An Interesting Solar Power Initiative

It might be surprising that I haven't said a word about the economic developments this week but the truth is, I am still trying to get my head around it. Despite a bunch of very relevant education in business and economics the last few years, I'm still finding it difficult to feel confident that I understand the causes and the proposed solutions well enough to think aloud about it.

So instead, I'm looking for some well written articles that I could promote on here to help any of you that are interested learn a little more. I haven't had a ton of success yet.

So, in this post, I'm passing on something else that I thought was interesting.

Berkley California is rolling out a pilot program that provides low interest loans to residents that want to retrofit their homes with solar power panels. Although many communities have tried tax-credits and/or rebates to encourage similar efforts in the past, Berkeley's program is the first that actually provides residents the cash upfront to address the start-up costs (which are considered to be the single biggest obstacles to wide-spread adoption of the technology).

The plan allows residents to pay off these loans over the course of 20 years via a ~$180 monthly increase in their property taxes. An undetermined portion of this $180 cost would be offset by savings in monthly electricity bills.

Sounds promising to me. You can read a little more about it here.