Huntington Beach is joining the ranks of O.C. cities offering financial breaks to residents who install solar power, the city’s mayor announced this week.

The beach town is teaming up with Sharp Solar Energy Solutions Group to provide rebates to homeowners who install solar panels.

“We really want to put the idea into folks’ minds that solar is the power they should be using in Huntington Beach,” said Ron Kenedi, vice president at Sharp Solar in Huntington. “People who live in Huntington Beach, and all of Orange County, are very outdoors-oriented, nature-oriented people who want to see our resources protected.”

Homeowners can request a visit from a Sharp-approved installer through the city’s HB Goes Green Web site, and receive as much as $1,500 for the largest systems.

A typical residential solar array of four kilowatts runs about $28,000, he said. With the state’s 20 percent incentive, and the federal government’s 30 percent tax credit, homeowners can cut that cost in half.

The Huntington program offers a $150 rebate for every kilowatt, up to 10 kilowatts. For a four kilowatt system, that would be $600, reducing the cost of the system further to $13,400. 

People who live in four ZIP codes are eligible: 92646, 92647, 92648 and 92649.

The city says the rebates are part of its drive to increase its reliance on solar power; the goal is 8.5 megawatts of new solar energy by 2012, four of those megawatts from residential systems — the equivalent of about 1,000 homes with solar panels of 4 kilowatts each.

“This is like priming the pump to reach that goal,” Kenedi said.

Similar programs have taken root elsewhere in Orange County.

A western U.S. company called SolarCity, with offices in Orange  County, recently expanded its program to lease solar power systems to to home and business owners with no money down in California, Arizona and Oregon. Working with U.S. Bancorp’s Community Development Corp., the company is using tax breaks, including a solar credit, to install systems without charging installation fees.

Lower-income residents in Anaheim also can have solar panels installed for about a quarter of the usual cost — between $2,500 and $4,000, plus a possible 30 percent tax credit. The program is a combined effort of Vaha Solar and Anaheim Public Utilities.

(Photo of installed solar panels courtesy Sharp.)

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