Sun Power for Greensboro?

A new 38-story downtown apartment building in New York is powered by solar cells. Chicago has launched a program to make the city greener. Many other cities are looking seriously at alternative energy and more eco-friendly souces of power. Where is Greensboro?

Lack of an alternative energy plan is just one of the ways Greensboro is lagging behind in innovative thinking. A few hybrid cars is not enough. Greensboro should prepare for the future by looking for better ways to provide the massive amounts of power used by the city and paid for by the taxpayers.

Streetscape lighting around the new center city park in downtown Greensboro is a perfect place to showcase solar energy. Taxpayers are spending at least 750,000 dollars to change the street lights and sidewalks around the park - and this does not include the power bill to operate these lights. Our city manager and city council have not seriously considered the solar option.

We have consultants who live in our area who can give realistic appraisals of operating costs vs. investment costs. Why isn't the city listening?

Greensboro needs forward-thinking members on the city council. I offer myself as one of these. I need your vote to help bring new and better ideas to Greensboro.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

3 comments:

Diane Grey Davis said...

Hey Jigar Shah,

Thanks for mentioning that there is help available for paying for alternative energy.

Tax credits do not apply to municipal governments and non-profit corporations.

But the rest of us could use them.
diane

Joel Gillespie said...

Good point and good post Diane. it would be great if we could get more on the cutting edge of these technologies. Not only would it help us as a city be less dependent on fossil fuels, it would in doing so help us clean up our air, AND be better citizens of the nation as a whole. I am Joel from http://spaces.msn.com/members/joelblog/. You might be interested in my "Love Your Downstream" neighbor post.

Diane Grey Davis said...

Hey Joe,
Your love your downstream neighbor post was right on target. I attended a workshop several weeks ago about protecting our water supply at the source.

In their last session the NC Legislature passed a law protecting some lakes and water supplies. It is a good start. And we have to start in order to finish.