Prop B Allows San Francisco to Buy $100 Milliion of Renewable Energy - November 2001
Timecode 00:00:00
[Video: Solar panel on roof of building. Cut to downtown San Francisco buildings]
ABC 7 News Reporter, Heather Ishimaru (Voiceover}: Thousands of solar panels like these will soon start appearing on San Francisco's rooftops.
Timecode 00:00:05
Owner/Founder, Occidental Power, Greg Kennedy: The technology is here and the, the well now seems to be here.
Timecode 00:00:10
[Video: Prop B listing on ballot cut to facade of San Francisco City Hall, cut to City Hall front door]
Reporter, Ishimaru (Voiceover): Passage of Prop B means the city will buy $100 million worth of renewable energy sources, enough to provide about 1/4 of its power needs.
[Video: Star-like sun in sky and cut to solar panels to Ishimaru speaking with Greg Kennedy. Cut to solar installation with construction in background then public housing building and back to Ishimaru speaking to Kennedy]
Reporter, Ishimaru (Voiceover): A project so huge it will double the solar output of the entire nation. Greg Kennedy put in these panels on the city's public housing roof house and has been consulted on the Prop B project.
Timecode 00:00:30
Kennedy: We have to pick the correct buildings, but there's a lot of, essentially unused real estate. It's like fields that aren't being used or you know, like going fallow where the sun hits them all day. In fact, roofers have to replace roofs because the sun wears them out.
Timecode 00:00:44
Reporter, Ishimaru : One of those rooftop fields that might be used for the city solar project is Moscone Center. Kennedy estimates that the rooftop of Moscone S is enough to produce about one MW. The city is going for 12.
Timecode 00:00:58
[Video: : Mike Campus talking with backdrop of solar panels cut to facade of bright blue building and pans to gated front door. Cut to panels and pans up showing 96 panels; Cuts to solar inverters and to electricity meter]
Reporter, Ishimaru: Prop B feels like a personal victory for Mike Campus. He says his business, the Rosebud agency, was the first and is the biggest commercial solar project in the city. Ninety-six panels provide all his company's power. The city's system will have inverters like his, turning the sun into kilowatts and making meters run backward.
Timecode 00:01:17
Owner, Rosebud Agency, Mike Campus: You talk about solar power and people will say sounds like a good idea and at some point, I'm sure the prices will come down and will be a a viable way to go. The fact of the matter is it's viable right now and it's financially viable, it's environmentally important.
Timecode 00:01:30
[Video: Moscone Center and other buildings in downtown San Francisco and cut to glaring sun]
Reporter, Ishimaru : The city's solar panel should start appearing in about 9 months. Heather Ishimaru, ABC7 news.
[VIDEO: Fade to black.]