Oxnard St. Apartments Usher in New Solar Program

More than 300 solar panels went live atop an Oxnard St. apartment complex on a particularly sunny Wednesday morning that saw the kick-off of a city-wide energy saving incentive program.

The Feed-in Tariff program, or FIT, was designed to eventually generate 150 megawatts that the city's Department of Water and Power will buy back from property owners.

Mayor Antonio Villargaisa led the press conference that began on a North Hollywood roof, but headed downstairs where he flipped a switch to turn on the solar panels.

"Henceforth, any building owner who participates in the FIT program can harness solar energy and sell it back to the L.A. Department of Water and Power for distribution to the city's power grid, allowing more competitive energy rates than ever before for our residents," the mayor said.

Toronto-based Solar Provider Group installed the 336 solar panels that will generate 142,000 kilowatt-hours of renewable energy.

The DWP is to start off paying 17 cents per kilowatt hour for the first 20 megawatts, and then decrease that rate by 1 penny per kilowatt hour down to 13 cents.

DWP ratepayer advocate Fred Pickel told the Daily News that may be too much as the state's public utilities commission recently reduced its payout to 8.9 cents per kilowatt.

Villaraigosa was joined by Ron Nichols, general manager of the DWP, who said the program will help the city meet a goal of getting 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

"It's just the beginning of what we expect to be a long and beneficial public-private partnership," Nichols said. "Within the next few years, Angelenos can expect to see thousands of solar panels installed on apartment buildings, parking structures and other rooftops throughout the city."