Post Carbon Cities Blog
Solar is quickly emerging as a major alternative energy source -- and its success in less-than-balmy places like northern Europe shows that cities just about anywhere can benefit. Despite recent uncertainties in energy legislation at both state and national levels, there's a lot that local governments can do right now to shift community energy dependence towards this most clean and local of energy sources.
Solar is quickly emerging as a major alternative energy source -- and its success in less-than-balmy places like northern Europe shows that cities just about anywhere can benefit. Despite recent uncertainties in energy legislation at both state and national levels, there's a lot that local governments can do right now to shift community energy dependence towards this most clean and local of energy sources.
At last month's annual American Solar Energy Society conference in San Diego, the message was clear: solar energy is finally taking off, and both governments and businesses are taking it seriously. Gone are the days when a handful of solar panels on the White House was big news. Today, public and private institutions alike are building multi-megawatt solar power systems, and photovoltaics look to be seriously competitive with conventional energy sources in less than five years (and probably sooner, given the sudden sharp rise in oil prices).
In the U.S., much of the attention for promoting solar energy has focused on federal and state level initiatives like net metering, renewable portfolio standards and feed-in tariffs. Local governments also have an important role to play, however. City agencies can invest directly in solar energy to power their own needs -- particularly for big public works uses like water and sewage treatment. They can also change permit fees, building codes and zoning ordinances that make it expensive or even impossible for businesses and households to take advantage of solar energy. These are achievable goals, and efforts like Rocky Mountain Land Use Institute's Sustainable Community Development Code project and solar pioneer Ed Mazria's Architecture 2030 initiative are making them a reality.
The Australian Government's $75 million AUD ($67 million USD) Solar Cities program shows how just a little national-level help can boost such local actions even further. For example, Solar Cities is helping a public-private consortium based around 13 Central Victoria towns establish two 300kw solar parks, install 300 photovoltaic systems and 700 solar hot water systems on residences, and provide 1,200 smart meters for monitoring daily energy use.
Still, local governments don't need to wait for state/provincial and federal governments to make solar a feasible local energy alternative — just like nearly 1,000 U.S. cities decided not to wait for federal government action on global warming and signed on to the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement. The time for solar is now.
Photo credit: Powerhouse Museum 
Post Carbon Cities is one of the key resources focusing communities on addressing peak oil as well as climate challenges. The inspiration, updated information, and pragmatic assistance that you provide is truly needed at all levels of government.
Has anyone heard of this company/solar offer ?
http://www.allsolartoday.com
Evidently it’s only available in the Northern Calif area and
my daughters, who live in the Bay Area, were interested in
converting to solar.
Any feedback would be appreciated.
Thanks,
Daniel