Group says solar energy’s future bright in Texas
December 3rd, 2008 - Posted in solar energyBy Jerry Daniel Reed
City, state urged to focus on renewable power resources
By Jerry Daniel Reed
Special to the Reporter-News
A renewable energy advocate on Tuesday pitched for Texas to claim the state’s place in the sun by pushing solar energy development and energy efficiency.
Caitlin Seeley, Abilene field organizer for the advocacy group Environment Texas, outlined the Austin-based organization’s ambitious goals at a news conference at Frontier Texas!
“Our economy is struggling and the unstable energy prices are only making things worse,” Seeley said. “But Texas has the technological prowess and vast resources of renewable energy from the sun, wind and crops that can revitalize our economy, power the nation, create thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs, and renew Texas’ role as the energy capital of the world.”
Seeley listed Abilene Mayor Norm Archibald, City Councilman Anthony Williams and the Abilene Industrial Foundation as supporters of her organization’s goals for progress.
Establishing low-cost loans to enable schools, universities and colleges, and local governments to increase energy efficiency in their buildings, and setting more ambitious minimum efficiency standards for some household appliances are among the items on Environment Texas’ agenda.
Seeley said legislative proposals to implement this agenda are in the drafting stage.
State Sen. Kip Averitt, R-Waco, and state Reps. Joe Straus, R-San Antonio; Phil King, R-Weatherford; and Dennis Bonnen, R-Angleton, are among lawmakers looking at potential new legislation on energy efficiency standards or renewable energy, Seeley said.
She pointed to the mushrooming wind energy sector of the Abilene-Sweetwater area as a model of progress in renewables to emulate. At the end of this month, Texas will have an installed capacity of more than 8,000 megawatts of wind energy generation.
Paul Lewis, an energy savings consultant with EmPower Energy Solutions of Abilene, endorsed Seeley’s call to action.
The bulk of electric power consumed in Texas is generated using natural gas, which sustains dependence on fossil fuels, Lewis observed.
Producing more energy from renewable sources, and consuming less through greater efficiency, will help clean the air as well, he said.
Lewis said his company offers attic ceiling fans that remove hot air in the summer and moist air in the winter, cutting energy costs in both seasons.
In Abilene, only “bits and pieces” of solar power are now in use, Lewis said. One project nearing completion is a 100 percent solar hot water heating system for a new field house Abilene Christian University is building near the women’s softball field, he said.
“We need to do much more to create a Texas market” for renewable and energy-efficient products, Seeley said.
How Texas addresses the issue will determine whether the state enters “the frontier of clean energy, or gets left behind,” she said.
