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Today institutional, commercial and residential buildings are hosting solar energy systems that will become commonplace tomorrow. Bringing solar energy to a rooftop in every community is an important step to increasing the use of solar energy.

For example, shopping centers are excellent showcases for solar energy technologies because they are highly visible and provide excellent educational opportunities for children, adults and tenants. Hosting a solar energy system on a building helps bring solar energy into the mainstream. It also makes a powerful "green" public relations statement.

Solar Energy
Most of Wisconsin's power is generated by coal-fired (70%), nuclear (23%) and, increasingly, natural gas fired power plants. These energy resources are finite. In addition, the burning of fossil and nuclear fuels has negative environmental impacts and emissions at almost every stage of production from the mine or wellhead to the power plant. The emissions result in global warming, acid rain, smog, ground water contamination, and other problems.

The consumption of electricity in Wisconsin has been growing by almost 3% per year since 1990. This may not sound like much but it is the equivalent of adding a new 500 MW coal-fired power plant every two years.

Solar energy is clean and abundant, and can meet Wisconsin's growing demand for energy. However, solar energy technologies, such as PV, are still at the fringe of the marketplace. What Wisconsin needs is more widespread use of PV and solar energy. This will both increase people's familiarity and comfort with PV and will help PV production lines achieve the economies of scale needed to bring system costs down.

Photovoltaic Energy
Photovoltaic energy systems (sometimes referred to as "solar power") are devices that use semiconductor material to convert sunlight directly into electricity. The sun's photons strike the semiconductor material, dislodging electrons and creating a flow of electrons or electrical current.

Photo 1. A Seimens crystalline PV cell

PV is considered one of the leading potential sources of electricity for the 21st century because it utilizes a renewable energy source (the sun) and has no emissions. It is also one of few generation technologies that can be placed on your home or business. In the future PV systems connected to fuels cells may power our economy using nothing but sunlight and water.

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Photograph credits
Photo 1. NREL/PIX, photographed by Rick Mitchell

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