Berkeley rethinking financing

This is so cool I can't even stand it: The city of Berkeley, CA is putting the pieces together to finance the installations of solar arrays for houses or commercial buildings in the city.

Here's how it works:
You'll own the solar (or water heating) system that's put on your roof, but the city will pay to have it installed. Then, instead of paying back the loan every month like you would if you financed through a bank, you pay an additional assessment on your tax bill.

Why is this better? Because you can write it off in your federal taxes, the city will likely offer a better financing rate since it will be borrowing and lending millions of dollars rather than you borrowing $15-30K (for a house), and the assessment stays with the house, so you don't have to worry about paying the whole thing off if you sell the place (which, by the way, assesses higher with a photovoltaic system).

I'm sure people more versed in such things than me could compare the pros and cons of that last point, but I don't care. This is really sexy, and if it works could herald a new method for quickly distributing alternative sources of energy throughout the otherwise reluctant small-scale sector.

UPDATE: From Green Wombat, Berkeley has approved the measure, and wants to start signing up homeowners who want to participate in June'08. My bet is that participation will be huge, quickly reaching 50%.

The homeowner immediately begins saving money on electricity bills without incurring the $15,000 to $30,000 upfront cost of installing a solar system. They also usually get a boost in their property value from the solar array and the property tax that pays for the system is deductible on their federal income tax return. When the house is sold the solar array and the tax assessment remain with the property, passing to the new owner and thus further diluting the cost of the system.

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"This is going to create green collar jobs," said Bates.

Berkeley's left-wing politics often puts it on the fringe of the U.S. mainstream but when it comes to environmental policies, the Bay Area city has led the way. Berkeley, after all, was the first city to adopt curbside recycling decades ago, now common even in some of the reddest of red states.