Small town, big news

The South Miami City Commission voted Tuesday evening to require all new houses (and existing houses undergoing significant renovations) to install photovoltaic panels. The measure puts our small city in rare company; only three cities in California have similar measures. While the new law will only affect a few houses every year, it will probably have far-reaching consequences across the Sunshine State.

We hope that the new requirement will become a model for other Florida municipalities. Our mayor - and neighbor - Phillip Stoddard introduced the measure after being contacted by Delaney Reynolds, the high school student who founded the Sink or Swim Project (and gave an inspirational TEDxYouth@Miami talk). Now that it is law, the ordinance will help demonstrate the efficacy of requiring distributed renewable energy generation. Given the reticence of the state and federal governments to take appropriate action to combat climate change, this could be a powerful tool for cities and counties to fill the void.

The day after the vote, three news crews showed up at tin box to get exciting video of photovoltaic panels sitting on the roof. Channel 10 used b-roll of the house in their story (see below). Channel 4 interviewed Holly (left). Channel 51 (Telemundo) interviewed Holly in Spanish (above)! (well, she spoke English, and they translated, but still, how cool is that?)

We've appended the text of the solar ordinance, below.