- La Feria Native Soon To Retire From The Military This Summer
- Senior Eneece Avila Takes Pride in her State Title
- Dr. Noemi Infante, Harlingen Medical Center Open New Women’s Clinic
- Santa Rosa Cameron County Park Partially Reopens
- Santa Rosa Takes to Regionals Meet in Kingsville, Tx
- Long-Standing Nexstar Tower in La Feria Decommissioned
- Lionettes Powerlifting Meet
- Local Business Holds Event to Benefit RGV Shriners Club
- Knights of Columbus Holds it’s 30th Annual Golf Tournament
- KGBT Tower Dismantled
Free Tours of Texas Solar Homes This Past Weekend
- Updated: October 11, 2019
by Eric Galatas
AUSTIN, Texas – This pat weekend, homeowners in Texas and all 50 states were opening their homes to friends, neighbors or anyone curious about adding solar energy to power homes.
Texas ranks sixth nationally for total installed solar capacity, but most solar arrays are at utility scale, not on individual rooftops.
Hanna Mitchell is Texas program director of Solar United Neighbors, the group behind the tour. She says so far, more than 850 solar houses across the nation have signed on.
“We’re really excited to see about 75 homes participating in Texas,” she states. “This is a chance to see solar energy on a home in action in your state and in your town.”
Texans were able to check out their neighbors’ solar panels, the inverter and electric box, which is what captures and transmits the power from the sun and converts it into electricity.
Mitchell says solar is one of the fastest growing segments of the clean energy industry, in part because costs have dropped far enough to make solar less expensive than older technologies.
Homeowners also shared their electric bills, before and after installing solar, showing how much money they were saving.
According to Mitchell, installing rooftop solar benefits all electricity customers, especially during high spikes in demand.
“In fact, having more distributed generation adds to grid viability and prevents the need to bring on more expensive power plants, which is what causes those price spikes that we can see, especially in summer months,” she points out.
This is the second year Solar United Neighbors has partnered with the American Solar Energy Society in a national solar tour.
Mitchell says the goal is to help people learn more about how solar energy works, so they can make informed decisions about their energy choices.
For more information, visit nationalsolartour.org.