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SAN FRANCISCO AFFORDABLE HOUSING COMPLEX GETS SOLAR INSTALLATION BY SPG SOLAR, INC.

California Energy Commission Clarifies Regulations To Spur Project

San Rafael, CA, USA (June 27, 2005) - San Francisco's new Folsom/Dore affordable housing development has a 13.1 kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system on its roof, generating electricity from the sun for its common areas and reducing the development's operating costs. SPG Solar, Inc. (SPG) of San Rafael is the solar project developer, designer, and installer. Citizens Housing Corporation is the project developer.

Citizens Housing Corporation worked with the City of San Francisco to build the complex, which has 98 units of affordable housing for low-income residents with a variety of special needs. The development includes 3,200 square feet of community and service space that houses on-site supportive services for residents, space that is served by the solar photovoltaic system.

"This is a terrific team story," said Dan Thompson, President of SPG. "We won the bid through the City of San Francisco's Generation Solar Program. Every organization that was involved - Citizens Housing, the Mayor's Office, PG&E, the California Energy Commission, David Baker + Partners Architects, Cahill Contractors - wanted a green building. The California Energy Commission formally clarified its regulations to allow a rebate for a common space meter in 100% affordable housing projects. The result is a project that will meet the goal of 20% better energy efficiency than called for by Title 24 requirements. I'm glad that we got to play a part."

The solar PV system cost approximately $117,000. With a rebate of $52,000 from the California Energy Commission, which included a 25% rebate increase for affordable housing, the net investment will be $65,000. Projecting utility cost savings to be $4,000 per year, adding rapidly rising PG&E rates, the system is expected to pay for itself in less than ten years.

"Folsom/Dore is a "green" building where everything really came together," said James Buckley, President of Citizens Housing Corporation. "The solar PV system goes a long way to reducing the building's impact on our community resources, and helping to keep operating costs low and rents affordable to our residents."

The system will produce surplus energy on sunny summer days, which will spin its bidirectional electric meter backwards. The project owner will sell this excess power to PG&E at retail rates, generating a credit on its monthly electric bills when generation exceeds usage. Credits will be used when the project draws power from the grid at night and on rainy days. The 13.1 kW solar electric system also will help California reach its Renewable Portfolio Standard goal of obtaining 20% of its power from renewable energy sources by the year 2017.

SPG chose to use 84 Sharp 185-watt solar panels, and a Xantrex PV 15 inverter. The system is designed to provide 75% of the electricity needed to power the project's common areas.

SPG has a team of North American Board of Certified Energy Practitioners (NABCEP)-certified professionals to design and install PV systems. It consistently ranks in the top 500 companies in the North Bay ( http://www.northbaybiz.com/500-2005.html), and has been named on the Entrepreneur Magazine list of 100 fastest growing companies in the U.S.

Further details about: SPG Solar, Inc. and the Citizens Housing Corporation.