Our Mission: To increase awareness and use of solar energy for electricity generation in Plano.
Join us!
If you are interested in becoming more involved, please contact us through the email address listed below. We usually get together in the evening on the 4th Tuesday of the month to discuss ways to promote our mission. Please join us if you are interested to learn and discuss solar energy in Plano and surrounding areas. For meeting details, go to our Facebook Events page at www.facebook.com/pvplano/events (Note - Facebook account or login NOT required to see events.)
Our Long Term Goal:
Put Plano on the map as the solar energy leader of North Texas!
Our Specific Goal:
By end of 2015, grow Plano's installed solar capacity to 5,000kWp (5MWp), approx 1000 combined residential or business sites. As our baseline at the end of 2011, Plano’s installed solar capacity was ~280kWp,approx 40 sites.
Growth Tracking:
- At the end of 2009, there were 9 installations across Plano, totaling 85.3 KWdc of capacity.
- At the end of 2012, there were 51 installations across Plano, totaling 330 KWdc of capacity.
- At the end of 2013, there were 100 installations across Plano, totaling 940 KWdc of capacity.
- At the end of August 2014, there were approximately 175 installations across Plano, totaling an estimated 1,350 KWdc of capacity. This installed capacity is estimated to annually generate approximately 1,890,000 kWh of electricity.
- saves 1,309 tons of CO2
- offsets the equivalent of 33,480 trees
- is equivalent to saving 153,000 gallons of gas
- saves an estimated 708,750 gallons of WATER
Why is Plano Solar Advocates focused on advocating for solar electric generation?
We advocate the use of all types of renewable energy and the importance of energy efficiency. We encourage local citizens to take advantage of electric rate plans that utilize wind power. Texas leads the country in wind energy and wind farms. However, for local Plano residents, installing residential wind turbines is generally not a viable option. Also, solar thermal (for heating water and air) is another renewable energy option, but is often not viable when compared with inexpensive natural gas.
We encourage local citizens to learn about energy efficiency through programs offered by the city’s Live Green in Plano programs (www.livegreeninplano.org). Also, the North Texas Renewable Energy Group (www.ntreg.org) can help citizens across the DFW area learn more about renewable energy and energy efficiency.
So with many opportunities to learn about energy efficiency and renewable energy in general, we are trying to let people know more specifically about solar PV (photovoltaic) - and the opportunity to generate local clean energy to meet some or all of your electricity needs right at your own location. Generating electricity where it is used also helps reduce energy waste and strain on the transmission grid that otherwise occurs when having to transmit all of the energy needs over long distances to your home.
In total, Plano (all the residents, businesses, and other occupants) uses lots of electricity. For example, in 2011, we collectively consumed almost 4,000,000,000 kWh. And of course, a lot of that usage is regularly on bright sunny summer days, when our air conditioners are cranking to keep us cool. Just think, with today’s PV solar technology, and using about 3% of surface area of Plano (i.e. mostly rooftops), we could provide at least 40% of our annual electricity needs from the sunshine that is just falling on us! And PV solar technology is not just a science fair project any more. By the end of 2012, there were over 100 GW of installed capacity around the world. That’s more than the peak power we use all across the state of Texas on a hot summer day (which is 65-70 GW).
Making the long term investments to install rooftop solar can not only help our country become more energy independent, it can help us individually to become more energy independent. These investments in our local community generally help the local economy, and can help revitalize neighborhoods by increasing property values. These investments are in assets that will produce for 30+ years. While locally and across the state, we continue to be challenged with using our precious water resources wisely, wouldn’t it be great for Plano residents to contribute to putting less strain on our water resources by generating larger portions of our electricity needs without using the large amounts of water like traditional thermal power plants do?
So take a moment and watch our 1 minute video titled, “Solar Energy in Texas, Don’t You Wonder?”, and then invest a little bit more time to learn more about how you can put the sun to work for you right here in Plano!
Contact us at email address:
planosolar (at sign) gmail (dot symbol) com
Or, select the link below to use our contact form for further information.
