Solar Power on City Buildings Approved by Two More Cities

A to put solar panels on 25 city buildings in four East Bay cities, including a dozen in El Cerrito, won approval from two of the cities Tuesday night — Albany and San Pablo.

The City Council of El Cerrito, which would be the lead city, approved the plan last month. With the new approvals from the Albany and San Pablo city councils Tuesday night, only Piedmont's decision remains to be made. That city's council is scheduled to consider the proposal at its Sept. 19 meeting, said Piedmont Assistant Planner Kevin Jackson.

The measure would authorize the four cities to collectively solicit proposals to install solar panels on 25 municipal buildings.

Maria Sanders, an environmental analyst for the city of El Cerrito, said El Cerrito acted first since it would be the lead partner with more buildings affected than any other city.

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, according to Melanie Mintz, manager of El Cerrito's environmental services division.

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, an El Cerrito city staff report said.