Clean Energy In the News

One thing Texas has plenty of is sunshine. We even saw a little of it this past weekend.

So it makes smart sense that 80 businesses, including several from Waco, have organized a statewide coalition to push Gov. Rick Perry to expand solar power goals in Texas.

Let’s fully harness that natural energy from above and use it to power our state.

It’s a shame that although Texas has the largest solar capacity of any state, we’re only ranked ninth in the use of solar power.

To shed further light on this, in its Feb. 8 letter to Perry, the Go Solar Texas coalition wrote that Texas has the “most solar radiation in the country” and is “the world’s largest supplier of solar-grade silicon.”

Put it all together, and that spells S-O-L-A-R E-N-E-R-G-Y. So why isn’t our government jumping all over this?

The coalition wants the Public Utility Commission to require electric companies to obtain 1,000 solar megawatts of energy by 2015 and 5,000 solar megawatts by 2025.

With an estimated 2.2 million single-family homes expected to be built in our state in the next 20 years, we can’t do enough to get ahead of our energy needs. This is a natural.

And with new air quality standards being considered by the Environmental Protection Agency that could tag McLennan County as a nonattainment area, we should all be on the forefront of this solar push here.

“There are a lot of things that can be done to utilize solar power,” K. Paul Holt, president of the Associated General Contractors of America’s Central Texas Chapter, told the Trib. “It just makes sense.”

By increasing solar power, billions of dollars and thousands of jobs could funnel into Texas. And the best part is it’s clean energy.

In Waco, efforts to install solar energy by McLennan Community College, the Greater Waco Chamber of Commerce and the Cameron Park Zoo deserve applause. We encourage more businesses to follow their lead.

Said Holt, who’s president of the zoo’s board: “We have a lot more sunshine than any other state. So why shouldn’t we all be working on solar power?” We heartily agree.