Page 49 - Green Builder July-August 2019 Issue

New and improved. A sustainable
rehabilitation of an existing 58-unit
apartment complex in Orlando’s
Washington Shores district is making
affordable housing available to more
Florida residents.

materials promoting good IAQ, energy-e‚cient appliances, low-†ow installation costs are reduced by 20 percent to 30 percent.
water ‡xtures and possibly solar arrays. The purchasing program is similar to buying in bulk at Costco,
Another City enterprise is its Property Assessed Clean Energy as opposed to your local grocery store, Castro explains. This buying
program, which gave $1.5 million in loans to approximately 80 power helps achieve an economy of sale that is much more cost
projects for clean energy home improvement in 2017 and is making e”ective. In particular, homeowners are reducing their $3.50 per
$5 million available to City of Orlando businesses and residents watt installed costs to $2.40 per watt installed. “This is substantial,
this year, with favorable rates and terms for low-moderate income amounting to $5,000 to $7,000 savings,” he reports.
households. At this point, there are currently 30 such co-ops in the State—and
Similarly, the City’s Solar Energy Loan Fund (SELF) o”ers favor- to Castro’s knowledge, Florida is the only state with a utility o”ering
able ‡nancing to low- and moderate-income families, helping to such a program.
address that cost barrier for investing in solar. Another OUC initiative is Community Solar, which has made
20-plus MW of solar available to residents and homeowners who are
SOLAR AND MORE SOLAR interested in photovoltaics, but don’t have suitable rooftop access to
Actually, the SELF project is one of several solar programs which build their own systems. This way, up to 100 percent of their home’s
earned the City of Orlando a SolSmart GOLD distinction from the electrical bills can be o”set with solar.
U.S. Department of Energy in 2018, for its e”orts to support and
encourage city-wide solar projects. AFFORDABLE HOUSING PRIORITY
By streamlining the solar permitting process; training planning, Tying things back to the issue of a”ordable housing, the City’s
permitting and inspectors on the solar process; and creating new focus is very much on projects like New Horizons and Parramore
Solar Permit guidelines, this is e”ectively reducing the soft costs of to ultimately provide more a”ordable housing options for Orlando
going solar and making the process much easier. residents.
Another solar initiative is a bulk purchasing aggregation pro- “In the face of a rising need for safe, decent and a”ordable rental
gram run by the Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC). By joining housing, we continue to search for ways and means to expand the
together with other homeowners in OUC territory, residential solar community’s stock of attainable units,” Rowe says. GB

www.greenbuildermedia.com July/August 2019 GREEN BUILDER 47

44-47 GB 0719 New Horizons-#3.indd 47 7/17/19 3:03 PM