Is Residential Solar Power A Good Fit for Brownsville?

From the editor:  This article will not be a comprehensive dissertation, a definitive study on solar power. We simply raise the possibility and the potential for converting the sun's rays into electricity in Brownsville, Texas.

With Brownsville's latitude, 25.9303 N, roughly the same as Miami's, one might assume that the more direct rays of the sun this location receives would make conversion to solar power a no-brainer.  Not exactly. As the map in the upper left indicates, Brownsville's capacity for the rays of the sun to be converted into electrical energy is good, but not great, compared to other parts of the country.  

Latitude, coupled with atmospheric conditions, cloud cover, humidity and other factors all combined determine the capacity for solar power.  Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Southern California and West Texas have the greatest opportunity in the United States to convert the sun's rays into electrical power.

Solar technology is not cheap, but the individual states offer a wide range of incentives to share the burden.  After incentives, it costs $3,552 in Louisiana to outfit the average residence with a solar system, but $38,428 in South Dakota.  In Texas, the average final cost is $17,088.

How much will solar panels save the average consumer?  That also varies greatly.  $270 per month in Hawaii, $143 in California, $87 in Texas.  With a great variance in climates, Texas can't accurately be represented by a single figure.

Out in West Texas and the southwest U.S. the air is much dryer than in Brownsville, Houston and Corpus Christi.  An evaporative cooler, taking FAR less energy than an air conditioner, can lower the ambient or inside temperature by twenty degrees with a contraption consisting of a fan, a filter with water trickling across it, inside a box.  These so-called "swamp coolers" are used successfully in the Southwest including west Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, etc. Brownsville, where air conditioning is now nearly a year round necessity does not get off so lightly on energy use for cooling.

Another obvious consideration is the current cost of electricity on the grid.  California averages 13.5 cents per kilowatt hour, Hawaii 34 cents, Texas 8.55 cents and Louisiana 6.9 cents.  Currently P.U.B. charges 5.2 cents up to 500 kilowatts and 7.1 over 500 kilowatts usage.