City of San Francisco - Renewable Energy Purchasing

Summary

On November 6, 2001, San Francisco voters passed Propositions B and H, supporting renewable energy through bonds to fund solar and wind projects. The legislation will allow the City to sell $100 million in revenue bonds to fund solar and wind projects which will supply electricity to city agencies and will authorize the City to raise additional funds for renewable projects without voter approval.

Proposition B is a direct bond appropriation of $100 million for renewable energy installation, as well as conservation, on public properties. It is expected to provide for about 10-12 megawatts of solar and approximately 30 megawatts of wind generation. Proposition H changes the city charter so that general revenue bonds can be used for renewable energy and conservation measures and can be approved directly by the City’s board of supervisors, instead of having a new ballot proposition every time a new purchase is needed.

Of the $100 million, $50 million will be spent to install solar arrays on schools and other city-owned facilities and $30 million will be spent to place wind turbines on city and county-owned properties. The remainder will be spent on energy conservation and costs associated with the projects and issuing the bonds. The Moscone Center project is the first project to result from these propositions. With a capacity of 675 kW, the PV system on the Moscone Center roof produces a minimum of 825,000 kWh annually.

Although the bonds may be used for photovoltaic, solar thermal electric, wind, and fuel cell applications, projects have included only photovoltaic and wind systems thus far. Under the measure, bonds can be issued only to pay for facilities whose electricity would not cost more than the expected cost of electricity from existing energy sources. The City will repay the principal and interest on the bonds from the revenue generated and saved by the proposed facilities. Because the bonds will be repaid in this manner, the measure will not result in higher taxes.