Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), a Northern California utility company, announced today that they will buy solar produced power from Solel Solar Systems, a company who will install 1.2 million mirrors on 9 square miles in California's Mojave desert. The power produced by the sun in expected to power the equivalent of 400,000. homes.
The system is Solar thermal energy. It's different from the photovoltaic panels that individuals and government agencies put on rooftops. Read the entire story at USA Today.
This is a huge step forward in our adoption of solar power. If 9 sq miles can produce enough clean solar power to power 400,000. homes, just imagine 100s of sq miles of solar mirrors in our Southwest deserts and midwest plains. Solar mines. Solar farms.
Closer to home, imagine if every new bigbox shopping center were required, or at least incented, to install photovoltaic panels to provide the majority of their power needs. Perhaps there would be enough to feed back into the grid to reduce our communities' power consumption. We live in an ideal climate to produce solar power.
Of course, individuals can do their part, as well, by installing photovoltaic panels on their rooftops. The State and Federal Governments still provide financial incentives to do so. Energy prices will likely not go down in the future. Using solar power is really an "insurance policy" against high energy costs in the future. Personally, I'm still trying to figure out how to get panels on my home. I do plan on making the investment in the near future.
Russell Hill, 760.902.3121 RussellHill.net
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