Looking for light in San Francisco

Fog is to San Francisco what snow is to Buffalo-a given. So the city doesn't necessarily spring to mind as a leader in solar power. But within five years, the Bay City wants to add 10 megawatts of solar power to its electricity grid-enough to power, on average, 10,000 homes. Eventually, it wants solar power to generate 5 percent of its peak power needs, about 40 megawatts.The city issued $100 million in revenue bonds to pay for installation of renewable energy sources-part of the fallout from 2001's energy crisis that hit residents with brownouts, rolling blackouts, and skyrocketing energy bills.

So to determine where best to position solar panels around Fog Town, local officials commissioned the engineering firm Augustyn Company of Berkeley to erect 11 monitors around the city that register and measure solar energy.The idea is to create a fog map. Correction, says Jim Augustyn,"it's a solar map." The monitors should make the capturing of solar energy more efficient. Mere observation gave engineers a pretty good notion where the sunniest spots are, mainly around Bay Side, an area sheltered from serious fog."The question is,"according to Augustyn,"how much better are the good spots?" He thinks San Francisco's solar-power goals are reachable."There's quite a bit of potential in the city." The main surprise so far, he adds, is that the foggiest parts of town still capture a fair amount of solar power, far more than he would have reckoned."The difference between the best and worse areas is not as bad as I though it would be,"he admits.That's got to be encouraging news for the city's energy-- beleaguered and fogbound denizens.