School District Narrowly Makes Deadline for Solar Rebates

Six schools in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District — three of them in San Ramon — made the cut for solar panel installation rebates before the California Public Utilities Commission suspended the incentive to cope with a massive budget deficit.

A temporary suspension of the incentive program applied to schools, government and other nonprofit agencies that submitted paperwork after the July 9 ruling.

California, Dougherty Valley, Monte Vista and San Ramon Valley high schools, and Gale Ranch and Diablo Vista middle schools were not affected because their "applications had already long been approved" before the ruling, according to Terry Koehne, the district's community relations coordinator.

"We consciously tried to expedite the process so we took advantage of the rebates," he said. "Fortunately we were able to get there early enough."

The panel installations cost $25 million for the six schools, financed by the selling of  low-interest construction bonds the district received through President Barack Obama's federal funding plan.

The school district applied for the rebates — which add up to about $7.2 million over five years — in mid-April, Koehne said.

The project would not have made sense unless the rebates were included, and luckily they were, said school board trustee Bill Clarkson.

"I think it's a safe guess that if we didn't have the rebates it probably would not have happened," he said.

Four of the schools received the top tier rebate rate and the remaining two qualified for a lower amount, Koehne said.

In its original ruling July 9, the commission issued a temporary hold expected to last until September due to concerns that the incentive budget could be depleted before the program achieved its megawatt goals. It was an attempt to ensure the 10-year incentive program stayed on track with its nearly $2 billion budget.

"We were running out of money sooner than we expected," said Molly Sterkel, manager of the solar program for the commission.

Last Thursday, however, the commission made a new ruling to help agencies that applied after the suspension and were faced with losing their rebates. The hold on issuing confirmed reservations for the projects was lifted for all applications, including those impacted by the temporary postponement.

"They're all back into the queue with their applications so they're all being reviewed at normal status," said Andrew Kotch, the commission's public information officer.

The commission received a few applications during the 20-day suspension period but "there was such a backlog before the temporary hold that it basically had no affect on the market," according to Sterkel.

"They're credits and it allows us to pay back the money in a shorter amount of time so we get more bang for our buck," he said.

The district put much time and research into determining whether to move forward with the construction bonds. A citizens' committee formed to deliberate on the issue decided in favor. 

"It was as close to free money as you could get," Koehne said. "They were extremely low interest loans in the form of bonds and we believe we are going to save the district millions and be good stewards of the earth in the process."