FOCUS ON ... Solar power from Texas’ rooftops

A few months ago, I drove to Midland for an uncle’s funeral.  Starting around Big Spring, I observed some of the giant windmills that generate electricity. My initial response: Cool!

About an hour — and several hundred windmills — later, my response became: Damn! Do they have to put them everywhere?

I was truly sick of seeing them by then. They litter the countryside.

In Friday’s Star-Telegram, I read of a movement to fill Texas’ open spaces with giant solar panels.  The main challenge is lack of sufficient transmission lines — the same challenge faced by wind-generated energy (“Environment America group says sun could power Texas”).

Why fill up Texas’ open spaces with windmills and solar panels when rooftops all over the state could be fitted with solar panels, on top of houses that are already connected to the power grid?

Maybe the Legislature should consider subsidies for homeowners, rather than big power companies, to harvest energy from the sun.

It seems to me that those who are concerned about drilling in the “pristine” parts of Alaska, which many of us will never see, should be equally concerned about the environmental impact of wind and solar power on the Texas landscape.

I happen to think that West Texas is beautiful, and I’m sure that many of your readers will agree. Let’s get the Legislature to work on ways to use the rooftops we already have, and preserve the beauty of the Texas landscape for our children.

— Ron Bridges, Fort Worth