The Department of Environmental Services and Aurora Energy started work this week on the installation of 250 new solar panels at Central Library.
Once the panels are installed, they will produce approximately 60,000 – 70,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per year (turning on a 100 watt light bulb for 10 hours uses 1 kilowatt-hour). That’s the same amount of electricity used by 7 houses in one year! And although it’s only a fraction of Central Library’sannual use, electricity generated by the solar panels will save approximately $14,000 in energy costs each year, and reduce the County’s annual CO2 emissions by about 100,000 pounds.
If you want to learn more about solar power, and how to use it in your home, check out these books:
- Convert Your Home to Solar Energy by Everett M. Barber, Jr.
- How To Solar Power Your Home: Everything you need to know explained simply by by Martha Maeda
- Sustainable solar housing. Volume 1, strategies and solutions (NetLibrary eBook), edited by Robert Hastings and Maria Wall
You can also read the Solar Energy For You Home (pdf) fact sheet, from AIRE (Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions).
Watch our slideshow from the first day of the solar panel installation.
http://www.flickr.com/apps/slideshow/show.swf?v=104087
