Congratulations, 9-R. Installing solar panels on parking lots at six schools will save the district 58% on energy costs over two decades, according to the Herald.
Properly sited over paved parking lots, the 1.03-megawatt, 530 panel program shows how solar projects can be located on appropriate sites to help cut into the district’s carbon footprint and properly address climate change.
9-R’s solar efforts are to be applauded, unlike the massive 155-megawatt, 500,000 panel industrial-scale Hesperus Solar facility, which had been proposed (and will be again soon) on 1,920 acres in southwest La Plata County by California’s Primergy. Instead of enhancing local benefits, Hesperus Solar would block one of the state’s largest ungulate migration paths and winter ranges, replace rural lifestyle with an industrial zone, transmit all energy out of the area, impact the Dryside’s water aquifers and increase the fire danger in one of the state’s high-moderate intensity areas for wildfires.
The two projects show night and day approaches to solar implementation.
Barry Spear
Hesperus
