Wharton Sinkler: New Hampshire should invest in solar

To The Daily Sun,

With a new incoming House and Senate, new governor and Executive Council in this new year, it’s a great time for New Hampshire's state government to think about new initiatives. This should include opportunities to install renewable energy.

State facilities in New Hampshire occupy more than 700 buildings, according to the State Energy Management Office. Our state spends over $7 million annually on electricity to power these buildings. As far as I could discover, none of these facilities have rooftop or other on-site solar.

It would make a lot of sense for the State of New Hampshire to survey these sites for the best opportunities to install solar power. Courtesy of the Inflation Reduction Act, 30% of the cost of solar is now covered by federal rebates. If the equipment is U.S.-made, the rebate goes up to 40%. The returns on investments in solar today are often close to 10% with corresponding payback times less than 10 years.

The U.S. added a record-breaking 9.3 gigawatts of new solar module production capacity in the third quarter of 2024 alone, so increasingly dollars invested in solar are going to employ Americans.

Our legislators in Concord, as well as Gov.-elect Kelly Ayotte and the Executive Council, should pass bills and direct state agencies to grasp this opportunity. Once installed at state facilities, solar arrays directly provide inflation-proof zero cost power, avoiding costs now borne by taxpayers. They do that with virtually zero maintenance, for between 25 and 40 years, reducing pollution and payments to out-of-state fuel producers.

I hope both our governing parties can come together on sensible opportunities to save taxpayer money and protect the environment for years to come by making investments in solar at state facilities.

Wharton Sinkler

Sandwich