(KELO-TV screenshot)
Funny how the small town of Sturgis has more common sense than Sioux Falls;
But then, someone suggested putting solar panels on top of the structure instead of canvas, and using the power to knock a big chunk out of the combination city hall/library building’s electrical bill.
While there has been plenty to say about our new $25 million dollar administration building and all it’s technology and LEED certification, why didn’t we put solar panels on it to power itself? Oh, because that would have made sense, and we can’t have any of that when building city facilities.
Because solar is less compelling when you have cheap hydroelectric power and wind power.
Pretty much every public building of any size — and most commercial — are well served by solar. http://elpc.org/issues/clean-energy/solar-energy/
I say let’s see how this works for Sturgis first. We’re far north with lower sun horizon and more clouds. Snow accumulation is another problem.
I always thought a good idea would to have every new building have solar installed. Then, as prices fall, give incentives to fit older buildings.
When there’s a national power grid failure, energy will become regional. It will be mostly wind and solar. The power grid is circa 1950’s. The only reason it’s still in place is lobbyists have control of the National Power Administration. There have been large outages of as much as 20% of the nation mostly in the northeast and west coast. National power is a defense problem because of outdated systems, software failure/attacks, and terrorist focus. It’s another World Trade Center collapse but worse. It’s time for regional privatization.
i’m surprise that west river would build solar panels. one would assume their answer would be to burn more coal and oil.