Think about it this way: we take on mortgages and car loans and other sorts of debt because we can't afford the full cost of something up front, and accept the tradeoff that, over time, we'll be spending more money than if we had that up-front money.
Same thing applies here. Requiring solar on new homes will just make homes cost more, and will put home ownership out of reach in cases where people were already stretching. Either that, or it'll just increase the problem of people being in too much debt.
If the government wants solar on all new homes, they should be paying for it. I believe in renewables, and in distributed power generation, but forcing people to spend another $20k or whatever to buy a new home is a heavy lift.
Think about it this way: we take on mortgages and car loans and other sorts of debt because we can't afford the full cost of something up front, and accept the tradeoff that, over time, we'll be spending more money than if we had that up-front money.
Same thing applies here. Requiring solar on new homes will just make homes cost more, and will put home ownership out of reach in cases where people were already stretching. Either that, or it'll just increase the problem of people being in too much debt.
If the government wants solar on all new homes, they should be paying for it. I believe in renewables, and in distributed power generation, but forcing people to spend another $20k or whatever to buy a new home is a heavy lift.