The California Solar initiative was approved today. It’s known as the “Million Solar Roofs” project, and it aims to provide a total of $3.2 Billion in incentives over the next 11 years. That is projected to be enough to generate 3,000 MW of solar electric energy.

Vote Solar has been tracking the issue, and they’re organizing a celebration this afternoon at San Francisco City Hall (4:30). It’s reported that Sierra Nevada, Wolaver’s, and Butte Creek brewing companies have chipped in free beer for the party.

This is a great example of the type of answers that I suggested in my previous post. It’s not an immediate solution, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction, and it will provide the impetus for further technological innovation in the solar sector.

I’m not very familiar with the process leading up to this decision. It would be nice eventually to see if political economists can extract a lesson from this apparently successful step.

I’m thinking specifically along the lines of what it would take to engineer a replicable process. If this type of initiative is feasible in California, could the intellectual capital used here be somehow repurposed by solar advocates in other states? I don’t know if it’s that big of a victory. Regardless, it’s nice news.