Renewable Energy Is Happening. Just Look.
It amuses the heck out of me that we have people all around us who love to expound on how renewable energy can’t scale—in an environment where renewables are visibly and aggressively replacing fossil fuels as we speak. My advice to these people: Don’t think, look. What you’ll see is evidence that clean energy is becoming the defining industry in the 21st Century.
As my colleague Jon Lesage (pictured) published in his Green Auto Digest: Renewable energy increasing: Carbon-dioxide (CO2) emissions from electricity generation during the first six months of 2016 were the lowest since 1991, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), with most of that coming from the displacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy. Coal saw the more dramatic decline, with consumption decreasing by 18 percent, compared to 1 percent for natural gas. Use of renewable-energy sources increased 9 percent during the first six months of 2016, compared to the same period in 2015.
NYC is not a particular hot spot for solar energy, but there are now 3 solar energy companies competing with each other pushing each other to expand rooftop installations in the outlying boroughs. I was actually fairly shocked to see this.
It is not that the solar insolation is poor. It is now almost a cliche that every place in the US gets more sun than any place in Germany. And the cost of electricity is one of the highest in the nation. But the regulation to install a system have been discouraging. So times seem to be changing and it is increasingly easy to stand somewhere high up and spot at least one solar roof.
NYC may not be hot but out on the island is getting hotter. I know of a bunch of rooftop installations in Hempstead and Bellmore as well as a small solar farm and decent size wind turbine at the Hempstead Township Conservation and Waterways facility off of Lido Blvd where Loop Parkway joins. They also have a fair size hydrogen generator there and are running some vehicles on it. I am not sure if the hydrogen generator part is worth it but the whole setup is very interesting.
Cities do not have the area to make solar worth it so they will have to pay for power from the surrounding area’s roof top systems. That’s the premium they will pay to the surrounding areas for living and doing business there.
Thanks for the info Brian.
Cities have rooftops just as exists in the burbs. Since most residential systems are put on the rooftop available land area should not be much of a consideration there. Cities also have more demand than they reasonably produce as you mentioned so solar in a city seems to be ideally cited to minimize additional infrastructure.
But cities due also tend to have more regulations than outlying areas so without governmental support and interest solar in a city can be more difficult.