If Mayor Luke Ravenstahl's administration has its way, next year when you are shopping at the Waterfront, you might do a double-take. If you look across the river towards Glen Hazel, you will see a field of solar panels. The administration is proposing a site ravaged by coal mining becomes a solar panel farm - the ultimate in reuse. The Glen Hazel location was picked because it's on a south-facing, city-owned property that can't be redeveloped as feasible residential or commercial office space because of coal mines beneath the surface.
Germany, one of the international leaders of solar energy use (and a country no more sunny than Pittsburgh), generates 1% of its power from solar panels thanks to some hefty tax breaks. Market analysts expect that Germany will be generating 25% of its power from solar energy by 2050. Solar energy is also taking off nationally in the USA from Southern California all the way up to Oregon.
In other news, I learned about a new Pittsburgh neighborhood today. Did you know Glen Hazel was one of the city of Pittsburgh's 90 neighborhoods?
Thursday, February 4, 2010
It's Always Sunny in Pittsburgh
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1 comment:
This is really great. Hopefully the City will choose a company using the really new panels I remember reading about being developed in Germany, that are more efficient (assuming they have hit the market).
Now if the Governor and/or State legislature would support tax credits or subsidies for home solar, that would be really, really excellent.
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