HOUSTON -- If we told you your electricity-provider would give you $10,000 for certain home improvements, you might not believe us.

Well, it’s true — but not for us.

Houston homeowners aren’t getting the same help as those in other cities and states get to use solar power to run their homes.

In Houston, the sun is out at least 200 days a year, but is all that sunshine being wasted?

“We have a higher potential for solar energy here in Texas than in any other state in the nation,” Citizens League for Environmental Action spokesman Charles Stillman said.

As a city, Houston — energy capital of the world — is trying to forge an image as being out front in alternative energy, including solar.

At the city’s newest park downtown, the roof of a restaurant has these solar panels built right in.

They’ll convert sunlight to electricity and help power the park’s lights and fountains, but this is one of the only places you’ll find solar panels in Houston.

Architect Brian Malarkey designs some of the most energy efficient buildings in the city.

“Well, I’d like to say we have solar on many of our projects but we just don’t,” he said.

The big reason: Installing it costs too much.

But here’s the thing: If he were designing the same building for say, sunny California, he said they would absolutely be using solar power.

Why?

Other cities and other states are doing far more than Houston and Texas to make solar power more affordable. Just look what they’re doing in California.

Under a plan by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, California is spending nearly $3 billion to help homeowners and builders install roof-top solar panels.

The goal: a million solar roofs during the next 10 years. In Austin, the power company is paying homeowners for more than half the cost of the panels which can run well more than $20,000. Nearly 500 Austin homeowners have taken advantage so far, getting one-third of their electricity from the sun for free.

But in Houston, the power companies are for-profit and not offering any incentives like in Austin where the one-and-only power supplier is owned by the city.

As a result, there are only about 30 homes in Houston with solar, according to Stillman who’s with an environmental group.

“That’s what happens when you don’t have incentives — they really work,” Stillman said.

“It really has to be done at the state level,” Cris Eugster said. Eugster works for the mayor’s office, which just won a grant to do more to promote solar.

“We’ve got to think about energy in a broader context,” he said.

He said any big financial push for solar will have to come from the state government.

Last year, the Texas Legislature considered a program like California’s, but they ultimately rejected it.

There is another side to this story.

Critics of solar incentives say they’re really just an incentive for the rich.

Solar panels, even with the government rebates, can still cost thousands of dollars, and as with this house in Houston, for now are mostly found on upscale homes.

But prices are expected to drop, and in Houston, solar panels could start popping up on thousands of rooftops so all that sunshine won’t be wasted.