Public Health & Environment Committee Public Hearing Item 2: Green Initiative - May 25, 2000

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[VIDEO: Quick view of San Francisco Supervisor, Michael Yake and cut to Occidental Power Owner/General Manager, Greg Kennedy speaking at a podium]

Occidental Power Owner/General Manager, Greg Kennedy: I'm Greg Kennedy and I run Occidental Power Solar and Cogen Company in San Francisco, and it's really encouraging to hear this thoughtful discussion on solar. I spent a lot of time defending solar energy in San Francisco and I'm here to say that it does work and it works well.

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Kennedy: The technology is only getting better. San Francisco, in fact, was the first place. In the country to put commercial grade solar on apartment buildings 20 years ago. We put it in. We still take care of it. It's working. And there's a....

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San Francisco Supervisor, Michael Yaki: Which ones can you? Which buildings?

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Kennedy: Well, some of the buildings included would be the San Francisco Housing Authority, the University of San Francisco, and lots of privately owned buildings downtown of have the Saint Francis Square Co-op is a real successful one there. They save about $40 to $50,000 in hot water heating costs. That's next to across the street from Japantown.

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Kennedy: And you know, now we're at the point as everybody's been pointing out that we can use the sun's energy to make electricity as well, and that is happening in town both by us and other contractors. We put the first one in the city in Noe Valley, and we're getting ready to put the first commercial grade in the Haight now. So it is happening and you know, I think it's a real great opportunity right here to start to you know, make some real dramatic statements here and...

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Supervisor, Yaki: How is the incremental cost of pointing in PV into a into a house or to a building?

Kennedy: In San Francisco, we have a lot of small, smaller residential areas. We've just put some in the sunset area and after the rebate costs of about $10,000, we'll set up somebody with a 1 kW system, which will take care of the bulk of their cost and actually run their meter backwards during the bulk of the day and that's even working out there in the in the Sunset District, so you know, don't be fooled by the, the weather patterns here. You know, it's although it was the political climate that made San Francisco the first in solar years ago our weather is still good enough to make it work. So that's what I just wanted to to state.

Supervisor, Yaki (voice only): Thank you so much.

Kennedy: Thanks a lot.

[VIDEO: Fade to black]