It is reported in Columbia Daily Tribune that solar power supply is growing day by day in Columbia.
Columbia began its solar projects in 2008 and the objective is producing 1% of electricity by solar power. Quaker Oats and Dow Chemical were the first two companies to install solar panels. A creative way is to divide 10 kilowatts of energy produced by solar panels into 140 blocks and offered the customers a piece of solar power, pure green power. People can use the solar power without making the rest of the city pay for it. So the solar power supply in this city is growing.
The price is not too pricey. An annual cost for per 100 kilowatt-hour block is $ 48. And some technologies improvements make the costs lower to $ 40. Now solar power is 42 cents per kilowatt-hour in this city. Some supplier can low it to 25 cents or 37 cents.
Dick Parker, a man of the city's Environment and Energy Commission, said that the key point is capacity of production. And in his mind more solar portfolio should be built to meet people's needs.
In some area of Africa, there are still many people use kerosene lamps for lighting now. And these lamps are harmful to the users' eyes, especially the children.
A local company and a Chinese company cooperate with each other to make a new kind of new lights powered by the Sun and named them as Sunlite Kit. And so far, it seems that they achieve success. These new lights are welcomed by almost everyone. Children are able to do their homework in a luminous environment. The director even presents the lights to each of his employees for a Christmas gift. The only disadvantage for the new lights is the cost: they are too expensive for the families.
