Copy of climate change letter in Monroe News,
"Letter to the Editor", Spring, 2015

I would like to comment on climate change. Supposedly, man made
CO2 is causing the planet to heat up like a greenhouse. I agree we seem
to have an overheating problem, and it most likely is caused from
elevated CO2 in the atmosphere. I don’t think humans are the primary
cause of CO2 being at 400PPM, where 350 PPM seems to be the limit,
according to weather scientists. However, burning fossil fuels certainly
can’t be helping the situation.

I recently read that installing solar panels is a way to help slow climate
change. That, each panel will prevent the burning of 2 pounds of coal,
every day, leading to less pollution in our atmosphere.

Being a retired DTE power plant engineer, I did some digging to see
how this worked. Ok, the simplified version is that when the Sun is
shining, a Solar panel starts generating electricity at a slightly higher
voltage than the utility grid. When the local power plant senses this
increased voltage, the control system backs down the boilers, burning
less coal. At night, when the solar panels go off-line, the boilers ramp
back up to supply the required voltage. But now it’s cooler, and not as
much coal gets burned.

In effect, Solar panels store any excess energy they produce, in coal,
left lying on the ground. So, it seemed to us, that installing solar panels
on our property would be a way to help slow climate change. Last year
my wife and I started installing ground mounted solar panels in our
yard. We have 44 panels in service now, saving us around 80% on our
electric bill. We are hoping to convince others that there is something
that the little guy can do to help out the planet.

We are hosting a Solar King LLC event, a "Solar Home" open house
this May 9th from 10AM-2PM to demonstrate how easy it is to go
Solar: 11367 Strasburg Rd. Erie, MI. Come on down and see for
yourself. See:
http://www.starlightpower.
net/Solar_Home_Open_house_flyer.html   for more info.

Regards,

Chuck Bagwell
Erie, MI