Community solar power
Monday, July 13th, 2009
According to the green US website The Good Human (which I recommend following on Twitter, for those of you tweeters out there), many neighbourhoods in the US and Canada are bringing the strength of collective bargaining to greening their homes. More and more, neighbours are getting together and approaching green energy companies with a collective agenda. Sometimes the community reps are able to negotiate far lower (sometimes as much as 25% less) rates for installation of solar panels. In Colorado, the reps also found a company who were able to rent them the panels, thereby avoiding the large financial investment that installing them would have required, as well as the difficulties of maintenance. Most of us who live in towns and cities in Ireland have access to a residents’ association, and in rural areas there are also local groups or locally elected representatives. So if you’d like to go green but are concerned about the costs involved, don’t go it alone – see who else in your neighbourhood wants to join in - you might be surprised by the size of your new green community!
