Sunshine City Solar Purchasing Co-op coming

The Council PSI committee approved a proposal of mine that will help people who want to install solar hot water on their building at least 25% of the cost! I learned of a program in Portland and Beaverton, Oregon and adapted it to our community. The City will market a purchasing co-op to bundle 50 customers at a time who want to purchase solar hot water and then bid out the installations. The customer signs the contract with the installer. The city will have vetted the installers to be sure that are licensed, insured and experienced. Early conversations suggest that citizens will be able to save 25% or more by bundling the purchasing like this.

It appears that for a family of 4, the cost of installation will be repaid in less than 4 years after including the federal tax credit and possible Progress Energy credits. After that, hot water is free except on the days with no sun!

Citizens will be able to sign up on the city website www.stpete.org shortly.

UPDATE 6/29/11

Over 500 people have signed up to request a quote on a co-op purchase of solar hot water. Staff is working on a process to match up possible vendors and customers. Clearly, there is sufficient interest to make this work.