The discussion over solar power has heated up, especially in the last year, and in Gainesville, Florida, it’s more than just talk.

Known mostly for its music roots — home to Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Stephen Stills, and two original members of the Eagles — Gainesville is now known for solar power.

And not just solar power: Gainesville Regional Utilities is encouraging solar energy production by agreeing to buy the electricity above market value for 20 years.

The results so far have been quite good. As the Gainesville Sun recently reported, “Gainesville’s solar feed-in tariff reached its first 4 megawatt cap for 2009 in just three weeks and its 2010 cap within days of that with contracts to buy electricity from 56 businesses and residences, with another 12 in line.”

One prominent trait in — ironically enough — traditional Republican areas such as the South and West is more sunshine. Utilizing the sun to produce energy creates jobs in a region more beset by unemployment on average than other regions.

But this is much more than just using the sun. The example in Gainesville is producing viable incentives to increase participation.


Source:  A BUZZFLASH NEWS ALERT by Chad Rubel