via WFMZ-TV 69 News
Bucks County’s government could replace 75% of its electricity use with solar power for an extra $250,000 per year, ProtoGen Energy co-founder Kevin Wright said Wednesday. Wright told the county commissioners that, based on a study his firm completed at no cost, placing solar panels on county properties to generate three-quarters of the energy the government uses would cost about $28.6 million. When the cost of construction and maintenance is amortized over time, Bucks would pay about $1.5 million per year annually for electricity, up about a quarter-million dollars from the current cost. The estimates are based on current federal and state incentives for solar power, and those incentives can change, Wright said. The study reflects just dollars and cents, he said, not the environmental benefits of reducing carbon emissions. “It does not consider the value of cutting (use of) fossil fuels,” he told the commissioners. Wright also said a national or state push for renewable energy could help fund solar power. “Incentives can very quickly change this picture,” he said. Wright said New Jersey, for example, is more aggressive in promoting the solar switch.