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236 CALIFORNIA SOLAR INITIATIVE PROGRAM

The affordable housing project must adhere to California health and safety codes.
The property must expressly limit residency to extremely low, very low, lower, or
moderate income persons and must be regulated by the California Department of
Housing and Community Development.
Each residential unit (apartments, multifamily homes, etc.) must have individual
electric utility meters.
The housing project must be at least 10 percent more energy efficient than current
standards specified.

Special Funding for Public and

Charter Schools

A special amendment to the CEC mandate, enacted in February 4, 2004, established a
Solar Schools Program to provide a higher level of funding for public and charter
schools to encourage the installation of photovoltaic generating systems at more
school sites. At present the California Department of Finance has allocated a total of
$2.25 million for this purpose. To qualify for the additional funds, the schools must
meet the following criteria:
Public or charter schools must provide instruction for kindergarten or any of the
grades 1 through 12.
The schools must have installed high-efficiency fluorescent lighting in at least
80 percent of classrooms.
The schools must agree to establish a curriculum tie-in plan to educate students
about the benefits of solar energy and energy conservation.

Principal Types of Municipal Lease

There are two types of municipal bonds. One type is referred to as a “tax-exempt
municipal lease,” which has been available for many years and is used primarily for the
purchase of equipment and machinery that has a life expectancy of 7 years or less. The
second type is generally known as an “energy efficiency lease” or a “power purchase
agreement” and is used most often on equipment being installed for energy efficiency
purposes and is used where the equipment has a life expectancy of greater than 7 years.
Most often this type of lease applies to equipment classified for use as a renewable
energy cogeneration, such as solar PV and solar thermal systems. The other common
type of application that can take advantage of municipal lease plans includes energy effi-
ciency improvement of devices such as lighting fixtures, insulation, variable-frequency