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Politics : Rat's Nest - Chronicles of Collapse -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (1893)	8/22/2005 4:19:35 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 24210

Solar city and beyond: Speaker offers Sebastopol example, August 22 By Claudia Reed/Staff Writer Pete Blair from Community Cooperative Energy (CCEnergy), a buyer's cooperative working with the City of Sebastopol to promote solar energy alternatives, will share what he knows with Willits residents starting at 6:30 p.m., Monday, Aug. 22, at the City Hall Community Center. Also on the agenda is Californias Million Solar Roofs initiative, which has already passed in the state senate and is making its way through the assembly. The bill, SB 1, in conjunction with SB 1917, would create an incentive program to establish a million solar electric rooftops by 2018. SB 1, a truly bipartisan effort, is supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and sponsored jointly by state senators Kevin Murray, a Democrat from Los Angeles, and Republican John Campbell from northern Orange County. CCEnergy, which specializes providing lower-cost solar energy systems to its members, is an active player in Solar Sebastopol, a city-endorsed program that aims to install 1 megawatt of solar power production on municipal, commercial and residential buildings by the end of this year. According to organizers with WELL (Willits Economic LocaLization), which is sponsoring Blairs talk, this year is not too soon for installing alternate energy systems: As the prices of oil, natural gas and electricity go up, so do the costs of renewable energy, writes Dr. Jason Bradford in a related press release. For these reasons, communities wanting reliable energy delivery in the future need to invest in renewables while the costs of nonrenewables are still low. WELLs Energy Group, Bradford adds, has estimated the available roof space on existing residential, commercial, industrial and public buildings within the city could support the production of about 38 megawatt hours per day of solar electricity. An installation of that magnitude, however, would require a large initial investment that would take several years to pay back. On the other hand, Bradford writes, the Willits-area currently spends about $30 million on energy, with very little of that money staying within the community. WELL member Gary Owen, in an earlier presentation to the city, said the citys monthly share of that expense could be shifted to debt service on a loan that would pay for alternate energy infrastructure for city operations. Once in place, the infrastructure would reduce energy costs to the price of routine maintenance. Bradford adds investment in Willits-area alternate energy infrastructure could strengthen the community by creating jobs, enhancing energy supply security, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The public is welcome to participate in related discussion following Blairs presentation. The event is free, but a donation is requested to help meet costs willitsnews.com