SCE pioneering rooftop photovoltaic power in game-changing solar energy effort

[jpak]

http://www.sbsun.com/ci_19372831

RIALTO - The next time you feel the strong ray from the sun know that across the San Bernardino County solar panels on large industrial warehouses are delivering electricity - possibly to your home.

Recently, some 26,880 solar panels have been installed at a 1.2 million square foot warehouse structure here owned by Prologis Inc.

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Currently SCE has a network of 18 neighborhood solar stations which generate 42.25 megawatts, enough to serve 27,500 homes. Other rooftop powerplants

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By the end of 2016, SCE plans to create a network of neighborhood solar power plants like the one in Rialto capable of generating 500 MW of electricity, enough to power 325,000 average homes, said Gil Alexander, a company spokesman.

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[Old and In the Way]

1. Makes perfect sense.

There's a lot of real estate already tied up in these warehouses....easy to service and close to the user.

[BlueToTheBone]

2. This could be repeated all over the country.

The need for nuclear is soo passe. The future could be bright. Here's to sweeping the pigs from office in 2012. Here's to all the progressive candidates who are running. Go Elizabeth Warren (MA)! Go Ken Aden(AR)!

[Peace Patriot]

3. Interesting. It was in that very area, a couple of decades ago,

when I was flying into Ontario Airport, that I noticed the miles and miles and miles of industrial rooftops. If only they had solar panels on all of them, I thought--and if only our country wasn't ruled by the oil corporations and other assholes savagely committed to non-renewable, polluting energy!

Sad, sad! Such opportunities lost! And so many dead--slaughtered for their oil!

I lived in Rialto long ago. It was mostly open land at that time. Now that entire region--the corridor from Los Angeles to the San Bernardino Mountains-- is paved over from end to end, with both housing developments and industrial works. The same is becoming true to the west and southwest of Los Angeles, toward the ocean--the beautiful rolling hills near the coast in the Los Angeles to San Diego region, hill after hill after hill covered with unsustainably constructed housing developments.

You just weep when you think what could have been done with all that construction--solar panels on every home and business building, the use of materials and design to conserve energy, conservation of water, installation of food gardens instead of useless grass lawns, preservation of native plants, and on and on and on.

I'm VERY GLAD to read about the solar energy in Rialto. But we must be careful, too, to investigate and prevent corruption in this new and hopeful industry. The DELAY served the rich, and the rich don't serve us. Remember that--if energy prices start going up, for no apparent reason, or solar energy moguls start getting too much political power, just like the oil and rubber and car manufacturing corporations. Corruption. Monopolies. The installation of BAD political leaders. It can all happen again, no matter the product. What seems beneficial can become a means of oppression. And with our vote counting system the way it is--virtually all of it, all over the U.S., now controlled by one, private, far rightwing connected corporation--ES&S, which bought out Diebold--the opportunities for mischief and oppression are rampant. San Bernardino and Riverside Counties have had serious political problems--very bad political leadership--due to Diebold's vulture-like and corrupt hold on their vote counting systems and local election officials. Be vigilant, is all I'm saying. I can't help but applaud solar power, wherever it arises--usually from the dedicated work of very sincere people. But keep an eye on how things are structured (are they structured in the public interest?), who's profiting, who controls that energy (and to what purpose? more housing developments in one of the most overbuilt regions in the country?), and other such questions.