Black Rock Solar donated these solar panels to a school in Gerlach, NV.

June 2008

Black Rock Spreads the Word About Free Solar

By Heather Tirado Gilligan

Tom Price has worried about his carbon footprint for years, but his concern increased substantially after the birth of his first child six months ago.  So he sat down in his Potrero Hill apartment where he lives with his daughter Juniper Grace and wife Andie Grace and sketched what would eventually become a plan to bring free solar energy to the neighborhood.  “Babies make a lot of laundry, and you don’t always have the energy to hang it outside once it’s through the washer,” Price explained, leaning forward to rest his elbows on the cafe table at Progressive Grounds on Bryant Street.

Like many San Franciscans, Price cares passionately about how his daily choices affect the global environment.  But as a former environmental journalist and current president of Black Rock Solar, a Potrero Hill-based nonprofit, Price had the ability to do more than worry about his dryer use.  Black Rock Solar emerged from Price’s role as Burning Man Festival’s environmental manager last year.  “It was quite a challenge to green a fake city in the desert,” Price said of his experience.  

Price took the used solar panels secured for Burning Man to a school in Nevada.  With the help of volunteer labor to attach the panels, and relying on a complex array of tax credits and subsidies, Price created a free and renewable source of energy for the school, and Black Rock Solar was born.  Since then, Black Rock has installed solar panels at a number of schools and hospitals in Nevada using free or low-cost labor and materials.  Black Rock is also helping to provide solar energy to next month’s Rothbury Festival in Michigan.

Price attributes Black Rock’s success to their unique financing approach to solar power, which remains a high-cost energy source compared with conventional fuels.  “Solar power hasn’t made any sense economically,” Price explained.  “But if you’re going to address climate change, solar power has to be accessible to everybody.  That means we’re not interested in making solar power cheaper,” Price said.  “We want to make it free.”  

After his daughter’s birth Price turned his attention to bringing free solar energy to Potrero Hill.  But applying the model he uses for nonprofit institutions to homes presented a new challenge.  Renters have no incentive to make capital improvements to the buildings where they live temporarily; landlords typically don’t pay energy bills for their rentals, and as a result are loath to make a large capital investment to help renters save on their energy bills.  

But Price found that until the end of the year existing federal and state rebates and tax credits would make it worthwhile for property owners to install photovoltaic systems.  In addition, if the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approves a special City credit to install solar, which would provide additional funds for Potrero Hill under an environmental justice incentive program, local property owners could essentially install solar for free.
Key to the success of Price’s plan is the cooperation of tenants, who must agree to pay the monthly average costs of their annual electricity bill to their landlord.  The payments would cover the capital costs that building owners would have to pay up front to install the panels.

Price’s calculations convinced his landlord that installing solar panels was the way to go, and Price was happy to hand-over an average of what he used to pay to Pacific Gas and Electric Company to help defray installation costs.  Soon, the three units in Price’s building on Kansas Street will be powered by low-cost solar panels.

Price hopes that other Potrero Hill building owners and tenants will likewise install photovoltaic systems before public sector incentives expire at the end of this year.  “I hope people do steal this idea,” Price said. “It’s not about whether or not we do it.  It’s about getting it done.”

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