- Are you a public radio listener?
- Do you care about local news?
- And lastly, do you live in the great, bustling metropolis of Houston, Texas?
Even if you answered yes to all three of these, you probably still don’t know who this guy is, because he’s a radio personality, and who ever knows what they look like? On that note, remember Steve Inskeep from Morning Edition? You may be surprised to hear that he’s every bit as handsome as he sounds, which is completely unnecessary in radio!
Anyway, this jolly fellow is our very own Craig Cohen, host of Houston Matters, which just did a bit on May 3rd about Houston’s solar scene. In a nutshell, it’s growing, and way faster than the average nutshell.
Specifically, a new report from the Environment Texas Research and Policy Center concludes that solar capacity grew about 20% from 2014 to 2015. That equates to an additional MegaWatt of solar capacity for Texas residents! As Luke Metzger from Environment Texas points out, that increase in capacity is enough to power about 636 homes. Friends, Houstonians, people who give a damn about the planet, let’s take a moment to give ourselves a little pat on the back. Or to give ourselves a little pat of encouragement if we haven’t already obtained our own photovoltaic generation device (aka solar system, but not the astronomy kind).
So why all the solar in Houston? Well, for starters, it’s a no-brainer! This is the sun belt, and sure, we just had a few cloudy days accompanied by a record-breaking torrential downpour, but for the most part, we get a lot of sunlight in Houston, which we should be turning into really clean electricity! There is also a big economic factor at play: solar is getting way more affordable! We’e seen an 80% drop in the price of solar panels since 2009. Thanks, early adopters, for paying more and paving the way for the rest of us! You still get bragging rights.
We also need to tip our hats to the folks at Centerpoint Energy and City of Houston, for smoothing out the process of getting solar. They’ve gone to great lengths to shorten the permitting and commissioning process, hugely reducing the life cycle of an installation project, and making it way easier for people like us to do our jobs.
While we know that many of our readers will simply digest this bit of information exactly as we serve it up (typically the same people who get their news from The Daily Show) you really ought to consider giving the Houston Matters podcast a listen, without our snarky editorial. It’s here. Or you can have it straight from the horse’s mouth by reading the original report. Or you may feel free to take it at face value; simply internalize that “everyone is getting solar”, and jump on the bandwagon! Use the Wiz to calculate the size and economics of your very own solar system. Or call Kathy to get the skinny: (832) 844-5790.