San Francisco law requires new buildings to be topped with solar panels

Although San Francisco's law requires all new buildings below 10 stories to have solar panels installed on their rooftops. Which will hopefully make these buildings "net zero" if they also require the battery storage to facilitate this transition. What they have not done is addressed the buildings higher than 10 stories which are a much greater environmental problem not only from an energy standpoint but a waste management perspective (the higher the building the lower the recycling rate). What the city needs to do is pass another law requiring all buildings over 10 stories to be net zero. This is not difficult to do if you combine solar, passive energy systems, and geothermal heating and cooling systems into the building.

The CIS Tower in Manchester, England was clad in PV panels at a cost of £5.5 million. It started feeding electricity to the National Grid in November 2005.

The CIS tower in England integrated photovoltaic (PV) cells into its facade and now generates approximately 180,000 kWh (average of 20 kW) of electricity per year. The work was completed by Arup and at that time was the largest commercial solar façade in Europe. Out of sight on the roof are 24 wind turbines generating 10% of the tower's electricity. This could be a model that could be used in San Fransico.

San Fransico with its new law joins other countries such as India and Dubai where cities are passing similar laws. They should be congratulated on getting this far, even though there is much more work to be done.