The Promise of the Coming Age of Rooftop Solar Coupled with White Metal Roofs in South & Central Florida
By Richard Stowe, Loxahatchee Group Energy Committee Chair
The story of Solar United Neighbors begins in 2007 when Anya Schoolman, prompted by two 12-year-olds, Walter Schoolman and Diego Arene-Morley, establishes the Mt. Pleasant Solar Co-op in Washington D.C.’s Mt. Pleasant neighborhood.
The inspiration for the 12-year-old boys to go solar grew out of watching An Inconvenient Truth, a 2007 documentary chronicling former Vice-President Al Gore’s slide show and campaign to educate the public about global warming and risks of an economy reliant on carbon fuels. The highly praised documentary led to Vice-President Gore’s 2007 Nobel Peace Prize
The Mt. Pleasant Solar Co-op yielded results; by 2009 rooftop solar was installed on 46 homes in the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood. In April 2014, the White House recognized Ms. Schoolman as one of 10 White House Champions of Change for Solar Deployment, for her work promoting rooftop solar in the D.C. area. In 2017, Ms. Schoolman founded Solar United Neighbors (SUN), a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, which promotes rooftop solar, both solar hot water heaters and photovoltaic arrays, by establishing solar co-ops nationwide.
Solar United Neighbors' mission is to “envision a clean, equitable energy system that directs control and benefits back to local communities, with solar on every roof and money in every pocket.” Solar United Neighbors facilitates the formation of neighborhood solar co-ops, which are free to join and open to home and business owners. Discounted rooftop solar panel installations are possible through group purchasing power.
The number of solar co-ops in Florida grew from two in 2016 to 56 in 2020. In Wellington, a Solar United Neighbors Co-op contractor installed solar panels and an electric car charger at Ana Cristina Maldanodo’s home in a program organized by the League of Woman Voters. After seeing solar panels on Galaxy Elementary School in Boynton Beach Nico Narvaez, Cristina’s son and elementary school student, wondered why the Palm Beach County School District hasn’t installed rooftop solar at his school, New Horizons Elementary School in Wellington, or schools throughout the District. As Nico points out: “Solar energy is the cleanest and easiest way to make renewable power in Florida. After all Florida is the Sunshine State.”
The focus of Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) at University of Central Florida, Cocoa includes research in solar energy, energy efficiency, sustainable transportation and renewable energy. Danny Parker is a principal research scientist at FSEC. Mr. Parker’s research indicates that white metal roofs reduce the number of photovoltaic (PV) panels necessary to meet Florida’s demanding cooling needs. Photovoltaic panels are easier to install on standing seam white metal roofs.