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Solar Sebastopol
Photo Gallery
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City Goes Solar
In the spring and summer of 2003, the Sebastopol City Council approved the installation of two 10 kW solar power systems installed on the roof of the Public Works building and the Fire Station. Since then, the systems have performed beyond our expectations and have saved the city over $10,000 while providing a clean source of electric power. The two systems produce the equivalent of 55- 65% of our electric power usage from PG&E. We had estimated a 14 year payback on the city net cost of $92,000 for both systems, but are now expecting to realize that savings in less than 11 years. When calculating the cumulative net savings that are used to pay off the annual financing of the capital cost, the city will only have a maximum of $22,000 "out of pocket" expense before that amount is fully paid off in the 10th year. If the City was not a public agency, we would have been able to take advantage of the federal tax credit that private property owners are entitled to when installing solar power and shortened the payback period even further.
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Solar Works
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Sebastopol Fire Department
Installers add the final panels to the solar PV system. The 10kW System, produces 15,586 kWhrs./year and was completed in May, 2003.
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Ives Pool
In June of 2004, the City provided funding to the West Sonoma County Swimmers Association to install a 17.6 kW system at Ives Pool. The net cost was $63,000 and we expect the savings from the reduced electrical bills at the pool to pay off the financing expense within 10 years.
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Solar Works
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Sebastopol's public swimming pool system generates electricity to offset the energy intensive pumps that operate the pool.
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Solar Works
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Sebastopol Public Works Dept.
The public works corporation yard is powered by solar pv. This 10kW System, produces 18,172 kWh/year and was completed in April, 2003.
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The City Council has been very pleased with the installation and performance of our solar energy systems and acknowledges the extra benefit of reducing greenhouse gas emissions that would occur from the conventional production of electricity with natural gas. Annually, the city's solar power systems reduce CO2 emissions by approximately 13 tons which is equivalent to having an extra 4 - 5 acres of trees removing CO2 emissions from the environment. If more people used solar as an energy source, we could make significant progress to reduce dependence on conventional GHG emitting technology and save money on our power bills at the same time.
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Residential Installations
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These photovoltaic solar panels on a Sebastopol roof provide 3.06 kW of electricity for the homeowners. The system can be expanded to 4.509 kW. It was installed in the summer of 2004.
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 Affinity Energy
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Two Acre Wood Cohousing
Photovoltaic solar panels installed on a flat carport roof provide electricity for the community building and outdoor lighting. This 3.2 kW array was installed in 2003 and has reduced the HOA electric bill to almost nothing.
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Solar powered home outside of Sebastopol.
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 Cooperative Community Energy
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Solar Works
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Homeowner Rob Catterton celebrates the adornment of a 2.5kW grid-tied PV system on the roof of his Sebastopol home-- installed December 2003. His system is expected to produce 4,200 kWh/year and offset over 1.5 tons of greenhouse emissions.
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