Govuhnator gets one right

I heard on NPR this evening that Governor Ahnold (California) is sponsoring a program called the Million Solar Roofs Initiative. If I heard the story correctly, the goal is to have one million solar-powered homes in California by 2010.

More states need to be getting on the stick and taking real action to
implement renewable energy generation. Gosh, Here in Florida (and in
Arizona, New Mexico, Texas ...) we have a pretty fair amount of sun.
Yet in my neighborhood, even though a number of us have solar pool heat
systems, I've also heard some folks state that they hate the look of
solar panels. Come on folks, would you rather see an oil derrick in the
neighborhood?

The report on the radio suggested that the cost for solar power adds
$10,000 to $15,000 to the cost of a home. One person in southern
California in a home that was recently built (about a year ago), stated
that their monthly electric bill is about $15. I'm in a fairly small
home (about 2,000 square feet, which is the smallest plan in the
neighborhood) and our monthly electric bill is about $200. So even if
one allows a lot of wiggle room in the calculations, a solar system
would pay for itself in under 10 years. Given that the cost of solar
technology is expected to continue to decrease, I think this is pretty
darn nice. Bear in mind that this is not even getting into the whole
issue of reduction of greenhouse gases, getting away from our
dependence on fossil fuels, allowing homes to produce their own energy,
etc.

This could be very cool.

Comments

[Sarah]

I heard that too on NPR and thought it was pretty freakin' cool!