Everything’s big in Texas, just ask they locals and they’ll tell you. Even the state’s power consumption is huge. Texas has a population of nearly 30 million citizens who use more power per capita than any other US state.
The state is becoming increasingly excited over the possibility of a substantial local solar energy industry after a recent major news conference held by state senators and representatives promoting new renewable energy bills.
Among the legislation proposed, the state’s electric utilities would be required support the development of 2000 megawatts of solar and other on-site renewable technologies by offering direct incentives to consumers and businesses such as rebates or feed in tariffs.
TexasVox states that such legislation could spur grid connect solar power installations on as many as half a million roofs in Texas by 2020; at a cost of under a dollar a month per Texan. Previous polls found that 81% of Texas voters were willing to pay up to a dollar a month to encourage solar power.
Local electricity supplier Oncor recently announced rebates to its Texas customers for installing solar energy systems. The USD$ 16 million, four-year program will pay USD$ 2.46 per DC watt and up to USD$ 24,600 for each residential solar energy system.
According to a recent article in the Houston Chronicle, for each gigawatt of solar energy infrastructure introduced in Texas, a supply chain 25,000 jobs long will be generated.. Given the solar potential of Texas, this could mean nearly 125,000 new jobs by 2020 with over 75 percent of the solar supply chain being local.
Texas is by means not the only placing catching solar fever. Many other states and countries are looking to kick-start ailing local economies and reduce greenhouse gas emissions with long term infrastructure investments in renewable energy, rather than short term band-aid approaches where much of the money spent ultimately winds up in wallets elsewhere.
