Solar Power

“Knowledge is a treasure, but practice is the key to it." Thomas Fuller

I read an interesting article in my local newspaper a few weeks ago about New York State having a program that helps people install solar panels on their homes. Great program and it only costs approximately forty cents per house hold per month added onto your electric bill. That is only $4.80 per year per household.

Now without adding business, which I would assume pay more into this program, that would mean that if the number of households in the state of New York, the state pulls in over twenty-two million ($22,000,000) per year. The problem I have with this program is where is all of the money going? From what I read, with a limit if three thousand dollars a home we would have seventy-six hundred (7,600) homes every year converting to solar, if they are willing to pay for the panels and what ever installation costs that are over the limit.

The question I have is where does the rest of that money go? Does it stay in a ‘lockbox’ as Al Gore talked about Social Security or does it just disappear into the general fund? If it just disappears into the general funds then, why not lower the fee that everyone is paying.

Since governments never want to stop taking from their citizens, then there should be another way of using the funds for the purpose that they were collected for. Why does the State of New York offer additional funding to those people who spent the money to install solar power on their homes? Why not take the moneies and start installing solar power onto schools in the State? Think about not only would that supposedly, remember what I said about governments not wanting to stop taking from their citizens, lower your taxes but help the environment.

Since most schools are closed in the summer, the time of year when the demand for electricity goes up, the schools could sell the power lowering their demand for money on the people. Reduction in power requirements from our utilities. All that would be required is that the schools pay back the monies over time, that they received for the systems in the beginning and after that the money that they bring in would be theirs.

“"Problems are only opportunities in work clothes." " Henry J. Kaiser