UPDATED: Albuquerque Mayor Proposes Solar Energy Program

Associated Press

A proposed $5 million city-backed loan program would make solar panels affordable to home and business owners through a combination of federal and state tax credits and loans, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez said Friday.

"The demand for this all across the country is enormous," Chavez said.

If the City Council approves creating a renewable energy financing district that encompasses the city and the municipal bonds to provide capital for property owners to borrow, Albuquerque would become the fourth U.S. city to have such a system. The other cities are Berkeley and Palm Desert in California and Boulder, Colo.

Chavez hopes the financial system will allow solar energy to be installed in up to 500 homes within a year.

The financing makes "these alternative technologies affordable for the public," he said.

All houses would be eligible for the voluntary program as long as they meet certain energy efficiency minimums.

The city wants to make the program effective for homeowners, so an energy audit would be conducted first to ensure that property owners would see cost savings on their energy bills from using solar panels, Chavez said.

Some homeowners would be better off simply weatherizing their homes rather than purchasing solar panels, he said.

Mark Valenzuela, the city's acting chief financial officer, said homeowners would take out a short-term loan that would be repaid with federal and state tax credits of about 40 percent of the cost of the system.

The homeowner also would pay off a long-term loan for the rest of the system that would appear as a special assessment on their property tax bill, he said.

"If it works right, you're going to end up with a wash," Chavez said, explaining that a home's savings on its energy bill could be used to pay off the loan.

The average homeowner in New Mexico uses 20,000 watts per day and would need a 3,000 watt solar system to satisfy their needs, said Odes Armijo-Caster, president of the Renewable Energy Industries Association of New Mexico.

A 3,000 watt system costs roughly $26,000 to $27,000, including installation, mounting hardware, inverters, wiring, labor, permits, and inspections, according to a city of Albuquerque Web site about the program.

"You get a return on investment in about 10 years or less. These systems are under warranty for about 25 years, so after the 10 years, you pay off your system. The next 15 or 20 years plus you're going to be incurring savings on that system," Armijo-Caster said.

Brian Cassutt, finance director for Consolidated Solar Technologies, said the price of solar panels stays the same, unlike fossil fuels which fluctuate.

Cassutt, who has been working with the New Mexico Association of Counties to promote solar energy, said Santa Fe County expects to have a similar program running by September and Dona Ana County is considering such a program.

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