Newsom Hands Out Solar Panels

San Francisco install panels on public housing project

Still-Mayor Gavin Newsom presided over the unveiling of several solar panels at a public housing project on Tuesday. The panels will cost $8 million to install and will generate enough electricity to run five dozen KitchenAid mixers continuously for one year.

Ha ha ha, we totally just made that up! We had to, because in reality, nobody knows how much it will cost, and nobody knows how much electricity they'll generate. Great work, Gav!

Just about the only thing we do know for sure is that San Francisco has more solar panels per capita than any other major city in the US, with taxpayers often picking up the tab -- including for installations on private businesses and residences. According to our tipster, there's "no limit" on city subsidies for solar panels, so if you want the city to buy you some, cha-ching.

Hopefully there's a proportional public benefit to this scheme and this will all turn out to be a good thing, and not a statistic like "most Ford Pintos per capita."

Bonus detail: while Gavin's unveiling was going on, someone did a smash-and-grab on a car down the street.

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