After being named to the Department of Energy’s list of Solar America Cities last summer, Austin today unveiled some of its plans to make good on its local utility’s goal of getting 30 percent of its energy from renewable resources by 2020. About 100 megawatts will come from solar, but so far Austin Energy is only able to get 6 percent of its power from renewables (and hopes to reach 12 percent by the end of the year when another wind farm comes online).
Austin says it has received $185,000 to expand its efforts to increase solar power across the city. The money and matching grant from Austin Energy will provide for an assessment of the total rooftop capacity in the city for solar panels, as well as to purchase solar panels for six more Austin area schools, bringing the count of Austin solar powered school buildings to 26.
Other solar initiatives include the city placing solar arrays on 24 city buildings, as well as five more being installed later this year. Austin Energy also funds a solar rebate program, begun three years ago, which rebates about $4.50 per watt, paying for about 60 percent of the cost of solar installations by the utility’s customers. So far 521 homes and 36 businesses have taken advantage of the program.
However, all of this provides for only 2 megawatts of solar power generated so far. The majority of Austin’s renewable energy comes from wind power, and even that won’t be enough to meet the demand for renewables under the current plans. So Austin still has a lot of work ahead of it.
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