Monday, March 20, 2006

Anti-Solar rules in New Mexico being reversed

Hey solarDwellers:

Just another sign that today's solar is not the solar of 30 years ago, when it almost died out. Seems that the city council in Alburquerque wants to get rid of outdated rules that prohibit solar installations on new housing divisions. Check out the article here, and the excerpt below . . .
Gone are the days when solar energy equipment erupted from housetops looking like something intended to communicate with aliens on Mars.
Today, sun-tapping devices can rest unobtrusively on roofs, even matching the shingles.
. . .developers often use a "stock set of restrictive covenants" that include outdated language prohibiting solar collectors.
"That provision ends up in the subdivision (covenants) despite the fact that modern solar collection panels are aesthetically totally different," Cadigan said. "We want to encourage everyone we can to use solar energy."

These barriers to installing solar are beginning to be lowered as "the new" solar gets more popular and aesthetically pleasing. Another barrier includes high city building permit fees to install solar, which have been reduced in some cities recently. Gotta keep the solar momentum going!

--the solarDweller
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