In Brief
This week, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors unanimously passed legislation that would require new construction to install solar panels or solar water heaters on top of both new residential and commercial buildings.

The Age of Solar

Solar panels aren’t exactly cheap; however, given our continued energy crisis (largely driven by the pollutants released into our atmosphere year-by-year), many cities are pushing sustainable sources of power.

Indeed, San Francisco has been working towards ensuring that 100 percent of its energy comes from renewable resources for some time. And they just made a big step forward. The city recently passed legislation that requires new buildings have solar panels installed on the roofs.

Notably, this isn’t the first legislation of this kind. Previous bills asserted that 15 percent of a rooftop must be reserved for solar use. But now, they have one-upped themselves.

A First

Officials assert that this mandate is ultimately the first of its kind, and that they hope to make themselves leaders in the renewable sector.

Yet, the legislation asserts that all new buildings 10-stories tall or shorter will have to install photovoltaic panels or solar water heaters. And as you can imagine, the number of sub-10-floor buildings being built in San Francisco is pretty low.

But in any case, the law won’t go into effect until January 1st of next year.
So if you have some work planned, you still have time to hop on it before the new law comes into effect.