Cerro Gordo County Clean Energy District to hold informational meeting about residential solar

MASON CITY — The Cerro Gordo County Clean Energy District will be holding an informational meeting on Thursday night on installing residential solar energy systems.

The organization president Don Hofstrand says their group focuses on moving Cerro Gordo County towards locally-owned clean energy. “We’re not involved with the big solar farms and so forth, we’re focused on individuals owning their own system and getting clean energy that way.  We’re focusing on things like solar and geothermal and energy efficiency, and other types of things.”

Hofstrand says the meeting focuses on residential solar.  “We have three people lined up who are already have installed solar on their homes and they are going to talk about their experiences, positive and negative, of going solar and putting solar on their own homes.”

Hofstrand says solar technology has improved through the years.  “Solar panels are much more efficient than they were previously, and more importantly, the price of solar has gone down to a very low level. Right now, solar is probably the cheapest source of energy of any of the other alternatives. So this is a good way, if you are interested in putting solar in your home, is to eliminate that bill every month that you get for natural gas or whatever you use.”

Thursday night’s meeting goes from 7:00 to 9:00 and will take place in the Mason City Room at the Public Library.