Austin's polar explorer program

摘要

The City of Austin Electric Utility Department's Solar Explorer Prgram will give customers the option to help support the installation of large community scale photovoltaic (or PV) systems. Through Solar Explorer, the City of Austin is joining with the U.S. Department of Energy, the Utility Photo Voltaic Group and other utilities nationwide to make solar electricity more affordable. Residential and small commercial customers become Solar Explorers by volunteering to pay a small premium each month to help fund the installation and maintenance of a small section of a PV power plant. Large commercial customers, organizations and schools can participate by marketing Solar Explorer to their employees, members and customers. If enough Solar Explorers are recruited, a large community scale solar PV plant can be installed on the commercial customer's roof, parking garage or parking lot. A total of 257 kilowatts (kW) of PV systems can be installed in this initial phase of Solar Explorer.