Green Building Incentives & Resources
Advanced Energy Rebuild Incentives
Receive up to $17,500 in incentives for including energy efficient features and equipment, renewable energy systems, electric vehicle charging stations, and water-efficient landscaping in your design. Sonoma Clean Power, Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), and Bay Area Air Quality Management District have joined efforts to help homeowners impacted by the 2017 wildfires rebuild energy efficient, sustainable homes. The program is an enhancement to PG&E’s long-standing California Advanced Homes Program, and offers two incentive packages tailored to Sonoma and Mendocino Counties.
Use this link for more information or to start the application process.
Review available incentive options
Green Building
The process of rebuilding after the wildfires offers property owners the opportunity to make their new homes more energy efficient and sustainable. Investing in energy efficient design and building from the ground up will pay dividends for decades to come, for you and your community, and increase the value of your investment.
It is crucial to incorporate the latest green and sustainable technologies and designs into your project from the beginning. Below are resources that will help you do just that, including financial incentives that could dramatically lower the costs of making your new home more energy efficient and more comfortable and use less water, inside and out. For example, there are both environmental and financial benefits for installing a solar system on your home or business.
Sustainability is defined as meeting existing needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. The County’s Energy and Sustainability Division can assist you in assessing your situation and help with developing a plan to make your new home as green as possible.
Green Building is a “whole systems” approach for designing and constructing buildings. Read more about Green Building and available forms, including the 2016 Green Building Checklist
Santa Rosa’s Resilient City Permit Center and Sonoma County’s Resiliency Permit Center is where you will go to get your expedited building permits for your fire rebuilding project. They are experts on Green Building codes and ordinances and have a wealth of information on how to make your new home as efficient as possible.
Free Rebuilding Consultations
If you or someone you know has lost their home and is planning a rebuild, the County’s Energy and Sustainability Division offers no-cost consulting with on-staff energy analysts.
A home built to current codes today will be a more energy-efficient home than one built 50, 20 or even 10 years ago, says Energy and Sustainability analyst Christine Condon – one of the specialists at the County. But, she says, home builders can do a lot more to make their new home compliant with future California Green Building codes. In addition, there are incentives for meeting and exceeding energy mandates.
The consultations are available at any point in the building process. However, there are many considerations available during the planning phase. The goal is to help make homeowners aware of the effectiveness and the positive impact the current energy code has in regard to creating better buildings and to stress how new construction offers a very unique opportunity to incorporate high performance measures into a home’s design at a much lower cost than during a retrofit of an existing home. Also reviewed are the building requirements needed to access rebates and incentives.
Features to Consider When Rebuilding
Updated building codes have created healthier, safer homes that resist extreme weather, are more durable and are less expensive to operate. This list from BayRen includes additional measures to consider that can be incorporated into a new home’s design to create a more resilient home that can better withstand whatever comes its way.