.
Jenal said it's hard for small entities to carry the financial burden of installing and maintaining solar projects. Nonprofits are ineligible for the tax breaks that most large commercial entities use to increase the return they see off their green endeavors.
Jenal said that could hamstring a key objective of the solar program: familiarizing the public with alternative energy sources.
"What the LADWP did right is to see this as a way to get solar throughout a lot of different places in the city. It demystifies the whole concept," Jenal said. "From the stated goal, there is no place better than nonprofits — places where people come to congregate, come to learn — for them to learn about the value of sustainable energy."
Leslie of the LABC said residents and smaller organizations that can't shoulder the cost of a full solar installation can still invest as shareholders in nearby projects, and would see a return once these projects become profitable.
"We didn't want a program that would only be for a select part of the city," Leslie said. "We want to make sure that solar is diverse."
"We have sunshine over 300 days a year. The sun's free," she said, "so the better we get at harnessing it, the better off we're going to be."