Gainesville Regional Utilities has attracted the eyes of environmentalists across the nation for a trail-blazing plan to encourage solar energy production by agreeing to buy the electricity above market value for 20 years.

Ontario, Canada has had a solar feed-in tariff for a number of years and this program has resulted in several megawatts of solar power installations. With all the sun that Gainesville receives on a yearly basis, this is a no-brainer.

Solar power is produced during the peak usage periods of the day. This allows the Power Utility to reduce it’s use of coal-fired generating stations that can be powered-up during high demand. The GRU also has plans for a large scale biomass plant that will produce power 24 hours per day.

Gainesville is definitely leading the way. Now if we can only get the rest of the nation to follow!