Photo by bkusler
Well, this came out of nowhere!
Edinburgh Council have announced that they're going to look in to putting solar panels on all council-owned properties in the city. That means council houses, schools, offices, depots and care homes could be benefiting from photovoltaic panels on the roof providing carbon-free power.
There are a few ways this could go, providing it actually happens.
The first is that the council just rent out the roofspace to a private company. That company makes a huge obscene profit for a fixed price to the council and very little benefit to the local taxpayers.
The second is that the council house tenant, schools and care homes get to keep the profit from any energy produced and sold into the grid through the feed-in tariff. This gives the poorest in society an incentive to lower their own power bills for a bigger "profit".
The third is that all the revenue produced in a community is used to the benefit of that community, so that private renters and homeowners can also benefit from the money generated by the neighbouring roofs.
I'd prefer that third scenario, followed by the second. Given Edinburgh's track record, I fear we'd end up with the first. Of course, we're a long way off it happening, if it will at all.
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