Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has just unveiled an ambitious plan to install solar panels on house rooftops that he says will "meet 10 percent of the city's energy needs" by 2020. According to utility officials, the energy plan will cost each L.A. resident 2 more dollars a month once complete. Details of the cost breakdown will be established within the next 90 days.
"Our solar initiative is the largest of any kind anywhere in the world. When it takes full effect, L.A. will have 1,280 megawatts more capacity -more than exists in the entire United States today," Villaraigosa said. Not only will it improve the polluted metropolis's skies but L.A.'s mayor claims that with "every 10 megawatts" of solar power, 200 to 400 new jobs could be created.
At the moment, not even 1 percent of L.A.'s energy supply comes from solar sources, while the ASH (American Safety and Health) Institute claims 76 percent of the city's energy is still generated from coal and natural gas.
The city is known for its ghastly smog and California lawmakers have recently founded the South Coast Air Quality Management District in order to get it under control. Some of its controls include monitoring clean construction and eco-friendly paint products, as well as "inventing methods of recovering the vapors released when petroleum products are burned." (Encycomedia.com)
380 megawatts of power will be generated from the solar panels through the SunShares Program, and another 500 megawatts will come from "utility-scale solar power projects that would feed into two transmission stations run by the city's Department of Water and Power." (ENN)
The project will cost between 1.5 to 3 billion dollars, which is meant to be completed by 2014. "The L.A. solar plan represents the generation of renewable energy in Los Angeles, by Los Angeles and for Los Angeles," said David Nahai, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. Nahai also mentioned he has high hopes that more cities jump on the solar industry bandwagon since it will bring prices down, making the market both more competitive and affordable.
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