Talk about a power trip.
The City of Longmont reported Monday that the community has installed more than 10 megawatts of solar power. That’s enough juice to power 1,500 homes for a year.
A team effort. Most of that power comes from privately-owned solar panels on homes and businesses throughout Longmont. But the City is pitching in too.
Longmont’s Iluminar Community Solar program has panels at the Longmont Waste Services building and the Ascent of Hover Crossing housing development.
Looing ahead…Both Longmont and its wholesale power provider, Platte River Power Authority, aim to make all electric generation noncarbon.
PRPA expects to generate over 80% of its power from solar, wind, and hydroelectric sources by 2030.
In March, construction finished on the company’s Black Hollow Sun complex near severance. It’s the largest solar project in northern Colorado.
It’s not all sunshine and rainbows…Solar critics warn that although solar power generation doesn’t produce harmful carbon emissions, solar power manufacturing does. Plus, once panels reach the end of their lifetime, a disposal dilemma lurks. Most panels have a 20 to 30-year lifetime but when the time comes, discarding panels is costly and adds to a ever-worsening landfill problem.