A map of San Diego parceled out by ZIP codes and color-coded shows a clear delineation distinguishing certain parts of the city from others. It could illustrate any number of things: socioeconomic status, population per square mile, level of household education. The colors bleed from a dark red in most areas in the north and west of the city to a pale yellow in the south and east \u2014 a fairly common pattern found in many of the data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau. This map, however, depicts something the Census doesn\u2019t measure. It tracks the amount of solar installations per 1,000 people, and it was crafted by the Environmental Health Coalition (EHC) as a way of understanding what San Diego\u2019s solar profile looks like \u2014 and how it could look better. Kayla Race, a policy advocate for EHC\u2019s Green Energy\/Green Jobs campaign who lives in La Jolla, said she is encouraged by what she sees when she looks around at rooftops in her community: a smattering of solar panels pumping renewable energy into the homes and businesses on which they sit. The fact that La Jolla enjoys a deeper red hue than many other ZIP codes on the EHC\u2019s solar map isn\u2019t really surprising. After all, it\u2019s an affluent coastal community whose residents tend to care about the health of their immediate environment and who have the means to explore the latest technology in clean energy. What is surprising is that, even given its place near the top of per capita solar installations, La Jolla is still only taking advantage of roughly 8 percent of its solar potential. The city as a whole, meanwhile, only uses about 3 percent of its solar capability, according to what SDG&E estimates is possible. “Even for the amount of solar La Jolla has, there\u2019s still a huge potential for growth with rooftop solar,” Race said. “As a region, there\u2019s even more room for growth. We have so much more potential for clean energy.” The fact that we\u2019re not living up to our potential isn\u2019t entirely the fault of citizens, Race said. The city and utility companies don\u2019t always cut a clear path for residents to go solar. “There are a lot of things that the city and utilities could be doing to procure more clean energy, especially in local urban areas where there\u2019s a dearth of it,” Race said, noting that AB 1990 \u2014 a state bill dubbed “Solar for All” that would have provided a set financing source for urban large-scale rooftop solar \u2014 was shot down earlier this year after extensive lobbying by utility companies. “The utilities really fought [AB 1990],” she said. “They\u2019re resistant to bringing in more solar because it goes against their whole model. They\u2019re using an archaic system of large, dirty power plants, and they\u2019re having trouble transitioning and figuring out how to have success in an energy-efficient future. It\u2019s like they\u2019re using vinyl records in iPod generation. But it\u2019s certainly a tricky thing to get them on board, when we\u2019re still figuring it out ourselves.” So just exactly how does Race think organizations like EHC can get public utilities on board? “We\u2019re working with a number of groups in collaboration, like the California Environmental Justice Alliance (CEJA), to see how we can bring more solar and energy efficiency in, particularly in low-income communities,” she said. It\u2019s not an easy task, but EHC recently won a coup with the Public Utilities Commission\u2019s approval of EHC\u2019s recommendations for energy efficient programs earlier this month. The recommendations include things like collaboration efforts between utilities and EHC to devise behavior education programs designed after the nonprofit\u2019s past successes; doubling the number of middle-income families that have access to free energy efficiency; setting higher goals for state energy efficiency upgrade programs; and developing more energy-efficiency related jobs through education and training. Perhaps most importantly, EHC and CEJA are working toward implementing programs that make it easier for families in lower-income neighborhoods to use solar. And though some may think a world where every home has rooftop solar panels is a futuristic dream, the reality shouldn\u2019t be so far-fetched, Race said. “Solar is becoming exponentially cheaper every year. We\u2019ve seen a dramatic drop in prices over last 10 years, and I see that trend continuing,” she said. “It\u2019s becoming a more feasible option as we see more financing options, like a solar-leasing model. We\u2019re still not seeing it coming into low-income neighborhoods, so it\u2019s still not affordable there yet, but a clean energy future will happen in this lifetime. Continuing on the path of finite resources of energy, like coal, oil and natural gas is a very shortsighted solution. We could be getting energy from totally clean, infinite resources. The technology is here now.” Some might ask why they should care about increasing solar in other communities. After all, La Jolla is on the higher end of San Diego\u2019s solar scale, so why put in the effort when it\u2019s clearly ahead of the game? “I think some in La Jolla might say, \u2018I\u2019m a homeowner, I have solar, so I\u2019ve done my part. Why should I care that others have it?\u2019 The fact is that air pollution doesn\u2019t stop at community borders,” Race said. “If SDG&E threatens one community with proposals for new dirty energy, it affects the whole region. If we\u2019re not doing all we can to maximize clean air, we all feel it. We\u2019re all in this together.” For more information about EHC\u2019s solar initiatives, visit www.environmentalhealth.org.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A map of San Diego parceled out by ZIP codes and color-coded shows a clear delineation distinguishing certain parts of the city from others. It could illustrate any number of things: socioeconomic status, population per square mile, level of household education. The colors bleed from a dark red in most areas in the north and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":266387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Pacific Beach area ranks high in solar installations in city","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-266386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=266386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/266386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/266387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=266386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=266386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=266386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}