San Francisco Pushing for Solar Power - November 2001

Timecode 00:00:00

[VIDEO: Headshot of Anchorwoman, Jessica Aguirre with side graphic box with image of Bay Bridge and title ‘Solar Power’]

ABC7 News Anchorwoman, Jessica Aguirre: The sun is being touted as the answer to keeping residents here out of the dark. You see, the city wants to go from power consumer to power producer. ABC7 Wayne Friedman takes a look at how a city known for its fog is now pushing for solar power.

Timecode 00:00:16

[Video: Bird’s-eye view of San Francisco cut to branches covering the sun]

ABC 7 News Reporter, Wayne Friedman (voiceover): The megawatts shone down on San Francisco today. Hundreds of millions of them on every street, every block, every house and in most of those cases, the megawatts went wasted.

Timecode 00:00:27

Homeowner, Gretchen Cotter: This is a fixer upper.

[Video: Damage on wall showing wood frame, run down open window, fireplace exposing the level below.]

Reporter, Friedman (Voiceover): And Gretchen Cotter has plenty to fix, windows that won't close, a fireplace that looks more like an elevator shaft.

Homeowner, Cotter: No.

[Video: Cotter peering between two supportive wood beams]

Reporter, Friedman (Voiceover): You don't sleep well, do you?

[Video: Cotter hammering wall]

Reporter, Friedman (Voiceover): In short, this 120-year-old house is decidedly low tech and has absolutely nothing going for it except...

[Video: Chandelier and pan down to Cotter sitting on corner of black couch]

Reporter, Friedman: It’s broad daylight and you have the lights on.

Homeowner, Tyler: That's right. I've got the lights on. I don't need to worry. I have my own power plant here.

Timecode 00:00:51

[Video: Solar panels on roof of Cotter’s home cut to power meter cut to Cotter reading her bill]

Reporter, Friedman (Voiceover): It is on the roof collecting megawatts, turning sunlight into electricity to the point that her power meter runs back. As she sells electricity to PG&E. Her bill last month:

[Video: Close up of bill showing $4.67]

Homeowner, Cotter: $4.67.

Timecode 00:01:04

[Video: Bird’s-eye view of Cotter’s solar panels on roof, cut to Cotter speaking at podium, cut to view of her speaking to city hall officials and cut to shot of people on line waiting to speak panning to wide shot of audience facing officials in San Francisco’s City Hall.]

Reporter, Friedman (Voiceover): What Gretchen Cotter has done on a small scale is what San Francisco hopes to do on a big one. That's why she spoke to a budget hearing in City Hall today,. as a supervisors’ committee took public comments on a plan to turn the city from a power consumer to a power producer.

Timecode 00:01:19

Reporter, Friedman : The measure would appear on November's ballot as a $100 million revenue bond. If it passed. It would authorize the city to buy and install solar power generators on public property.

Proponent, Terri Foreman: We are placed here to protect the Earth to till and tend, and so it’s our responsibility to ensure that the Earth continues.

Timecode 00:01:57

[Video: Bird’s-eye view of residential area in San Francisco and slowly zooming to a city reservoir]

Reporter, Friedman (voiceover): It would make history as the largest municipal solar power project of its kind to date. A good first move says Gretchen Cotter, now thinks smaller and bigger.

Timecode 00:02:03

Homeowner, Cotter : I can build my own power plant. I don't need the city to that. What I need to do is to get a whole lot of other homeowners to recognize that they can do it, too.

[Video: Sun peeking through the tree leaves.]

Reporter, Friedman (Voiceover): In San Francisco, Wayne Friedman, ABC7 News.

[VIDEO: Fade to black.]