Council Gives Green Light to Sunlight

A to put solar panels on a dozen city-owned buildings in El Cerrito, including the Community Center and City Hall, won a key vote of approval from the the El Cerrito City Council Monday night.

The measure authorizes the city to join three other cities — Albany, Piedmont and San Pablo — to collectively solicit proposals to install solar panels on 25 municipal buildings in the four cities.

The other three cities have yet to approve the agreement but are all expected to do so next month, said Maria Sanders, an environmental analyst for the city of El Cerrito. She said El Cerrito acted first since it would be the lead partner with more buildings affected than any other city.

"The good news," Sanders said after the council's unanimous approval, "is now we'll be able to move forward with putting together agreements with other cities."

Pooling resources and purchasing power gives small cities the economy of scale and ability to do what would have been difficult if not impossible alone, said Melanie Mintz, manager of El Cerrito's environmental services division.

"This kind of agreement really broadened what the city could do on its own," she said.

City staff estimate El Cerrito's photovoltaic (PV) arrays would generate 551,000 kWh per year, cut municipal greenhouse emissions by seven percent and reduce the city's electric bill substantially over the expected 25-year life of the system.

The largest array — generating about 252,000 kWh — would be placed at the offices and pool buildings of the Community Center, followed by panels generating about 182,000 kWh on the Public Safety Building housing the police and fire departments. City Hall would receive a considerably smaller "demonstration" system generating about 5,000 kWh.

The 12 buildings were chosen as being financially feasible for solar power after a review of 17 candidate buildings. Installation would occur in the spring/summer of next year, according to an estimated timeline from city staff.

In January last year, a partnership of the four cities with the non-profit Strategic Energy Innovations (SEI) won funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Showcase Communities Program to pursue climate protection and energy management activities.

The grant proposal, titled the "Small Cities Climate Action Partnership (ScCAP)," was intended to create a model for small cities to pool staff, consultants and electricity demand for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving climate action planning, the staff report said.