The Club’s California Solar Project is Coming to Your Chapter!

If you’ve ever considered installing a solar power system on your home or building, now is the time to act.

By Carl Zichella and Woody Hastings

The Sierra Club’s California Solar Project (CSP) is coming to your Chapter soon. If you’ve ever considered installing a solar power system on your home or building, now is the time to act.
California currently offers rebate and tax incentives that make installing a system economical, and the Club has partnered with the electrical workers and others to offer high quality, union-built systems to Club members. The CSP will assist you in obtaining these rebates and with other aspects of installing a solar power system.
The CSP is a combined effort of the Sierra Club, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Service Employees International Union, and the Union of Needletrades, Industrial & Textile Employees (UNITE!). It’s a blue-green alliance that was initiated in the spring of 2002 when a strong coalition of labor and environmental leaders came together to take action against global warming in a way that creates quality employment. Its mission is to increase and expand union representation in the solar industry by installing solar power systems on labor-union-owned buildings and member homes.
Why is the Club involved? For starters, every kilowatt of solar electrical power produced displaces between 2 to 3 pounds of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere when displacing coal-fired power, according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and coal accounts for 52 percent of U.S. energy production. In addition, for every megawatt of solar power installed, about 35 full-time jobs are created for a full year, according to the Renewable Energy Policy Project. Sierra Club members, as early adopters of this technology, help on both of these fronts by advancing the viability of the solar photovoltaic market.
Why go solar? Although solar power for home applications has been around for over 30 years, cost has kept it largely something used by folks who live outside of urban power grids where there is no choice. State law passed in the late 1990s established incentives for solar and allows homeowners to legally tie into the grid, turning the utility into a huge “battery” for the solar home, where the homeowner/producer “sells” the power produced during the day back to the utility.
These programs have increased the number of systems installed in urban and suburban areas, but even so, the sight of solar panels on your neighborhood roofs is probably rare. Installing a system is still a pioneering thing to do, and every system installed helps drive the market.
When you install solar power on your home, you become your own energy producer, greatly reducing your energy costs over time. Solar is a wise investment that will ultimately save you thousands of dollars in energy costs.
Through the CSP’s operations partner, the National Photovoltaic Construction Partnership (NPCP), the CSP optimizes the power of bulk purchasing from arguably the best manufacturer in the business, IBEW-organized Sharp Solar, and offers bridge financing via Amalgamated Bank to minimize out-of-pocket, up-front costs and long-term, low-interest financing for the balance.
NPCP was founded in 2002 to help facilitate solar electric construction nationally. All of the CSP’s installations are performed by IBEW workers, ensuring high construction standards and quality workmanship.
The California Solar Project will be coming to your chapter soon. Please check with the Air Quality, Global Warming, and Energy Committee for upcoming presentation dates ( Jan Kidwell, 818-506-8731). This will be your opportunity to learn the details of what the CSP has to offer, and to schedule a site visit to determine your solar potential. We hope that you are able to attend and urge you to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the California Solar Project.
If you just can’t wait for the presentation, or if you know of a Sierra Club event at which the California Solar Project should have a presence, please contact Woody Hastings, CSP project director (415-681-1110).

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