(Solar) Power to the People Is Not So Easily Achieved
One day nearly four years ago, it suddenly seemed like a good idea to give solar electricity a try at home — home, for me, being an apartment house in Washington Heights, alias upstate Manhattan. The price of electricity was climbing. A war was being fought, if not over oil, then certainly over the ground the oil was in. Solar technology had proven that it could generate real power.
And while the building may not have been in the eternal sunshine of Arizona, it does stand on one of the highest spots in Manhattan. The first rays of the morning come blazing into the windows on its east side, and the last tangle of daylight bounces off the west side. The roof bakes in the sun all day. As far as I could tell, our building needed only one star aligned in its favor, and we happened to be locked in at just the right spot.
Oh blissed ignorance.
So now, a few lessons from a private co-op apartment building that is getting enough solar power, during daylight hours, to run the elevators, the laundry room, and the hall lights.
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