Solar Energy in New York City? No we're not crazy. Average sunlight levels here are only 19% less than in Sacramento, CA which has the largest solar program in the country. The sun shines many days of the year, winter, too. Snow doesn't hit us too often, and when it does fall it doesn't last for long. Plus, we New Yorkers use a lot of power.

New Yorkers use way more power than we generate within the bounds of the city - that's why we have huge wires running down from the Indian Point Nuclear Reactor, just 22 miles North of the Bronx, as well as from other power plants outside the city. Most of these power plants burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas to generate electricity - and pollute our air and dump lots of waste heat into our rivers in the process. (Some, however, use renewable wind and run-of-the-river hydroelectricity - for more about promoting these kinds of power plants see Green Power.)

There are also a number of power plants located inside NYC. They burn fossil fuels, too - releasing a variety of pollutants into the air of our densely populated city. Is it any wonder why NYC children are almost three times as likely to be hospitalized for asthma as children in the rest of the country, and four times as likely as children in the rest of the state?

And we still don't have enough power. New fossil fueled power plants have recently been installed in Jamaica Bay, Queens and Brooklyn, and there are more proposals on the table for plants in the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area of Brooklyn, the Lower East Side, and elsewhere. Yet most of our rooftops bask naked in the rays of the sun!

It's SOLAR. It's BASIC.

You can reduce our reliance on nuclear energy, polluting fossil fuels and foreign oil. You can help to keep our air cleaner, our children healthier, our city greener. You can install a solar system on your rooftop. Some of your neighbors have already done it!

And if you don't own control over your rooftop, you can still do your part by saving energy and choosing to purchase green utility power instead of the standard polluting variety.