Hundreds sign up for Palm Desert energy financing

Hundreds await energy loan program
K Kaufmann • The Desert Sun •
August 18, 2008
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Palm Desert has 43 million kilowatt hours down, only 171 million more to go.

As of July, the city is one-fifth of the way toward its ambitious five-year goal to cut energy use by 30 percent.
And with officials working out the final details of a ground-breaking program to provide residents with low-interest loans for big-ticket energy savers, such as high-efficiency air conditioners and solar panels, those 171 kilowatt hours could be well within reach.
“I'm thrilled with the passage of (Assembly Bill) 811,” said Jim Hodge, project manager for Southern California Edison, which is partnering with Palm Desert on the five-year campaign.
“Once this loan program is officially introduced to the community, we're going to see a spike in our results, a sustained spike,” said Hodge, who announced the July figures on Friday.
AB 811 is the Palm Desert-sponsored bill, signed into law last month by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, that will allow cities across the state to offer residents low-interest loans for energy-efficient home improvements, with a long-term payback plan tied to their property taxes.
The law, and Palm Desert's program — which will be the first in the state to take advantage of it — are drawing intense interest and anticipation from residents, businesses, and city and state government officials.
The Palm Desert City Council won't be voting on a resolution to set up its loan program — dubbed the “Energy Independence Program” — until Aug. 28, but that hasn't stopped about 235 residents from joining the waiting list for applications.
“It's a great idea,” said Maggie McLennon, who lives on California Street in one of the first houses built at Palm Desert Country Club in the 1960s.
McLennon wants a loan to replace an old clunker of an air conditioner that keeps her summer electric bills around $400 a month, she said.
“I wanted to finish upgrading the house, and if the city is willing to help with those things, why not?” she said.
Local and national businesses also are lining up to cash in on the program.
SunWize Technologies, a New York-based solar company with offices in Palm Desert, has beefed up its staff in anticipation of a sales surge sparked by the loan program, said Dave Holt, the company's marketing manager.
“It will allow more homeowners the ability to add solar electric to their homes,” Holt said. “The issue of having solar sometimes is the financial constraint. This will ease that and make it a lot easier for average homeowners to have solar.”
SunWize is planning weekend forums where homeowners will be able to get information on solar and the loan program, he said.
Vincent Battaglia, president of Renova, a Palm Desert solar company, also believes consumer education will be key and is moving fast to establish an AB 811 Web site that, he said, will be a clearing house for information on the law and Palm Desert's loan program.
“Nobody, no other state or federal entity, has ever taken this kind of step to bring in private money and marry it to citizens' interest in renewable energy,” Battaglia said. “Residential installation for solar and for new air conditioners is going to go through the roof.”
Palm Desert will also have a Web site for its loan program where other cities will be able to download model resolutions, application forms and other documents to customize for their own use.
“We wanted to give them a head start,” said Patrick Conlon, director of energy management.
They'll have “the ability to download Word files that can be altered” for their needs.
“I think it's a win-win-win for everybody,” said Gary Calhoun, recycling coordinator for Palm Springs, where officials are reviewing the law and waiting to see how Palm Desert sets up its program.
“It's a win for the residents; it's a win for the community at large and society because of the savings you would realize in consequent improvement in greenhouse gases,” he said.
“I think it has potential,” said Carol-Ann Coates, a building engineer with the city of Burbank, which like Palm Desert has a significant stock of older houses.
“It's a possibility to help people make these new green building' improvements, Coates said. “We'll keep an eye on it.”
State energy officials like Michael Peevey, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, would like to see AB 811 programs go statewide, with the Coachella Valley becoming an incubator.
“I hope they can proselytize and it can become a very active statewide program,” Peevey said. “The communities can join together through joint powers (so) you don't have to have each small community trying to do it own their own.”
The Coachella Valley Association of Governments is ready to step in as a potential coordinator for that effort, helping other desert cites set up programs, said executive director John Wohlmuth, who recently returned from an international energy conservation conference in Norway, where AB 811 was a major topic.
Wohlmuth sees a big pay-off for the valley, with energy financing programs creating a market that will draw still more clean, green business to the desert.
“Whether it's a pool pump or an air conditioner or a solar system, the penetration rate on getting these on homes (will be) higher in Palm Desert and the Coachella Valley,” he said. “If the penetration rate is there, it could be an economic development opportunity for the valley.”
How it works
Under Assembly Bill 811, cities can finance low-interest loans to residents for energy-efficient upgrades on their homes. The loans could be used only for improvements such as solar panels or air conditioners that stay with the house.A hypothetical case provided by EcoMotion, the consultants helping Palm Desert set up its Energy Independence Program: A resident with a 2,000 square-foot home wants to replace a low-efficiency, SEER 6 air conditioner with a high-efficiency, SEER 17 unit, which costs around $12,000.The resident can get a $1,000 rebate from Southern California Edison under Palm Desert's Set to Save Program and gets a $11,000 loan from the city's Energy Independence Program. The term on the loan is 6 percent for 10 years. Loan repayments are $740 every six months, or about $123 per month, but projected savings on electric bills are about $187 per month — a net saving of $64 per month.Once the loan is paid back, savings on energy bills over a 25-year period are estimated at $100,000.

K Kaufmann covers Palm Desert for The Desert Sun.
She can be reached at k.kaufmann@thedesertsun.com or 778-4622.