In a change of pace today, I will say nice things about solar power and the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Today's newspaper carried a story about a unique solar power project undertaken by the exurban Wright-Hennepin Electric Cooperative. The co-op utility used crowd funding (a more up-to-date and hipper idea than my "Heirloom Electricity" plan) to finance a solar power project in the northwest metro town of Rockford.
The utility signed up 17 of its customers, raising almost $150,000 for the project. It's a great example of a market creating solar power, voluntarily, without the costly coercion of a state mandate. Participating customers, who are scattered throughout the utility's service territory, will receive bill credit for the project's electricity output. The crowd funding idea seems to be a great way to create economies of scale, and the bill credit appears to be a clever work-around to the state's net metering restrictions. A battery-backup system overcomes the problems with solar's intermittency.
Kudos to all involved in creating this win-win solution. And a thank you to the Star Tribune for featuring the story so prominently.
No comments:
Post a Comment