Lancaster, California leads the Way with Solar Power Panels for the Home
The Mojave Desert city of Lancaster, California will make it a requirement that all new single-family homes built will have to be equipped with solar, starting in 2014.
Sounds like good news to me, the more solar power panels for the home are embraced the cheaper and more accessible they will become for all of us.
Here is the article From Mother Nature Network’s Matt Hickman:
Led by a solar-loving Republican mayor and blessed with plenty of sunshine, this Mojave Desert city will require all new single-family homes to be equipped with solar starting in 2014.
In the high desert city of Lancaster, Calif., mayor R. Rex Parris recently announced a pioneering update to the city’s residential building code: Starting on Jan. 1, 2014, all newly constructed single-family homes must include a 1.0 kW solar system at bare minimum.
A law mandating solar for all new homes? That’s right … a bold — and certainly historic — move but not entirely surprising for the Los Angeles County city of more than 155,000 that leads the state of California in solar generating capacity. Parris, hell-bent on branding his sprawling Antelope Valley community not just as the solar capital of California but as the “solar energy capital of the world,” has already overseen some major photovoltaic-related developments in the past couple of years.
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We intend on giving you all the help and the most current up to date information on – How to live a more Eco-Friendly way of life.
But, on occasion there will be areas that will need more specialist and technical advice and that is when we will make a recommendation on where to find more detailed specialist information and some extra help!
How to build your own solar panels falls into this bracket.
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Most notably, in 2010 Lancaster partnered with SolarCity to launch a successful solar financing program for homeowners, nonprofits and businesses called Solar Lancaster. According to Greentech Media, the 1.45-megawatt program — it extends not only to private homes and businesses but also to city hall, the Lancaster Performing Arts Center, Clear Channel Stadium, churches, schools and more — will generate $1.5 million annually through 2017 and then $800,000 per year for the next 20 years.
Additionally, Lancaster is home to several utility-scale solar production plants including eSolar’s groundbreaking Sierra Sun Tower.
The requirement that all new homes must be equipped with solar systems will be written into Lancaster’s “Residential Zones Update.” Reads a draft of the update: “The purpose of the solar energy system standards is to encourage investment in solar energy on all parcels in the city, while providing guidelines for the installation of those systems that are consistent with the architectural and building standards of the City.”
Specifically, all newly built single-family family homes on lots larger than 7,000-square-feet must have a 1kW to 1.5 kW system. The minimum for rural homes on lots greater than 100,00-square-feet is 1.5 kW.
Parris, who addressed the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi this past January, acknowledged that the new regulations would be met with opposition by the building industry.
Lancaster — California’s 30th largest city and the fourth largest city in the Mojave Desert — was founded in the 19th century as a railway water stop. Aside from the presence of Edwards Air Force Base to the northeast and a storied aerospace legacy that it shares with neighboring Palmdale, it’s perhaps best known for being the childhood home of a young Minnesota transplant named Frances Ethel Gumm.
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