14 DAY TRIAL // With the help of Mercer County Improvement Authority, an organization that is in the businesses of helping local communities carry out public works in their area, the Mercer County Community College (MCCC) is seriously considering installing an 8 Megawatt solar system on campus.
Ever since the beginning of the Great Recession in 2008, the government has continually cut down on the funds that were supposed to go into education.
This means that public schools, community colleges and universities throughout the USA had to find ways of dealing with their expenses on their own.
Having looked into the matter, Mercer County Community College reached the conclusion that by using solar energy as its main source of electricity, costs will be diminished by approximately 70%. Money-wise, this means that annual electricity bills will be dropped by $750,000.
Not spending so much money on electricity means that MCCC will no longer be faced with having to re-think its plan for the activities in which they want to involve their students.
As well as this, students with poor financial resources will continue to receive the support they need to carry on with their education.
Besides these rather practical outcomes, MCCC can now take pride in having taught its students what an environmentally-friendly lifestyle is all about.
After all, MCCC's main purpose is education, and teaching young people to live in harmony with the natural world should come as a priority for each and every respectable such institution.
According to SmartPlanet, other universities in the USA have also embraced solar energy as a means to cut down on their administrative expenses. Some of these are the United States Air Force Academy, Arizona State University and Colorado State University.
For the time being, we can only hope that these rather isolated cases will soon turn into a national trend and that, not far from now, most of America's public institutions will resort to solar energy.