California governor Jerry Brown opened the Governor’s Conference on Local Renewable Energy Resources in Los Angeles on Monday. He called for solar panel installations with a goal of 12,000 megawatt production (equivalent to 12 million homes). These panels will be placed on the roofs of commercial buildings, schools, and parking structures throughout the state.
Solar providers like San Francisco-based SunRun have long complained about the state’s permitting processes. The state of California creates barriers to the growth of the green power industry by adding about $2,500 to the cost of installation of a residential solar power system.
Streamlining this process could reduce the cost of an installation by about 76% or $1,900 per residential project. This would boost the number of projects by 13% or 132,000 units. This would create 3,860 permanent jobs. That’s on top of 21,780 new jobs already created by the solar industry.
SOURCE: Sacramento Bee
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