Berkeley City Council Enacts Optony-led Solar Strategy and Facilities Plan

In 2015, the City of Berkeley passed an ambitious resolution for 50% of the community’s energy needs to be met by solar energy by the year 2030. In order to turn that goal into a concrete plan, the City moved to bring in a solar study team, led by Optony and working closely with the City’s Energy Commission. Optony devised a model for statistical analysis of the citywide structural composition, and worked with volunteers from UC Berkeley’s College of Engineering and Energy Resources Group to map the total feasible solar generation on rooftops and parking lots within City limits.

Optony also worked closely with the City’s Energy Manager, Chief Building Scientist, and the talented staff of the City’s Office of Energy and Sustainable Development to understand the needs and potential for solar energy on municipal facilities. Optony compiled and ranked the matrix of City facilities to create a plan for cost-optimized deployment of solar on the City’s most viable properties.

The municipal facilities plan and the citywide mapping analysis were combined and presented as a plan of nine key policy opportunities to guide the City toward solid quantifiable steps that would enable implementation of the 50% solar energy goal. By unanimous consent on September 27^th, 2016, the City Council adopted the Optony-led solar study and policy plan.