Uh, just two choices for rooftops? Paint’em white or green’em?
What about solar panels on as many (every roof with good potential) roof tops as possible?
A few years ago, an alternative energy proponent and scientist appearing on The Brian Lopate Show on WNYC said that if every available roof in NYC (all 5 boroughs) had solar panels installed, even with the the lower efficiency at that time and the weather patterns of the area, that would provide electricity not only for the entire city of NY, but for the surrounding metropolitan area as well.
More expensive than white paint (which should probably be done anyway), but perhaps not all that much more expensive than green roofs. Part of that expense involves strengthening roofs for gardens or turf. Many roofs will need to be re-engineered, rebuilt, to handle the heavy weight of water-laden earth, and that is not a quick or cheap fix. But it would mean even more jobs.
With solar, there would be immediate payback environmentally in not using carbon for a huge number of electricity consumers. Also, since this area tends to use oil for heating, perhaps electric heat pumps should be offered at subsidized –or at least discounted rates– to outlying suburbs. Electric heating might be possible at lower electric rates (NYC metro area has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, iirc).
Of course, Newark, other cities and even surrounding business parks could be brought into the solar grid all over the densely populated East Coast. Rooftops are, well, everywhere.
My approach is that rooftop electricity would not be the “property” of the bulding owner, but rather part of the commmunity pool of electricity. The bldg owner would have first use of the electricity generated by its rooftop solar panels, but the rates would be perhaps just the same as for all the area users or possibly charged at a slight discount. But this must be seen and treated as an area-wide project, like a municipal power generation facility. Or in this case, a Tri-State power generation project.
Better yet, make it regional, in every region of the nation.
What’s not to like?
And…where has Obama been on any of these solutions? Sheesh.
Now he’s talking about $500B for mfrs partnering with universities to develop…new and better mfring methods and technologies.
Well, than will have an immediate jobs impact. Not.
He is such a bureaucratic corporatist, even tho’ he never really worked for a corporation (altho’ some say he was a CIA hire…). But everything is way off in the future, unless it’s tax cuts the Repubs demand.
Never happen. The 400 owners of the Body of the Immaculate Corporation will never allow it.
Uh, just two choices for rooftops? Paint’em white or green’em?
What about solar panels on as many (every roof with good potential) roof tops as possible?
A few years ago, an alternative energy proponent and scientist appearing on The Brian Lopate Show on WNYC said that if every available roof in NYC (all 5 boroughs) had solar panels installed, even with the the lower efficiency at that time and the weather patterns of the area, that would provide electricity not only for the entire city of NY, but for the surrounding metropolitan area as well.
More expensive than white paint (which should probably be done anyway), but perhaps not all that much more expensive than green roofs. Part of that expense involves strengthening roofs for gardens or turf. Many roofs will need to be re-engineered, rebuilt, to handle the heavy weight of water-laden earth, and that is not a quick or cheap fix. But it would mean even more jobs.
With solar, there would be immediate payback environmentally in not using carbon for a huge number of electricity consumers. Also, since this area tends to use oil for heating, perhaps electric heat pumps should be offered at subsidized –or at least discounted rates– to outlying suburbs. Electric heating might be possible at lower electric rates (NYC metro area has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, iirc).
Of course, Newark, other cities and even surrounding business parks could be brought into the solar grid all over the densely populated East Coast. Rooftops are, well, everywhere.
My approach is that rooftop electricity would not be the “property” of the bulding owner, but rather part of the commmunity pool of electricity. The bldg owner would have first use of the electricity generated by its rooftop solar panels, but the rates would be perhaps just the same as for all the area users or possibly charged at a slight discount. But this must be seen and treated as an area-wide project, like a municipal power generation facility. Or in this case, a Tri-State power generation project.
Better yet, make it regional, in every region of the nation.
What’s not to like?
And…where has Obama been on any of these solutions? Sheesh.
Now he’s talking about $500B for mfrs partnering with universities to develop…new and better mfring methods and technologies.
Well, than will have an immediate jobs impact. Not.
He is such a bureaucratic corporatist, even tho’ he never really worked for a corporation (altho’ some say he was a CIA hire…). But everything is way off in the future, unless it’s tax cuts the Repubs demand.
Never happen. The 400 owners of the Body of the Immaculate Corporation will never allow it.