Hello all,
I made myself a little petition to poke at the Admin to invest more in solar and infrastructure. Compared to Germany which produced 7.6 GW we are lagging far behind. We need to catch up and fast to make any sort of a dent into the climate issue.
AZ has completed phase one of a 700 mw farm Link
"Located on 4,000 acres 40 miles west of Phoenix, Mesquite Solar 1 is currently has a capacity of 150 megawatts (MW) in phase 1, but will eventually measure in at 700 MW further down the line. Construction began in mid-2011 and has since created an estimated 300 local construction jobs and up to 10 long-term positions.
The large solar power plant is “generating enough clean electricity to power about 56,000 homes,” as well as reducing greenhouse gases by around 190,000 tonnes annually. That’s the equivalent of taking 33,000 cars off the road.
This accomplishment puts us solidly on track to own and operate more than 1,000 megawatts of renewable energy capacity by the end of this year,” Martin added. “We are excited about the future. This milestone would not have been possible without the strong support of neighboring communities, regulators and local and state elected officials.”
It's a start but we need to do so much more as a country. As of June 2012 this was the solar output of the US
The cumulative total of solar photovoltaics across America is 4,427 megawatts (4.427 gigawatts).
Adding CSP to that figure brings the total to 4,943 megawatts (4.493 gigawatts).
A total of 1.1 gigawatts (AC) of CSP are now under construction.
Blended module prices for Q1 2012 were down to $0.94 per watt, a staggering 47 percent lower than Q1 2011 levels of $1.78 per watt.
New Jersey edged out California in Q1 for the lead in solar installations with 174 megawatts. Sorry, California.
Link
The US needs to put serious effort into deploying solar farms across the country, especially in states like AZ, NV, CA and the Midwest area where you have large flat expanses of uninhabited land. We should also push for malls and office complexes to install solar on their roofs and parking structures.
As far as infrastructure...well 2009 Report card is here It's all bad
Anyway, enough ranting, just please go sign my petition, perhaps someone, somewhere will see it. Petition