Why Doesn't Indiana Have Solar Power?

 I read Solar power to the people: California program brings clean energy to Oakland in The Guardian, and my first thought was why has not anyone in Indiana glommed onto this idea? It may be that I am a bit sore because I thought of this 13 years ago. If an idiot like me can think of it, surely the bright boys running this state and its cities have been thinking on it, too.

What California is doing could be done here:

St Mary’s Gardens is one of more than 100 projects in California that have had solar panels installed as part of the state-funded Solar on Multifamily Affordable Housing (Somah) program. The state is allotting $100m a year in public funding starting in July 2019. By 2030, the program’s goal is to power 300 megawatts through new solar projects on low-income rental buildings across the state – akin to the amount of electricity generated by a small nuclear power plant, or enough to provide power to 150,000 tenant families.

The program provides financial assistance to owners of affordable housing buildings, and also education to tenants. A little more than 100 low-income rental buildings have completed solar installations through this project, and the owners of hundreds more are interested, according to Somah. The financial incentives saved through solar directly benefit low-income tenants, and the program is designed so that people who live in the most “disadvantaged communities” – those affected most by environmental pollution and the climate crisis – can benefit from multibillion-dollar investments in clean energy from the government.

“Our core goal is to give back to these vulnerable communities that sometimes lack voices in this space,” said Staci Givens, program manager of Somah.

Oh, yeah, the General Assembly is more interested in passing abortion than in improving the lives of Hoosiers by legislating our version of this Somah program.

But wait, the federal government is also providing funding:

California paved the way for solar programs, as one of the sunniest and largest states in the throes of worsening climate conditions. Solar panels have become popular to assist in energy conservation, and oftentimes have benefited wealthier neighborhoods. In an effort to make solar energy more equitable, the Biden-Harris administration approved a $7bn Solar for All program for states across the country.

According to a Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory report on solar installations in the US, people who have solar panels on their rooftops are disproportionately high-income earners. California also has the most households with rooftop solar, comprising 50% of the US total. The overall snapshot of people who have solar tend to be middle-aged, white and primarily English-speaking, and work in business or finance and live in rural areas, according to the Berkeley Lab.

So, Muncie or Anderson or Indianapolis could be getting federal dollars? I guess it comes down to not having enough people who are high-income earners working in the business and/or finance sectors. Another price paid for not properly educating Hoosier? 

Maybe we not only do not like hard thinking, but also hard work?

The total cost of installing solar energy in a building like St Mary’s Gardens is about $345,000, and it has taken three and a half years. “It was a lot of work put into making these projects [successful],” Abbasi said.

For St Mary’s Gardens, the entire cost of installation was covered by the state because the building doesn’t own the solar panels, but is contracting with Sunrun, a solar power company, to maintain the panels for the next 20 years, Anders said. Givens estimates that once PG&E approves the installation and connects to the grid, each unit could save from $30 to $40 a month.

Well, think about it when you go into the election booth next year and want to vote to keep the status quo. Can you afford to continue with business as usual in Indiana?

If curious, you can start with what I ahve written before on this subject at Pueblo, Colorado Is Working On Clean Energy, Why Not Anderson? Indiana?

sch 11/19