\r\n\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\n“We want to be the first city that produces more electricity\r\nfrom solar energy than we consume on a daily basis,”\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nAnd then the city of Lancaster took action, requiring\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nthat almost all new homes either come equipped with solar panels or\r\nbe in subdivisions that produce one kilowatt of solar energy per\r\nhouse. He also was able to recruit the home building giant KB Home\r\nto implement his vision, despite the industry’s overall resistance\r\nto solar power.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nResult, according to one solar tracker?\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nthe city tripled the number of residential installations in the past\r\n18 months.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nThe article overstates what is required:\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nThis means Lancaster’s rooftops, alfalfa fields and parking lots\r\nmust be covered with solar panels….\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nThey wouldn’t be alfalfa fields, then, would they?\r\nThat’s like the old Georgia canard that we’d have to clear an\r\narea the size of Atlanta to power Atlanta with solar power.\r\nWe already have<\/em> an area that size cleared: it’s called Atlanta!\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\n
<\/a>\r\nThe article also make much of California destert sunshine, but eventually\r\ngets at a larger point:\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nWhile the desert sunshine in California and Arizona helped put those\r\nstates atop the national solar energy rankings, towns in cloudier\r\nregions are also adopting it. Napoleon, Ohio, for instance, benefits\r\nfrom 14 megawatts of local solar power.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nAnd Saginaw, Michigan not only installs solar,\r\n\r\nit manufactures solar<\/a>.\r\nAlmost any city in the U.S. has more sunshine than any city in Germany,\r\nthe world leader in solar power.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\nHere’s how Lancastar started in solar installations:\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\nHis solar push began about three years ago; City Hall, the\r\nperforming arts center and the stadium together now generate 1.5\r\nmegawatts. Solar arrays on churches, a big medical office, a\r\ndeveloper’s office and a Toyota dealership provide 4 more.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nMeanwhile the number of solar panels on any of those things in Valdosta, \r\nHahira, Lake Park, Remerton, Dasher, or the Lowndes County palace is: zero.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n\r\n“A lot of what we’re doing appears to be public\r\nrelations,” the mayor conceded. “It has that taint to\r\nit. But what we’re doing is scalable and portable.” Lancaster\r\nis already marketing its power to other municipalities.\r\n<\/p>\r\n<\/blockquote>\r\n
\r\nThat last part means Lancaster, CA is making money by selling solar\r\npower to other cities.\r\nMaybe the Georgia Municipal Association (GMA) should pay attention,\r\ninstead of\r\n\r\nopposing SB 51<\/a> that would have reformed the antique 1973 Territorial\r\nElectric Service Act, which says you can only sell power you generate\r\nto your one and only pre-determined electric utility, at whatever rate\r\nthat utility sets.\r\nGMA could be promoting solar power for financial benefits to Georgia cities,\r\nsuch as\r\n\r\nthe 40% savings Dublin High School will realize<\/a>.\r\n<\/p>\r\n
\r\n -jsq\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"What does it take to turn a city into a solar power powerhouse of jobs and clean energy profit? Mostly the will to do it, plus some public relations and business relations. Felicity Barringer wrote for NYTimes 8 April 2013, With Help From Nature, a Town Aims to Be a Solar Capital, the mayor of […]","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[14,24],"tags":[339,8704,8701,8785,8702,6126,12,7,6127,8713,8714,6],"class_list":["post-2918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economy","category-solar","tag-california","tag-economy","tag-georgia","tag-gma","tag-lake","tag-lancaster","tag-lowndes-area-knowledge-exchange","tag-lowndes-county","tag-r-rex-parris","tag-renewable-energy","tag-solar","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-L4","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2918"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2945,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions\/2945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}