Climate Corner: Learn more about an alternative

Aug 10, 2024

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

On Thursday, Aug. 15, from 6-7:30 p.m., at the Parkersburg & Wood County Public Library at 3100 Emerson Ave. in North Parkersburg, the West Virginia solar installation company Solar Holler will be hosting an in-person seminar on how to begin the process of obtaining a residential or commercial solar array.

The discussion at the seminar will center around the cost savings of going solar and what is involved in making solar a reality for your personal or commercial property. Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action is not a co-host of the event because we want to avoid any perceived favoritism of one solar installation company over another, but we are actively promoting the event to be of any assistance we can in helping Mid-Ohio Valley residents and commercial property owners harvest the sun.

Attendees can also follow up with Solar Holler and discuss the company’s purchase and leasing options after the seminar. It is the policy of the library not to allow presenters who sell goods or services to actively work on sales while utilizing library space, but outside of the time allotted at the library there will be plenty of opportunity for such discussions.

It has never been more important to embrace solar energy in West Virginia. Our utility rates just keep climbing because of our foolish reliance on continued coal use. West Virginia receives 91% of our electricity from coal-fired plants and we energy ratepayers are suffering high costs and low grid reliability during climate-related events like heatwaves, flooding, drought, severe storms and high winds, including a higher incidence of tornado activity, because of it.

AEP Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power customers, for instance, are facing a proposed rate increase of 17%, or an average of $28.72 a month. Included in such rate increases for both AEP and FirstEnergy (MonPower) customers are offsets for fuel costs (the costs of burning coal) and renovations to coal-fired plants to try to reduce their massive levels of pollution in accordance with important regulatory requirements. Solar arrays, on the other hand, last an average of 25-30 years or longer and many of their component parts can be recycled, with no fuel inputs or renovations needed.

Coal use leaves a legacy of toxicity and scarred landscapes. From acid mine drainage to dangerous slurry impoundments & coal ash ponds to mountaintop removal, valley fill, dangerous air pollution and massive greenhouse gas release, coal is a constant threat to our health and lived environments and to our ability to safely inhabit our only home in the cosmos. Then there are the dangers of coal mining, even with today’s technological advances, including the ever-present threat of black lung disease.

Solar, wind and water, plus storage, along with the potential of green hydrogen and possibly even advanced nuclear, represent a decarbonized and far cleaner and more affordable energy future. Hydrogen must be derived from an electrolysis process used to split water molecules and powered by renewable energies (the aforementioned green hydrogen) or potentially recovered from natural deposits (known as white hydrogen) to be effective as a decarbonization strategy for hard-to-decarbonize sectors like aviation, international shipping and the making of steel and cement, or as an energy storage option. The ARCH2 project to deliver hydrogen derived from fracked methane gas with disproven carbon capture and storage or sequestration (blue hydrogen) is a pseudo-solution that should not come to fruition as planned.

There is potential for nuclear power with smaller reactors that are easier and cheaper to build and waste solutions like dry cask storage, though I’m not sure nuclear is going to be a timely solution or the most cost effective. Meltdowns are exceedingly rare and the waste very carefully managed, but I can certainly appreciate reluctance to adopt nuclear as part of a clean energy future unless and until absolutely necessary. We must have nuclear contingency plans in place and be prepared regardless.

The costs of solar have plummeted and have nowhere to go but down. Affordability and accessibility are increasing daily for people of all income levels and living arrangements, including renters whose landlords are investing. Grid changes take time and carefully structured public policy frameworks that so far Congress and state legislatures and local governments largely have not managed to get in place or have faced backlash over due to mis-and-disinformation campaigns.

We can still move forward, though, with what exists right now, today, on our homes and properties, relying less on increasingly antiquated grids. If you live in the greater Mid-Ohio Valley, including in Ohio, please come out to the library in Wood County and learn more on Aug. 15.

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Eric Engle is board president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action