Our team recently attended the March 12 regional forum sponsored by 3C-REN focused on Achieving Resilience in Wildfire Areas Through Energy Codes. Speakers addressed a range of topics including a history of fighting California wildfires and the increasing trend toward battery and solar solutions for when a home’s grid connection is severed or paused.
One presentation of note was Scott Salyer’s on the Advanced Energy Rebuild (AER) Program for homes affected by the October 2017 northern California fires. The AER program is funded by Sonoma Clean Power, PG&E and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, with the purpose of helping promote energy efficient and sustainable design for home rebuild projects.
The program offers four options presented for homeowners in easily digested bullet point lists. There are two broad program categories, a mixed-fuel home and an all-electric home, with incentives of $7,500 and $12,500 respectively. Within each of these two categories there are two paths for compliance: a Flexible performance path that is based on beating 2016 Title 24 by 20%; and a Simple menu-based path (think prescriptive code) that lists the specific items necessary for compliance.
Source: https://sonomacleanpower.org/programs/advanced-energy-rebuild%20
Each of the four options require that you install an electric vehicle charging station but Sonoma Clean Power is providing the equipment free! Additionally, the program offers $5,000 for adding a solar PV array designed to offset annual electric usage plus a 7.5kW battery system or for a pre-purchase of a 20-year 100% local renewable power contract (e.g. their Evergreen rate).
The program was closed December 31, 2019 and is not being extended into 2020, but if you have a permit that was approved under the 2016 Title 24 requirements you can still apply. Even if your project is not eligible, anyone interested in building an above code home can review their menu-based paths for some great ideas to use in your next project. Visit Sonoma Clean Power’s AER landing page for more detailed information.