SunEdison, a US-based solar panel manufacturer and power plant developer, announced this week that it will construct a 160-megawatt solar farm near the west Texas city of Georgetown, according to the Associated Press. Georgetown has more than 50,000 residents and is located about 30 miles north of Austin.
The solar farm will supply enough electricity to meet about half of the power needs for the community. The rest of will come from wind-driven generators, meaning the people of Georgetown will no longer rely on fossil fuels for their energy needs once the project is complete.
SunEdison vice president Paul Gaynor told The Associated Press on March 18 that more cities are seeking to shift away from fossil fuels in order to protect themselves against the fluctuating costs of fossil fuels and the pollution that they contribute to the atmosphere.
The Georgetown project will increase the amount of installed solar power in Texas by ⅓ to a total of 490 megawatts. That’s not a lot for a sun-drenched state like Texas, especially at a time when solar farms are going up that will produce many gigawatts of power in places like California.
As more and more studies indicate that solar power is now competitive with electricity from conventional generating plants, the move to renewables is gaining supporters throughout North America.
