Modeled after existing programs in Northern California, the Santa Cruz plan is designed to grant 20-year loans to homeowners for solar power and solar thermal installations

Northern California’s Santa Cruz County and the county seat, the City of Santa Cruz, this month approved a program designed to make solar installations affordable for its homeowners.

该计划有两个名称 - 能源独立和经济刺激计划，以及圣克鲁斯能效计划 - 但一个目标是：鼓励尽可能多的房主通过太阳能。

The basic mechanism is simple. The program finances the installation of solar power and solar heat systems for homeowners who want them and then adds the cost of the loans, which have 20-year terms, to the homes’ property taxes.

Modeled after existing programs in nearby Berkeley and in Sonoma County, the Santa Cruz program will launch with the help of theSanta Cruz Community Credit Union，这将为想要立即开始安装的房主提供桥梁贷款。尽管桥梁贷款将是常规融资产品（未包裹在物业税），但一旦建立适当的太阳能融资区，它们就可以归入能源效率计划。该过程预计将于今年晚些时候完成。

As noted ina recent storyin theGood Times Weekly, the program was organized byEcology Action, a nonprofit environmental consultancy, in collaboration with local officials, the credit union, and installers such asIndependent Energy Systems是该地区的主要安装人员之一。

Ecology Action estimates that if a little more than 1,800 homes went solar, the county would easily meet state requirements to return to 1990 levels of carbon emissionsby 2030.

The economic benefits to the region could be significant, Colin Clark, program specialist for Ecology Action, toldGood Times. If all forms of energy efficiency improvements are accounted for, he said, $2.32 would enter the local economy for every dollar spent on energy efficient projects. And if the pilot program evolves into a full-fledged, permanent program, as planners hope, employment will grow as the local solar industry expands.