{"id":3736,"date":"2015-06-12T20:04:47","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T20:04:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3736"},"modified":"2015-06-12T20:04:47","modified_gmt":"2015-06-12T20:04:47","slug":"cities-cut-energy-bills-by-tapping-solar-on-rooftops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/?p=3736","title":{"rendered":"Cities Cut Energy Bills by Tapping Solar on Rooftops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>by Eric Galatas\/TNS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; Some U.S. cities are using solar power to cut their energy bills, and a new report shows how mid-sized cities could install as much as 5,000 megawatts of solar on municipal property with little to no upfront cash.<\/p>\n<p>Report author John Farrell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, said the opportunities solar presents for cities is significant because of unused rooftop space &#8211; and because the private sector is poised to get the job done at no cost to taxpayers.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_3737\" style=\"width: 610px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3737\" class=\"size-full wp-image-3737\" src=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/gr-46524-1-1.jpg\" alt=\"A new report documents how five U.S. cities have leveraged solar to lower municipal energy bills, taxes and pollution. Photo: U.S. Department of Energy.\" width=\"600\" height=\"397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/gr-46524-1-1.jpg 600w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/gr-46524-1-1-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/gr-46524-1-1-405x268.jpg 405w, https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/gr-46524-1-1-60x40.jpg 60w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-3737\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A new report documents how five U.S. cities have leveraged solar to lower municipal energy bills, taxes and pollution. Photo: U.S. Department of Energy.<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u201cBut how easy it could be for them to do it,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause they can sign up with these companies that will install the solar for them, pay for it, and then just allow them to pay less for electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The institute projected that by 2021, 10 percent of electricity in the United States could be solar, and at a lower price than traditional utility-generated electricity.<\/p>\n<p>The report also found that municipal solar installations help create jobs. It estimated that tapping Kansas City\u2019s municipal solar potential of 70 megawatts could create 1,400 jobs and add $175 million to the local economy.<\/p>\n<p>Farrell said installing solar on city rooftops has allowed municipalities to redirect millions in saved energy costs to other public purposes.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPoint-blank, the fact that cities spend a lot of money on energy,\u201d he said, \u201cthe chance to cut energy bills for cities is a chance to save money that can be used to either reduce taxes or to spend on other items of public interest.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The report highlighted cities such as Denver, which collects solar at its city-owned airport; Lancaster, Calif., which produces more solar energy on a daily basis than the entire city consumes; and New Bedford, Mass., which, by going solar, saves more than $6 million a year on electric costs.<\/p>\n<p>The report is online at <a href=\"http:\/\/ilsr.org\" target=\"_blank\">ilsr.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Eric Galatas\/TNS AUSTIN, Texas &#8211; Some U.S. cities are using solar power to cut their energy bills, and a new report shows how mid-sized cities could install as much as 5,000 megawatts of solar on municipal property with little to no upfront cash. Report author John Farrell, director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3736"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3736\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3738,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3736\/revisions\/3738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}