Monday, December 6, 2010

Texas Homeowners Finally Get Solar

Some area homeowners, wanting to go green, have been given the red light.

David Tharakan said he thought he was doing the responsible thing by installing solar panels on the side of his Canyon Springs home.

Plus, he said the panels would have saved him 50 percent on his energy bill.

"Everybody wins,” he explained. “I don't think there is a bad thing about this, personally."

However, his homeowners' association notified him he was breaking the rules, and the panels need to come down.

"If it comes to that we will, but it's a sad statement,” Tharakan said. “Nobody is going to want to do these.”

Lanny Sinkin, director of Solar San Antonio, said scientists estimate that if solar panels were placed on every home in San Antonio, they would generate more than 60 percent of the city's energy needs.

"We believe solar is the long term answer for the energy situation in the world," he said.

Yet too often, Sinkin said he has seen HOA rules and deed restrictions get in the way of homeowners wanting to install panels.

"What we really need is a state law,” Sinkin said. “There was a law that was proposed last legislature saying that you cannot bar solar. We need a law like that to pass."

SOURCE

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