At first glance, the ranch-style stucco house on a quiet Encino street looks no different from its neighbors. A manicured lawn. A bottlebrush tree. Two cars in the driveway. You couldn't tell, unless you climbed a ladder or glanced into the utility shed, that Richard and Barbara Braun's home is a foot soldier in the war against global warming.
On a south-facing slant of the roof, two solar panels warm pipes of circulating water for showers, dishwashing and laundry.
"It's simple -- no complicated parts," said Braun, a retired surgeon.
A bill aimed at making such heating systems widely available is expected to move through the state Assembly's Appropriation Committee on Wednesday and to the full body next week.
But the bill, which would offer $250 million in incentives to build 200,000 solar water systems statewide over the next 10 years, is running into opposition from gas and electric companies. They don't want the plan funded through a surcharge on residential and commercial gas bills.
"It's a noble effort," said Avis Kowalewski, vice president for Western Regulatory Affairs at Calpine Corp., which owns 22 gas-fueled power plants in the state. "But this bill could cost our company alone between $14 million and $18 million over 10 years."
But residential gas users would pay only about 13 cents a month extra, according to the California Public Utilities Commission. And the benefits could be substantial.
Studies by KEMA-Xenergy, an energy consulting firm, show that using solar systems in California homes and businesses with access to sunlight could cut the use of residential natural gas by about 24% and reduce total statewide consumption by more than 5%, said Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), the bill's author.
Though natural gas is cleaner than oil or coal, its burning still spews carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and is a major cause of climate change, experts say.
"This is one of the simplest, easiest steps we can take to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels," Huffman said.
Although a federal tax credit currently exists for installation of solar water heaters, no state subsidies have been available since the mid-1980s, when generous incentives were allowed to expire.
Last year, California enacted a "million solar roofs" bill, which allocates $3.2 billion in rebates for solar photovoltaic panels -- a sophisticated silicon-based technology -- that replace electricity. But the final law excluded solar water heaters.
