Sunday, April 6, 2008

DOE provides $2.4 Million for 12 cities....translation...NOTHING!!!

The department of energy recently announced that it will allocate $2.4 million to 12 Solar America Cities, to help further advance solar technology. This program was designed to further President Bush's Solar America Initiative (SAI). SAI's main focus it to make solar electricity cost competitive with conventional forms of electricity by 2015. The 12 cities who will receive "a grand total" of "up to" $200,000, were chosen based on their commitment to increasing the use of solar voltaic panels in their municipalities. The list of cities can be seen below. Before doing our group project for TEES I probably would have said GREAT, that's enough to do something with....but after the project I'm almost insulted that DOE would think that $200,000 for solar panels will get you anywhere. There are schools in the US that have 1.5 million dollars worth of panels, so for one city to share $200,000 just doesn't seem logical. I guess they figured the hands on assistance that is also a part of the program, makes up for the insignificant amount of money being provided for the actual purchase of the panels and research.

* Denver, Colorado
* Houston, Texas
* Knoxville, Tennessee
* Milwaukee, Wisconsin
* Minneapolis - St. Paul, Minnesota
* Orlando, Florida
* Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
* Sacramento, California
* San Antonio, Texas
* San Jose, California
* Santa Rosa, California
* Seattle, Washington

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