GA Homeowner Battles Neighborhood For Rights To Add Solar Panels On His Home

Source: AJC

Bill Fogarty used the sun to heat his water when he lived in Denver and San Diego.

It cut his gas bill to almost zero in the summer and gave him water hot enough to scald him, if he forgot to turn the cold tap

"It almost worked too well," he said.

Now Fogarty and his family live in Alpharetta and they want to do it again.

They can't.

Their homeowner's association won't allow it, on the belief that visible solar panels hurt property values, Fogarty said.

"I don't think they're any more of an eyesore than utility boxes, telephone or light poles or some homeowners themselves," he said.

Fogarty's dilemma is not unusual. Neighborhood covenants and even zoning conspire to restrict if and where residents can install solar panels, not only here but nationally.

The Solar Energy Industry Association lists HOAs and other restrictions at the top of a list of impediments in what it calls a solar bill of rights.

"Americans have the right to put solar on their homes or businesses," the manifesto begins. "But many are prevented from doing so by local restrictions."

Some HOAs ban solar power outright. Others let neighbors nix proposed changes to the home's appearance, which can also block solar installations.

Still others, like Fogarty's in Alpharetta's Windward community, want panels hidden on the back of homes only, which means people whose homes face south -- the direction solar arrays need to point -- are out of luck.

Fogarty is one of those. He wanted to lay panels on the south-facing roof at the front of his house.

"We handle it on a case-by-case basis," said Maxine Plotkin of Community Management Associates, which manages Windward and its homeowner's covenants. "In general though, we would want solar panels only on the back of the house."

Visible solar panels would depress property values, Plotkin said. Solar "doesn't fit there," she said. "Windward is not a modern development. Solar panels would be really out of place."

Fogarty disagrees: "No one in their right mind would want to do something to reduce their property value anyway, if they thought that would be the result, especially in this market," he said.

Mark Chien is another solar energy fan who ran afoul of his neighbors. He sank more than $7,000 into a solar water heating system at his home in John's Creek, only to tear it down a few weeks later.

Chien's HOA was supportive. He built the system in his enclosed backyard, out of sight from the street.

But it was too close to his property line and somebody complained. The city cited Chien, who discovered that every sunny location in his yard was too close to one of his property lines. He gave the dismantled system to Lanier Technical College, where he hopes it will help educate people.

"In a way, it's better," he said. "It's much more visible than it would have been in my backyard."

Solar developer James Marlowe said hostility to solar next door stems from outdated ideas.

"It's similar to what people went through with satellite dishes, back when they were big and ugly," he said. "People don't realize that the technology has changed. They can be done very attractively. And they increase home values, because they save energy."

Some states, like California, have laws protecting solar from local restrictions, said Lee Peterson, a Reznick Group partner who works with solar issues.

He doesn't see that happening soon in Georgia, but said, "In an ideal world, that's something we should probably have."

For more information on adding your name to the Solar Bill of Rights please check our previous blog posts.

A full list of state and federal tax incentives can be found here.

Support The Solar Bill Of Rights

Source: SolarFeeds

Americans love solar energy and 92 percent of them are demanding greater access to it.

It’s hard to get that many Americans to agree on anything – let alone something as politically charged as energy. And yet, solar energy generates that kind of support.

Americans understand that solar is a solution to many of the problems facing us today. Solar reduces pollution. It reduces our use of finite energy sources. And it reduces our dependence on foreign sources of oil.

Despite these real and immediate benefits, the solar industry continues to face restrictions on its growth. Some local governments have enacted time-consuming and/or expensive solar installation procedures. Yet other limitations are imposed by neighborhood associations who are supposedly concerned with solar “aesthetics,” while completely ignoring the dozens of power lines lining their streets.

While these types of regulations are counterproductive to solar’s growth, the biggest obstacle to the solar industry is the billions of dollars in subsidies Big Oil and Big Coal continue to receive from the federal government.

For almost a century, dirty fuel companies have used tax credits and other public funds to grow their coffers and political reach. But today, the finite resources they’ve been pulling from beneath the earth are diminishing as quickly as their toxic carbon footprint is growing. As this year’s mining and drilling accidents have shown us, the past and present course of tax subsidies, aggressive digging and unintended environmental consequences have now reached a very scary point.

A shift must be made.

The solar industry recognizes this and is ready with needed solutions. The Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) has launched the Solar Bill of Rights Campaign, a grassroots movement working to educate Americans about solar energy and provide the answers to our energy needs.

Driven by frustration created by the climate bill collapse and the continued pressure by dirty energy industry lobbyists, Americans are no longer remaining silent. Over 30,000 of us have signed the Solar Bill of Rights in the past few weeks, creating a growing movement for energy change. Later this fall, SEIA’s president, Rhone Resch, will march the Solar Bill of Rights into the halls of Congress and demand the roadblocks to solar’s growth be lifted.

Be a part of this important moment and add you name to the Solar Bill of Rights today. Help change the destructive course we are on and create the kind of future we deserve.

Solar Bill Of Rights

The following Solar Bill Of Rights was drafted by the SEIA:

1. Americans have the right to put solar on their homes or businesses.
Millions of Americans want to put solar on the roof of their home or business, but many are prevented from doing so by local restrictions. Some homeowners associations have prevented residents from going solar through neighborhood covenants, which allow for the association to veto any changes to a property’s aesthetics. Some utilities and municipalities have also made it prohibitively time-consuming and/or expensive to have a system permitted or inspected.

2. Americans have the right to connect their solar energy system to the grid with uniform national standards.
Currently, each state (in some cases, each utility) has a unique process for connecting solar systems to the local electricity grid. National interconnection standards will create a uniform process and paperwork, creating a simple process for the homeowner. Connecting a home solar system shouldn’t be any more complicated for the homeowner than setting up an Internet connection.

3. Americans have the right to Net Meter and be compensated at the very least with full retail electricity rates.
Residential solar systems generate excess electricity in the middle of the day, when the owners aren’t usually at home. Net metering requires the utility company to credit any excess generation to the customer at full retail rates at a minimum – effectively running the electricity meter backwards when the system is generating more electricity than the occupants of the house are using. Allowing customers to net meter is critical to making solar an economically viable option for most homeowners. Setting a minimum threshold of full retail rates also ensures the option of creating feed-in-tariffs.

4. The solar industry has the right to a fair competitive environment.
The highly profitable fossil fuel industries have received tens of billions of dollars in subsidies from the federal government for decades. In addition, fossil fuel industries are protected from bearing the full social costs of the pollution they produce. The solar energy industry and the public expect a fair playing field, with all energy sources evaluated based on their full, life-cycle costs and benefits to society. Therefore it is critical that solar energy receive the same level of support, for the same duration, as the fossil fuel industry.

5. The solar industry has the right to produce clean energy on public lands.
America has some of the best solar resources in the world, which are often on public lands overseen by the federal government. But even though oil and gas industries are producing on 13 million acres of public lands, no solar permits have been approved. Solar is a clean, renewable American resource and solar development on public lands is a critical component of any national strategy to expand our use of renewable energy.

6. The solar industry has the right to interconnect and build new transmission lines.
Over the last 100 years, the transmission grid in the United States has been built as an uncoordinated patchwork of local systems. A decades-old power grid forces solar generators to play by decades-old rules for planning, building, and paying for access to the transmission grid. Expanding the use of renewable energy in the United States will require policies and investments that allow remote areas rich in solar resources to connect to major population centers with significant demand for electric power.

7. Americans have the right to buy solar electricity from their utility.
Many utility companies have never thought to offer their customers the option to purchase clean solar energy, rather than dirty energy from coal or other fossil fuels. Nation-wide over 90% of people support increased use of solar energy, and over three-quarters believe it should be a major priority of the federal government. Despite this, only around 25% of utility customers in the US have the ability to actually purchase clean, renewable power from their utility, and only a tiny fraction of those programs offer solar energy. Utilities should be required to offer the electricity source that their customers want.

8. Americans have the right to – and should expect – the highest ethical treatment from the solar industry.
Solar energy systems are an investment as much as a physical product. Consumers deserve top-quality information and treatment from solar energy providers and installers. Consumers should expect the solar industry to minimize its environmental impact through panel recycling and other programs, and communicate information about available incentives in a clear, accurate and accessible manner. Finally, consumers should expect that solar systems will work better than advertised, and that companies will make every good faith effort to support solar owners over the life of their systems.