Solar Rooftops Law? Help Make It So

Solar rooftops: it’s a no-brainer. As I was flying into Phoenix last August over a sea of flat roofs - Target, Walmart and a zillion other big box stores and warehouses - I thought, “There oughta be solar panels on all those.” Maybe you’ve heard, Phoenix is known for getting a bit of sun. We should be harnessing that. And every other flat roof in the country. Finally, we’ve got a bill for that.

According to the Center for Biological Diversity, there is sufficient roof space in the United States to meet 20 percent of our electricity needs simply by installing solar panels. The obvious solution is a national solar rooftop initiative, and now - God bless Bernie Sanders - we finally have a U.S. Senator willing to step up and make it happen.

Sanders (I-VT) has introduced “10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water Heating Act of 2010″, a bill that aims to fund the installation of solar panels on 10 million homes and businesses across the country as well as the installation of 200,000 solar water heaters. This initative would produce about 30,000 new megawatts of energy, or roughly equivalent to 30 nuclear power plants.

Distributed solar projects like this are on the rise, in part because they are much easier to get approved than the huge solar installations being proposed for the Mojave. Even better, they disperse energy production around the country, eliminating transmission line energy waste and improving national security by making the country less dependent on the centralized energy grid.

Aside from the energy and national security advantages, the economic ramifications are huge: the development of a large and thriving solar panel industry will employ thousands, increase production efficiencies, lower costs, and restore America to a leadership position in this technology. The initiative would create thousands of jobs for manufacturing, shipping and installing the solar panels.

Of course, an idea this good should be a bi-partisan home run: it benefits small business to make the Republicans happy; it develops clean energy, pleasing liberals. Which means it will probably die in committee. So if you agree that a national solar rooftop bill is good for America, make your voice heard, now and help make this good idea see the light of day.

Several non-profit organizations are jumping in to lead the offensive to get this bill passed, including the Center for Biological Diversity. They’ve created a handy page that makes it easy to contact your senator to register your support. Make your voice heard.