Tue, Feb 26, 2008 (2:06 a.m.)

A conference attended by an estimated 2,800 people at the Rio last week provided an encouraging vision for energy production in Nevada tens of thousands of rooftops equipped with solar panels.

Las Vegas Sun reporter Phoebe Sweet attended the conference, which was sponsored by RenewableEnergyWorld.com. Much of the conference centered around solar energy, a natural topic for sun-drenched Nevada.

Sweet noted there are two new solar plants in the Las Vegas Valley, but also reported the consensus among attending renewable-energy experts that projects on a smaller scale should not be overlooked.

The perfect place for a smaller-scale project is atop a Southwestern roof. Too many thousands of them exist to even count, but most are just getting hot for eight months a year while all that energy goes to waste.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., was the conference’s keynote speaker. He emphasized the potential of rooftop solar panels, on both businesses and homes, and called upon utilities and government regulatory agencies to work together on financial incentives and universal installation standards.

Nevadans do not have to look far to see the potential for rooftop solar panels. In 2006 California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed his “Million Solar Roofs Plan” into law. The state invested $3.2 billion in the plan, and some California cities subsequently devised their own investment strategies.

Today, according to a Feb. 1 article in The New York Times, California’s initiative is paying off in many ways beyond rooftop installations, including significant private investment in solar companies and emerging solar technologies. Additionally, thousands of new jobs have been created.

Although the 2005 Nevada Legislature passed a law requiring that in-state power companies derive 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2015, small-scale solar projects that could help ensure the mandate is met have not caught on in this state.

We’d like to see our state and local governments, and utilities, homeowners and business owners, begin seeing rooftops as important sources of energy.