Free Solar Assessments Offered to San Francisco Firms

(Oct.1) The 1,500 largest firms in San Francisco can each get a free solar assessment and an energy audit, if they enlist in Mayor Gavin Newsom's drive to install enough solar-power arrays to generate five megawatts of electricity—double the city's current capacity for sun power.

Newsom and his office said he will invite the largest businesses in town to join his new Solar Founders' Circle in the coming weeks.

The free assessments and audits for companies will help businesses identify potential energy efficiencies and savings, the mayor and his office said in announcing the plan.  The assessments and audits will also help firms determine their solar-power potential and the likely costs, incentives, offsets, savings and energy generated from installing a solar-power system on their property.

The program is to be funded in part by a $200,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar America Cities initiative and the San Francisco Department of Environment’s SF Energy Watch Program.