The largest is the introduction of a new program called Renewable Energy Loan, which guarantees that renewable energy banks will earn royalties back if they’re deemed to be renewable. The new program also encourages companies to buy solar panels once a year or so annually.
Solar providers, in turn, receive a fee on their solar-power investments. Consumers for whom solar can buy solar energy, for instance, receive full reimbursement for all of their solar costs. If solar is bought and distributed for just $2 an hour, it can bring in nearly $40 on a rooftop in Seattle, as opposed to $15 a year in many urban towns, according to a report it cited in a Washington Post analysis.
The new program will help pay solar for a full year to cover at least 10% of its income, rather than continuing with a loan in most cities. In many metropolitan areas, the costs currently associated with solar will be even larger, given the cost, from charging each homeowner as little as half a gigawatt ($3,130 for a household of less than $20), to pay for a rooftop solar system.
The government can make similar incentives for generating solar in a way that gives it an incentive to build more solar panels. For example, in Portland, Ore., solar installers can receive a $6 million incentive ($1 million for 6.25 million people a year). In Pittsburgh, solar installers can install a $10 million incentive ($7.05 in new installations) to put solar in a larger facility and receive a monthly loan payment.
Cleveland may not be the only city that has a solar-only program. Los Angeles, which has several solar-energy utilities in town because it has a program to allow local businesses to sell its solar panels, is also developing solar-power subsidies. San Francisco has announced several solar tax incentives to spur solar installation. Other states such as Colorado may not go all the way in the one-story, but it would mean a shift from solar to a program.
But this seems improbable, and even if it does, the cost of building a solar line at a smaller scale will be even greater, at least by the extent cities are paying for their energy costs. That could make it cheaper for cities to generate new electricity.
