I just read an article online about Freiburg, Germany and came away thinking this could be a model for how small cities and towns could manage there renewable initiatives. First I must mention that Freiburg’s voting district is lead by Germany’s Green party and as you might expect has a local government that is very green friendly with respect to encouraging and even mandating that it citizen’s and business adopt alternative energy solutions.
Freiburg likes to be known as “Solar City”. The town hall and the football stadium, swimming pools and the train station boast mirrors to create solar power. New houses have to consume a third less energy than German law requires.Now i know it seems that our local governments are not going to pursue this aggressive approach to mandating renewables but I think that Freiburgs model would be a good place to start. As I look forward to a changing energy policy in our federal government I am hoping local governments can adopt there own grass roots approach’s to tackle there energy needs with renewables.
1. City and town buildings should be powered by solar.
2. Where ever possible to mandate that all publicly owned vehicles with exception of first responders be hybrids or even electric cars.
3. If the geography would allow to consider wind turbines and or wind farms
4. Utilizing landfill’s for either capturing methane or erecting a solar farm
I understand our country is in a recession and local cities and towns are feeling the pinch but if our President is truly committed to make renewables a major part of his administrations agenda it has to start at the local level and what better time than now.