City program could make it cheaper for homes to go solar

Athens residents may soon have the opportunity to install solar panels on their homes through a revolving-loan fund from the city that eliminates the biggest obstacle to this energy-saving measure "“ the up-front cost.

The project is called the Athens Solar Initiative. And if all goes through as planned, residents will be able to take out a loan from the city to fit their homes for solar power, and then pay back that loan over time through property taxes.

At-large City Council member Elahu Gosney and local activist Gary "œSpruce" Houser have been working on the project with others for about a year and a half. And now, through the General Assembly efforts of state Sen. Jimmy Stewart, R-Albany, and state Rep. Debbie Phillips, D-Athens, Ohio has become the first state east of the Mississippi, and the fourth in the nation, to adopt legislation allowing for such a project.

Gosney said he sees Athens as a pilot city for the project in the state. "We will lead the way and show other communities what's possible," he said. "My long-term goal for the program is to have installation for every single homeowner that wants it in the city." He envisioned this as possible within about 10 years.

"The key to financing this is we're going to need several million dollars to start off," Gosney said. "And what we're looking to start off is a revolving-loan fund. The way that works is that... as the loans are repaid, the money goes directly back into the program. Say we make installments on 100 homes in the first year. As those payments start to come back in, they will fund the next year's installations. So it's a continuous cycle."

The program, Gosney said, is a fit for energy-efficiency goals from the federal stimulus package, as well as alternative-energy initiatives in the state of Ohio. "This type of program can create jobs indefinitely," Gosney said. "As funds continue to come in, we'll fund further projects... If we can make it work here, I think it will go a long way toward Ohio's energy goals of green jobs, and converting our manufacturing capacity into renewable energy jobs and companies."

Gosney said that for many years states have established special improvement districts as a common method for financing projects for cities. "The legislation that we successfully got inserted in the state budget allows that to be extended to solar-energy projects," Gosney said. "Basically, we establish a program based on this district. Then we gather all the homeowners interested in the entire city. They can live at any address in the city. And they will become the district... And that means they can get funding through the city program and pay it back over the long term through their property-tax bills."

The solar installations, Gosney estimated, would provide participating homes with 4,000 kilowatts of power. The up-front cost for such an installation, he said, runs around $30,000. A federal tax deduction credit for about 30 percent of the cost, or about $9,000, will be available to participants earning enough to deduct that amount from their taxes. With other grants and funding initiatives, Gosney estimated the final cost to homeowners would be around $9,000.

"The way we're designing it, we can offer very low-interest loans to the homeowner," Gosney said. "The solar installation will stay with the home. So say the homeowner moves out after five years, the new buyer comes in, and they will be paying the rest of what is due on the installation."

Gosney said that the project wouldn't require credit checks to participate, and that participation would have no impact on a homeowner's credit. He said another advantage, to the city, is that there isn't any liability. "As long as we can get the upfront money to give out the loans, we're pretty much guaranteed a steady stream of income because it's on the property-tax bill," he said.

As far as where the initial sum of money will come from, Gosney said that he is looking into a variety of potential sources. He has been in contact with U.S. Rep. Charlie Wilson's office about using energy money from the federal stimulus package. He also has been in contact with the Ohio Department of Development.

Gosney said he envisions the process involving a small application fee so that the city knows homeowners are serious about participating, and then the homes would be evaluated to make sure they are suitable for solar power. "We'll have a list of criteria that homeowners have to meet, and then they can submit an application," he said. "And there will be an approval process in the program."

The program is completely voluntary, he said, and homeowners would only be repaying what it costs for their personal project. "It's not a shared, community project," Gosney said. "It's an individual repayment."

This is one of the first types of programs that combine federal, state and local resources to push for renewable energy, according to the council member.

Gosney praised the work of Sen. Stewart and Rep. Phillips in the Statehouse in taking the legislative steps necessary to set up such a program.

He said he fully believes that this will become the premier model for financing renewable energy throughout Ohio, with Athens as the first community to implement it.

Houser, who has been working with Gosney on the initiative, cited a bonus for participating homeowners, saying that money which would have otherwise been going to the electric or gas utility can now instead be devoted toward paying off the solar system.

Houser said that he expects the Athens Solar Initiative funding mechanism to be a "game-changer" within the state of Ohio and "open the gates" for a much larger utilization of solar-energy systems in residential areas.

"It is our expectation that the city of Athens will be the statewide pioneer in implementing this precedent-setting process," Houser said. "There is much support locally for doing so... We sincerely believe that this project is going to place Athens on the 'green-energy map' in a very big way and expect other cities in Ohio to be inspired by and follow our model."