The Tampa Tribune
Published: January 27, 2010
The promise of more home-grown solar energy is exciting from both an environmentalist and capitalist point of view.Energy from the sun is clean. Owners of homes and businesses can install rooftop panels to generate their own electricity and even sell some back to their electric utility.
The solar business can provide good, new jobs in sales, construction, repair and manufacturing. Solar gives ordinary citizens a chance to produce a valuable, renewable commodity to sell to their neighbors.
So why are roofs not festooned with solar panels cranking out free electricity? Because the energy is not really free. It currently costs more to make electricity using photovoltaics than from fossil fuels producing steam to turn giant turbines.
So why does anyone invest in solar? Because, with federal incentives covering 30 percent of the installation costs and local utilities ready to use the energy produced, it is possible to make a solar system pay off right now. Florida, according to Gov. Charlie Crist, has gone from "dead last" in solar production to second in the nation, even though the state itself no longer offers solar incentives. Read More:
Solar incentives make sense
No comments:
Post a Comment