Bob Kushner Paid More Than $5,000 to install solar panels at his
Morgan Hill business
When Morgan Hill businessman Bob Kushner decided to install solar panels on office building, he thought it would save him cash, but so far it’s only cost him a lot of money.
Now Kushner hopes he can convince the Morgan Hill City Council to reconsider the $5,000 building permit fee he paid after installing the $140,000 solar panel unit and encourage more owners to follow in his environmentally-friendly footsteps.
“I just think that’s too much money,” said Kushner. “It isn’t right to charge the same rate for a solar system as the charge for construction of a building. The services provided for a permit, when constructing a building, such as safety issues, are nowhere near the same as installing a solar system. It’s an expensive product that requires very little installation compared to its cost.”
Disgruntled with rising energy costs, Kushner decided to install solar panels on the roof of the 6,000 sq. ft. office building he owns at 17660 Monterey Rd. Kushner is the first Morgan Hill businessman to install solar panels and the first resident to install an energy-saving measure of this magnitude.
“I was just sick of paying high electric bills,” Kushner explained as the reason why he turned to solar panels. “I learned about the solar panels four years ago and how they convert sun into electric energy. With the price of power going up, I thought installing the panels could save on my electric bill.”
Kushner’s business, NPExpos, Inc., occupies one suite in the building; he has four other tenants. He has owned the building for the past five years and pays all the facility’s power bills. Once he received his rebate, the solar panels he installed just two weeks ago cost him $140,800. Kushner said he was shocked when the city made him pay a permit fee of $5,389.
“Although the City of Morgan Hill Planning/Building department was not opposed to the project, they assessed a $5,389 permit fee for the project, which added an extra six months to the system payback,” said Iris Chan, marketing coordinator for Sun Power & Geothermal Energy Co., Inc. in San Rafael. “This is the highest building permit cost SPG has ever seen for this size of solar system project. In Oakland, a project that was three times as large had a permit fee of $190.”
At a September city council meeting, Kushner requested a review and refund of the building permit fee. At the Oct. 19 council meeting, city staff justified the fee based on the city’s fee schedule and a survey other cities’ fees. The report stated the building division issues 24 permits for the installation of similar solar panel systems and supplied the council with a breakdown of Kushner’s fee, indicating the fee was based on construction valuation.
The comparison of permit fees charged by cities like Gilroy and Los Gatos indicates fees range between $3,500 to $6,000 for the same construction valuation. Of all cities surveyed by city staff, only the City of Oakland charges permit fees of between $150 to $155 for renewable energy.
“It appears that the permitting agencies who most favor solar are bending over backwards to bring their permitting fees down to encourage more people to go solar and making it more feasible financially for them to do so,” said Elizabeth Ferris, project administrator for SPG. “We have seen a roll-back of fees in some areas that are environmentally aware and concerned. When fees are reduced it does have a positive effect on consumers and helps them truly consider going to the sun for energy.”
The 32.1 kilowatt solar system is expected to produce approximately 50,330 kilowatt-hours per year, eliminating approximately 80 percent of the annual electric bill for the office building. Kushner is expecting annual savings associated with this solar system to be approximately $9,560 per year. His electric bill averages about $12,500 a year and expects the panels to pay for themselves in seven years.
“Morgan Hill offers an excellent location for solar power installations. The annual solar radiation available on the roof of Mr. Kushner’s building is some of the highest in the Bay Area,” said Chan. “With a flat roof, and plenty of room for multiple rows of solar panels to be placed, allowing an open window of solar production from 9-5pm daily, the site offers an ideal location for a solar system installation.”
Kushner claims, “If everybody installed solar panels, our energy crisis would be over and our nation wouldn’t be so dependent on Middle Eastern countries for oil, and that would solve a lot of world problems.”
The council did not take action on the matter since Councilman Mark Grzan took it upon himself to study the issue further. The council referred the issue to the Utilities and Environment Subcommittee, which Grzan heads.
Kushner is hopeful all costs will be recovered through savings on his electric bill and a break on the building permit fees he has incurred.
“People in the planning department and city council are very friendly, hardworking, compassionate and understanding people,” he said. “They have responded immediately and done the best they could and as fast as they could. There are laws they have to abide by.”
Rose Meily covers City Hall for the Morgan Hill Times.
