By Rachel Brahinsky and Courtney Day

Clean energy can fetch a steep price, but it's still a viable option for San Francisco, members of a public power panel told the San Francisco Local Agency Formation Commission March 22.

"Renewable generation is a very capital-intensive form of generation, but once you've made the commitment, fuel costs are practically zero," said Rich Ferguson, research director for the Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies.

Ferguson said that rooftop solar-energy generation is very expensive. "I wish you the best, but there's no question [it's] expensive," he said. "You have a hard road ahead of you for building [it] in the city."

The panel was the second in a series of educational workshops sponsored by LAFCO to help it assess and direct the city's vision for creating a public power agency that could compete with or take over Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s San Francisco business.

Ferguson, who said he was representing himself and not CEERT, said a public power agency might be a better manager of energy-efficiency programs than PG&E and recommended that the city create and administer its own programs. "Some of us think that [the utilities] might not be interested in reducing energy use," he said.