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Milpitas, an East Bay, CA city, is trying to create its own power source. Essentially, they would allow homeowners to pay for their solar installations the same way they pay for their sidewalks.
The city raises capital upfront with municipal bonds and is then
reimbursed through the tax system. The homeowner doesn’t need a big
bank loan that is due upon the sale of the home; the next inhabitant
just picks up the taxes. 
The
project, if undertaken neighborhood-by-neighborhood, allows for the
pros and cons to be weighed and establishes tax rates and other
essentials for citywide implementation. The recent changes to
California law now allow this type of assessment arrangement.
The city wants to offset the potential drain on the grid because they feel the electric car and plug-in hybrids are right around the corner in 2010-11. That, coupled with the fact that Solyndra, the leading Bay Area solar manufacturer, has just secured a lease for a space covering 30 acres with a square footage of 506,000 in the Milpitas area. The lease is believed to be the largest in the Bay Area in the past 20 years! Add in California’s new mandate requiring utilities to pay for excess power generated by home solar installations and support from the Obama administration, and you’ve got yourself one forward-thinking city that’s moving in a sound direction.
