Funded by a grant from UCSC, the City of Santa Cruz is working with EcoShift Consulting, LLC to provide a free service to commercial, non-profit and some multi-family housing property owners by assisting them in navigating the process of going solar.  Current market conditions, electricity rate structures, and the availability of various financial products enable property owners that are installing solar PV systems to reduce their electricity bills with as little as $0 down. With the generous federal tax credit expiring at the end of 2016, now is a great time to go solar.

An informational property owners forum will be held on March 10, 2015 from 4:00 - 5:30 pm at The Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium's Tony Hill Room (aka Room ABC) to learn more about the program.

As part of the property owner forum, we will review the basics of a solar project, as well as the various financing and ownership options that are available, including Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing*.  EcoShift’s experts will answer questions on project development and financing.  After the forum, we will invite you to submit more information about your property.  Our team will then select several candidate sites whose property owners will receive full technical assistance in soliciting bids from a pool of qualified solar contractors, determining the best bids, and reviewing the financial options in a finance package, with the goal of helping steer projects to shovel-ready status. Even if your property is not selected to move forward with full technical assistance, our team will provide information on how to get customized bids from local contractors from the City’s Solar Marketplace, EnergySage.