(a) Limits for all types of systems. No applicant may receive assistance in excess of the cost to design, purchase, and install the system, net of incentives, rebates, tax credits, or other payments received from other governmental entities.
(b) Incentives and limits for photovoltaic panel systems for residential property.
(1) Residential applicants may receive incentives of $500 per kilowatt toward the cost to design, purchase and install photovoltaic panels. Commencing on January 1, 2017, every year for the remaining term of the Solar Energy Incentive Program, this incentive shall be reduced by $100 per kilowatt until the incentive is zero, except as further provided in this subsection (b).
(2) Applicants residing in an Environmental Justice District, as such district or districts are determined by the Program Administrator, shall be eligible for an additional $100 per kilowatt toward the cost to design, purchase and install photovoltaic panels.
(3) Applicants that are a building owner and a recipient of the California Department of Housing and Community Development’s CalHome loan program, which provides low-interest, deferred rehabilitation loans to low-income homeowners, shall be eligible for an additional $100 per kilowatt toward the cost to design, purchase and install photovoltaic panels.
(4) Applicants who are households that are certified by the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development as earning at or below the San Francisco median income, shall be eligible for an additional $2,000 per kilowatt toward the cost to design, purchase and install photovoltaic panels. No later than December 31, 2018, the Program Administrator shall evaluate this additional incentive and may revise it upon consideration of any changes in the applicable markets, the remaining program funds and how these can best be used to achieve the objectives of the program, and the goal of making solar energy accessible to low income San Francisco residents.
(5) An incentive applicant whose system is installed by an individual, firm, or organization whose principal office or offices are located within the City shall be eligible for an additional incentive of $250 per kilowatt up to a total additional incentive of $1,000.
(6) Notwithstanding subsections (b)(1)–(5), no applicant may receive assistance in excess of $50,000 and no incentive may exceed $50,000 per building. Further, if the property is a multifamily residential building, the total incentive shall be limited to no more than $500 per unit in the building plus $10,000 for the building as a whole, and the system must provide each unit with a generating capacity of at least one kilowatt or financial credits that result from a generating capacity of at least one kilowatt from the energy generation system.
(c) Incentives and limits for photovoltaic panel systems for commercial, industrial, or manufacturing property. Applicants may receive incentives of $500 per kilowatt of electric power a photovoltaic panel system is designed to generate. Regardless of system generating capacity, no applicant may receive assistance in excess of $10,000. Commencing on January 1, 2017, this limit shall be reduced by $100 per kilowatt every year for the remaining term of the Solar Energy Incentive Program until the limit is zero.
(d) Adjustments in incentives and limits.
(1) Upon a finding by the SFPUC that such reduction is in the public interest, the SFPUC shall have the discretion to decrease the incentives and limits set forth above by an amount reflective of the reduced need for the incentive payments.
(2) With the concurrence of the Board of Supervisors and subject to the budgetary and fiscal provisions of the Charter, the Program Administrator may increase any of the incentives and limits set forth in this Section 18.4 in connection with efforts to stimulate the development of a competitive in-City solar market, such as the establishment of an in-City photovoltaic panel production facility.
(Added by Ord. 102-08, File No. 071679, App. 6/18/2008; Ord. 42-09, File No. 090100, App. 4/2/2009; Ord. 10910, File No. 100048, App. 5/27/2010; amended by Ord. 51-17, File No. 161179, App. 3/17/2017, Eff. 4/16/2017)