California Residents Install More Solar Panels Last Year than in Previous 30 Combined

[eridani]

http://www.nationofchange.org/california-residents-install-more-solar-panels-last-year-previous-30-combined-1389623227

Every energy source has pluses and minuses, but ask a Californian if they are interested in harnessing the sun’s rays to power their washing machines, electric lights, heating or cooling needs, etc., and you’ll see their answer in their actions. This past year, residents residing in the ‘city of angels’ installed more solar panels than in the previous 30 years combined, more than doubling their overall photovoltaic energy capacity.

According to Carol Olson, a researcher at the Energy Research Center of the Netherlands, solar power “contributes 96 percent to 98 percent less greenhouse gases than electricity generated from 100 percent coal and 92 percent to 96 percent less greenhouse gases than the European electricity mix.”

[emsimon33]

1. This fall, we installed 34 solar panels on the roof

which will make 35 as the water heater already had its own solar panel. We live on the central coast of California. As more and more people install solar panels, watch the energy corporations try to financially punish us for generating our own electricity rather than paying them. We already pay $10 a month for not having a digital meter which I think is highway robbery.

As it was, we rarely ran heat and never used the central air (using fans instead if we got a hot spell), so our electric bill (no gas lines available where we live so electricity is our only option) was never very high--low, in fact. We want PG&E to close their nuclear plant which is very near us at Avila Beach. If we all start generating our own electricity, the plant may be more expensive to run than to close. (Let's hope.)

[Cha]

2. Aloha California!