The joint study from Stanford University and UC Riverside reads like a report card. The authors recognized that, “solar energy has one of the greatest climate change mitigation potentials” of all renewable energy sources. It can play a leading role in helping the United States reach its’ goal of reducing emissions to 80% of 1990 greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. This would require covering a great deal of land surface. Using current technology, close to 71,428 square kilometres (44,383 sq. miles), or an area roughly comparable to South Carolina, could be covered with panels. Rebecca R. Hernandez et al examined more than 160 sites in California to find out how utility scale solar impacts the land.
There is an undeclared energy battle being waged in America. As installation costs drop, rooftop solar is spreading throughout the US and, while reducing the nation’s carbon footprint, it also cuts into corporate profits. Despite three resounding setbacks, utility companies are fighting to hold on to their monopolies. They are doing this by trying to limit net metering, the cornerstone policy that gives solar customers credit for the excess energy they put back on the grid. The Alliance of Solar Choice (TASC) says two of the hottest battles are currently being fought in Arizona and Colorado. This was America’s Net Metering War.
The tide of rooftop victories started on June 26 of this year, when the Louisiana Public Utilities Commission voted 3-2 to maintain the payments utilities must make to solar owners.
