Abi Skipp's Flickr Photostream/Creative Commons

Con Edison has announced plans to construct an experimental solar facility in New York City.  The Big Apple utility company will embark upon an 18 month project with the intent of generating 12 MegaWatts of electricity, which according to the company is enough to power approximately 12,000 homes in the city.

12,000 homes?  New York City has a population of over 8,000,000 people living in over 3,300,000 housing units and the best Con Edison can do, in a new age of renewable energy, is come up with some meager plan to power 12,000 homes with solar power?  Usually, I like to write that any new source of clean, renewable electricity, like solar power is a step in the right direction.  But this is not one of those times.  We’re getting to the point where doing minimal token measures on renewable energy goals is not cutting it anymore.  We need to do better, and better means making a larger share of our electrical generation capability renewable at a much faster pace.  In a city like New York where the virtues of this sort of thing are broadly supported by the public, the public utility should be moving much more resolutely to reach more amitious goals. 

You can takepart in promoting solar energy power by logging onto the Solar Energy Industry Association website.

LINKS:

PVTech: Con Edison proposes 12 MW Solar Plan

Renewable Energy World: Con Ed plans 12-MW solar project

Clean Technica: Con Ed Plans New York Solar Project