In a drive to reduce carbon emissions and create renewable energy jobs, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa claims $313m has been earmarked for incentives to encourage both residential and commercial rooftop solar panels with low income families receiving the largest rebates.

Also, those unable to afford their own solar panels will be able to buy shares in solar plants owned by Los Angeles's Department of Water and Power (LADWP). In turn, these households will receive lower energy bills which is a great way of getting the whole community involved.

A new feed-in tarriff will allow people to sell their excess electricity back to LADWP. LADWP currently generates 76% of its power from traditional fossil fuels and is responsible for around 30% of the city's current emissions.

The LADWP has agreed to install 400Mw of solar panels on city-owned rooftops by 2014 and 500MW of solar energy from utility-scale projects by 2020.

I wrote a while back that with it sunny climate and forward thinking govenor, Los Angeles had the potential to be the worlds most solar city. And it seems with this solar energy project this prediction is coming true.

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