Watertown, Massachusetts now requires solar power with all
new commercial construction and retrofits of structures greater than 10,000 sq
feet – as well all structures that include ten or more residential units.
Solar power as a required part of new construction is
starting to catch hold. Last year, we saw South
Miami mandate 2.75 kW of solar for every 1000 square feet on new homes.
Prior to that it’d been a few cities within California (Lancaster led
the way in 2013, with Sebastopol, Santa Monica, and San Francisco)
requiring solar with new construction. Now, of course, we live in a time where
the whole of the State of California has set a requirement
for all new low-rise residential construction to have solar in 2020, and
there is much
speculation on what that might do to lower installation costs.
On November 27, Watertown, Massachusetts, population
~35,000, voted unanimously to set a requirement that all new commercial
construction greater than 10,000 feet, retrofits of sites that are greater than
10,000 feet, and all new residential structures with ten or more units must
include solar power.
The Planning
Board Report zoning amendments require a solar system
equivalent to 50% of the roof area of the building, as well as 90% of uncovered
areas of garages. The new zoning requirements did allow for exceptions where
the solar ready zone is shaded for more than 50% of daylight hours.
A history
of the new solar requirement by Wickedlocal.com, shows that the work on it
it started in January of 2016. The legislation was revived in September 2017
after moving slowly, and with the time passing it had to be completely
rewritten. And between that rewrite and November 27, there were more iterations
before it finally came to a vote that ended unanimously.
NREL suggests that rooftop spaces in the
USA could meet 39% of the country’s electricity needs. Of note in this
study is that the most recent version significantly increased the potential of
rooftop based on increasing technology in the field, specifically noting that
it used a 16% efficient module for those calculations. The report noted that if
the industry standard moved to 20% efficient solar modules, we’d see that 39%
number increased by 25% to just over 48% of the USA’s electricity load.
Also of note in this report is that the data did not include
parking lots, building facades and only supposed that 23% of the nation’s
buildings could sustain solar power on their rooftops. Recent research suggests
that if we could install a
15% efficient solar glass on building facades, that would meet 40% of the
nation’s electricity needs on its own.
Recent polling suggests a majority of Americans would support
state level mandates requiring solar power with all new homes. Support for
a state home solar mandate was strongest among Democrats, at 73%, with 57% of
Republicans saying they would support one.
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