really sunny country. So if Germany can do well with a lot of solar energy, the US with our deserts and dry areas can do far better.
Southern California, Arizona, New Mexico and much of Texas could be pretty much energy independent if we switched to solar and more electricity.
We have to find a less expensive way to make solar panels.
A college in Los Angeles has installed solar panels on one of its hillsides. Here is the article on their project. There is a good video at the website at the link, but I don't know how to display it here.
Oxy’s $6.8-million, 1-megawatt ground-mounted solar array is one of the largest of its kind in Los Angeles. It generates approximately 12 percent of the College's annual electrical usage and save an estimated $250,000 a year. We believe it’s one of the largest arrays in the country on a small college campus.
What makes it unique is that two-thirds of the array's 4,886 panels are installed on a southwest-facing campus hillside. With panels mounted just 2-3 feet above the ground, the low-profile array hugs the topography of the slope.
Art faculty collaborated with a local design firm to create a curving design based on a mathematical expression known as a hysteresis loop (produced when an alternating magnetic field is applied to ferromagnetic material).
. . . .
Led by physics professor Daniel Snowden-Ifft, who proposed the idea, the lengthy process of bringing the project to fruition combined a creative approach to design with extensive community outreach. In partnership with panel manufacturer SunPower, Oxy offered a discount on home solar installations to neighbors in the surrounding communities of Eagle Rock, Highland Park, and Mt. Washington.
https://www.oxy.edu/life-oxy/sustainability/solar-array
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