Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger joined Southern California Edison officials today on the rooftop of ProLogis in Fontana to announce the nation’s largest rooftop solar installation project ever proposed by a utility company. It will place 250 megawatts of advanced photovoltaic generating technology on 65 million square feet of unused commercial buildings’ rooftops in Southern California-that’s enough clean power to serve 162,000 average Southern California homes.

“These are the kinds of big ideas we need to meet California’s long-term energy and climate change goals,” said Governor Schwarzenegger. “I urge others to follow in their footsteps. If commercial buildings statewide partnered with utilities to put this solar technology on their rooftops, it would set off a huge wave of renewable energy growth.”

That’s from a recent press release which even includes some video of the event.

I’m not a fan of some of Schwarzenegger’s political history, but is by far one of the most vocal and proactive governors in regards to environmental issues, and huge advocate of solar energy. The fact that he’s taking an interesting in this sort of thing is reassuring, as he’s tends to bring a fair amount of publicity to everything he gets involved with. Hopefully it will peak the interest of others in the political game (and of course famous people, everyone loves knowing what famous people are into…apparently).

His Million Solar Roofs plan from back in 2006 is definitely a huge step in the right direction when it comes to energy use and incorporating new technology (in this case solar roofing, and potential credits on energy bills for any excess energy fed back into the grid).

I’m really hoping this program, and other like it, really start to stick. It sounds more and more like people are starting to get the right ideas…it’s just a matter of time before the “tipping point” of pushing solar and/or other alternative engeries more than the current set of non-renewable energy sources that are most widely used. And once that happens (and I think/hope it will be within the next 15-20 years), it will be a great achievement. For the first time since as long as I can remember, I actually can’t wait to learn about what Schwarzenegger will be up to next.

Support Solar Hype: