Solar4SF.org

Solar4SF.org is a solar energy consumer advocacy and information site. Our mission is to increase awareness of solar electricity applications for homes and small businesses for San Francisco and Bay Area residents.

We were motivated to create Solar4SF.org while investigating solar for our own home. Researching solar electricity is daunting, particularly given the amount of jargon, technical concepts, complex electricity metering, and myriad government regulations. Once we were fully educated we realized that solar is a no-brainer for a lot of us. So making information readily available and easy to digest is critical in accelerating conversion to this valuable renewable resource and reducing our carbon footprint.

In speaking with friends and neighbors we see a tremendous interest in solar electricity, but very limited knowledge and awareness. The “information gap” became clear, and this gap is preventing wider adoption of solar energy. To bridge this gap we decided to launch a Solar Advocacy Effort to provide easily accessible, succinct information about solar energy - and Solar4SF.org was born.

For now, the site caters to San Francisco and Bay Area residents and small businesses. We hope to expand this service to other US cities in the near future. Our goal is to provide easy-to-understand information about solar electricity, metrics and quick access to solar energy professionals that can help you evaluate and decide if solar is a viable option for your home or small business.

Solar4SF.org is a free site, and we intend to keep it that way. We will continue developing and enhancing this site and value your feedback and suggestions on how to make it more useful and how to reach out. Please contact us with your input.

Supporting San Francisco’s Solar Initiative

As of June 2007, there are only about 550 solar electricity installations in the city of San Francisco out of 190,000 total residences - less than 0.3% of all residences in the city. Despite this, San Francisco leads the nation in pursuing renewable energy initiatives, and has set a goal of 10,000 solar electricity generating residences by 2010. Solar4SF.org supports this goal and is committed to helping exceed it.

Who Are We

Solar4SF.org is operated by Dan Barahona and Sylvia Ventura, San Francisco residents and committed environmentalists. Dan and Sylvia not only advocate solar energy, but also use it - having installed a 2.5KW system for their own home. Future planned projects include plug-in transportation (car or scooter) and solar hot water.