The Los Angeles Business Council is proud to announce that LA’s 100 MW Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Program will be launched by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) February 1st! This is the first release of a planned 150 MW FiT program.

This program is the culmination of four years of work on the part of the LABC, LABC Institute, the CLEAN LA Coalition, and our research partners JR DeShazo of UCLA and Manuel Pastor of USC. We applaud the vision of our Mayor Villaraigosa who proposed the ambitious solar program for LA in 2008, which included a 150 MW FiT to help meet and satisfy our Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) required by the state. We also commend the leadership of the LADWP General Manager Ron Nichols and his staff, current and former City Council Presidents Eric Garcetti and Herb Wesson, and City Council Energy & Environment Committee members and Chair, José Huizar, for their integral support of this program.

Never has there been a greater opportunity for the City to move ahead with a program that will attract over $500 million dollars in private investment and create thousands of new jobs.

Solar Provider Group—an international solar firm—has already announced plans to open its US headquarters in LA, hire 30 new employees and invest $50 million in the city by 2016. This is just the beginning of new investment and jobs in LA . Our research shows that implementing 150MW of FIT will create 4,500 local jobs, generate over $500 milliom dollars in private investment in LA, generate over $300 million in federal tax credits for local businesses, and offset 2.5 million metric tons of CO2. Read all of LABC’s reports on the FiT here.

For everyone who contributed to making this program a reality, we are tremendously grateful! Please stay tuned for more developments as LA launches the nation’s largest urban solar program next month.

Visit the DWP’s FiT site here.

The LABC is hosting the program’s kick off workshop with LADWP in Century City this Tuesday, January 29 from 10:00am-Noon. Please visit the event site here for more details and to register.