California Legislature—2013–14 Regular Session

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 142

Introduced by Assembly Member Fox

May 1, 2014

Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 142—Relative to the City of Lancaster.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST

ACR 142, as introduced, Fox. City of Lancaster: solar energy.

This measure would designate the City of Lancaster as the California Alternative Energy Research and Development Center.

Fiscal committee: no.

WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster is a city covering 94.5 square
miles in the Mojave Desert region, also known as the High Desert,
with an average of 325 sunny days per year; and

WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has been recognized by the
state’s California Solar Initiative as the city with the highest solar
generation per capita in the state, boasting 32 megawatts of
currently operating solar generating capacity and an additional
179 megawatts approved and planned for construction; and

WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has established partnerships
with a number of private-sector solar development firms, including
eSolar, Silverado, sPower, U.S. Topco, Psomas, and others, in an
effort to foster renewable energy resources development and to
create green-collar jobs in California; and

WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has partnered with renewable
energy firm SolarCity to establish the Solar Lancaster program,
which encourages and facilitates the adoption of solar energy by
residents and businesses through the use of innovative financing
mechanisms; and

WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has incorporated solar
generating technology on virtually all of its municipal facilities,
creating a combined 1.45 megawatts of solar energy while saving
taxpayers an estimated six million dollars ($6,000,000) over 15
years; and

WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has partnered with SolarCity
and Lancaster and Eastside School Districts to construct solar
shade structures at 25 school sites throughout Lancaster, generating
over three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) in cost savings
annually for its schools; and

WHEREAS, Through the City of Lancaster’s support and
promotion of clean, nonpolluting solar energy, Lancaster Municipal
Stadium, home of the California League Lancaster JetHawks,
became the first minor league baseball stadium in the country to
maintain a solar generating system that offsets nearly 100 percent
of its electricity use; and

WHEREAS, The City of Lancaster has been recognized locally,
nationally, and internationally for its commitment to solar
generation and renewable energy resources, with a wide range of
awards and recognitions including the 2012 Wolfgang Neumann
Energy Globe World Award in the “Fire” (energy) category, the
2013 Outstanding Public Works Project of the Year, and the 2011
Best Use of Technology by the American Public Work’s
Association-High Desert Branch for its renewable energy projects;
and

WHEREAS, Mayor R. Rex Parris announced in 2011 the city’s
goal of becoming the world’s first net-zero city, a designation
bestowed upon cities that produce as much energy from sustainable
sources as they consume; and

WHEREAS, On March 26, 2013, the Lancaster City Council
approved Ordinance 989, which requires that new homes
constructed on parcels of 7,000 square feet or larger must include
at least one kilowatt of solar generating capacity and, when that
ordinance took effect on January 1, 2014, the City of Lancaster
became the first city in the United States to require solar systems
on new homes in an effort to make the community more
carbon-neutral; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate
thereof concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California
hereby designates the City of Lancaster as the “California
Alternative Energy Research and Development Center”; and be it
further

Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies
of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.