Calif takes a shine to solar power
LOS ANGELES, July 2, (AFP): Jacquie Barnbrook had grown tired of the high electricity bills and her gasguzzling luxury car when she finally decided to take the plunge last year.
The 52-year-old Los Angeles resident joined an ever-growing number of Californians who are switching to solar power for their energy needs in a bid to not only save money but to also do their part for the environment in a state setting the pace for the rest of the country in that sector.
“At this time of year, my power and water bills usually were around $400 a month,” Barnbrook said. “Right now, it’s $150 a month.”
As for her vehicle, Barnbrook said she ditched it in favor of a hybrid one that she now plugs in and charges at her house.
“I was previously spending $80 on gas every three or four days and now I haven’t put gas in my new car since the beginning of March,” she noted. “That’s four months ago!”
Nearly 4.9 million homes are powered by solar energy in California — the nation’s green trailblazer and the most populous state — and that number is expected to continue to grow, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, a non-profit trade association.
Even President Donald Trump, an avowed sceptic on climate change, is considering putting solar panels on the wall he plans to build on the Mexican border.
Although solar installations have slowed this year due, in part, to a record number of people rushing to sign up in 2016 for fear of losing a tax incentive, the market is expected to continue to grow, especially in places like California which has a plethora of sunny days, experts say.
Driving this expansion is the plummeting cost of solar panels — which were traditionally limited to relatively affluent homeowners — and improving technology on batteries to store energy, they add.
“Right now, we’re in throes of rapid change in the solar industry,” said Rajit Gadh, director of the UCLA Smart Grid Energy Research Center. “As people process all the information out there and report their success stories and it starts to become mainstream
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A huge power outage plunged millions of people across Central America into darkness Saturday, as authorities from Panama to Costa Rica to El Salvador scrambled to restore electrical service.
The blackout affected some five million people in Costa Rica alone, where officials largely had managed to restore service after a nationwide power outage lasting about five hours.
Authorities pinned blame for the power outages on a downed Panamanian transmission line that adversely affected the power supply for much of the region.
Countries in the region, from Guatemala to Panama, are connected by the same power grid, covering an expanse of some 1,800 kms (1,100 miles).
But that interconnectedness means that the countries of Central America are vulnerable when there are power grid malfunctions in any one.
Chaos reigned in the Costa Rican capital after traffic lights ceased to function, while the main airport in San Jose had to run on backup power until the power system was up and running again.
The blackout was the first experienced in Costa Rica, among the most developed countries in Latin America, since 2001.
Officials said as many as two million people were left in the dark in Panama, with an undetermined number affected in Nicaragua and El Salvador.
Details were not immediately available about how many people were affected by the blackout elsewhere in Central America, or whether they had managed to get their power systems back up and running.