I’ve been staying inside a lot more this year because the weather in Pennsylvania has been mercurial. Frequent flash flood conditions, hazy skies from traveling wildfire smoke, sweltering heat in record breaking temperatures. I’m more familiar with the hum of central air conditioning than I’ve ever been, and my bank account has suffered for it. There’s a gas-fired turbine spinning somewhere that’s propelling electricity along miles of powerlines and into my home. And now that the Trump administration’s EPA has rescinded greenhouse gas regulations for power plants, that turbine is operating without what little emissions curbing was formerly in place.

Solar Power World is a media outlet that covers the technologies, people, policies and practices that define the U.S. solar photovoltaic market, but renewable energy sources are intrinsically tied to addressing the very real threat of climate change that we all face. We do not seek to create artificial controversy with what we write, and that isn’t my intention here. If we hope to maintain a livable planet for all of us, and wish to maintain the level of comfort that some of us can afford with climate-controlled homes, that isn’t possible without using renewable energy sources.

The problem is the cost of everything is seemingly rising, so who can be responsible for tamping it down? We tend to center the individual in these cases. Having solar installed on your home is an admirable and logical decision, and a couple years ago it was more feasible with federal incentives still intact.

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