Get Energy Smart! NOW!

The hardest challenges for moving to a clean energy future are not technological or engineering … they are cultural and procedural and shifting incentive mechanisms and so many other intangible — but ever so real — barriers.  Breaking through these barriers to enable tangible progress is a necessary, difficult, and often messy task.

Sometimes, this process occurs with a bright light.

This evening, at Powershift 2011, Van Jones began his talk highlighting Solar Mosaiic.  To provide the very short description, Solar Mosaiic will enable people to share the costs of deploying renewable energy (solar energy) one small building block at a time.  Can’t afford an entire solar system but can chip in a little? You can buy your share of a deploying system and share in the benefits.  As Van put it (in not direct quotes) …

Don’t leave anybody behind.
Wealthy people have the solar panels.
The poor have the big energy bills.
The poor can’t afford the solar panels.
Shift the power.
We can’t afford the poor people NOT to have solar panels.

I love rich folks. But they tend to live in the hills where it is shady.
Poor people live in the flat places where it is hot.
How about we have the solar panels there
and have the energy companies write them some checks
to put some food on the table.

“We can’t afford the poor people not to have solar panels.” Mosaiic, beginning in Oakland this summer, is an effort to enable them to have those panels.

Solar Mosaic connects people who want to go solar with the buildings that have the ideal roofs and space to go solar. Mosaics are works of art where many pieces come together to form a whole. With Solar Mosaics, many people come together to build community solar projects.

From the press release,

“Community solar is an exciting new model for Oakland that addresses unemployment and the need for green energy at the same time,” shared Jakada Imani, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center. “Not only will solar help local community centers and public schools reduce their energy costs, but Solar Mosaic Oakland will give people much-needed jobs and build the local green economy. This project is a win-win for Oakland.”

By raising a total $500,000 in funds, Solar Mosaic Oakland will install 140kW of solar power on seven community buildings in Oakland. The project will create 2,240 local job hours, prevent 4.6 million pounds of coal from having to be burned, provide long-term utility cost savings for budget-strapped local non-profits, and showcase a model for cities around the world to follow. Program partners plan to raise additional funds to expand the project far beyond the first seven rooftops.

“Now, for the first time, there’s a way for every person in the country to ‘go solar’ by buying tiles in a community solar project.” remarked Billy Parish, President of Solar Mosaic. “This a model that can spread across Oakland, and then across the nation.”

Solar Mosaiic is an interesting approach to break through the barriers inhibiting rapid and extensive deployment of renewable energy systems in America.  It merits watching … and encouraging.