The local officials of Washington D.C. are giving away free solar panels to low-income households.
A family of three with an annual income of $50,500, and a family of four with yearly earnings of $60,000, are eligible for the solar panel program and can be granted free solar panels by the local government.
The money used to fund the solar panels are from the fees and fines collected from factories and oil processing centers for their carbon dioxide emissions. The local government believes that if the solar panels becomes popular in their locality, they will save millions of dollars. The solar panels can also lessen the electric subsidies given to low-income households, and there is a possibility that electric costs will also go down. They also believe that this will result in additional jobs for their residents.
In a report by Voice of America, Ted Taube of DC Sustainable Energy Utility said that they plan on installing solar panels on a hundred more homes.
"We're doing about 135 this year; next year the goal is 200. We've been able to hit our goals every year for the last four years. In the years after that, the funding looks secure. I see no reason why we shouldn't be able to do more like 250 homes," said Taube.
Solar Panel installer, Atta Kiarash, told VOA that they are scheduled to set up as many as 1,200 solar panels this year.
"Most of the time, most of our clients hear (of) us through word of mouth, through other jobs we've done in the past, or through existing clients, and what they do is they reach out to us and we do the income qualification, and we come out and do a site visit and make sure that they qualify. And if they qualify, we just put them on our construction schedule and we get the job started," Kiarash said.
Local officials of Washington are planning to start a program next year to also help small businesses install their own solar panels. They hope to turn the state to a clean and environment-friendly solar city.
