As Pepperdine students living in sunny Malibu I feel we need to embrace the saying “When life gives you lemons make lemonade”— but in a more contemporary context. Back in 2008 my family decided to install solar panels to try to reduce our carbon footprint by generating our own electricity. Since then we haven’t paid more than $2 for our electricity bill and as the price of electricity gradually goes up the panels will pay for themselves. After having such a positive experience with solar panels it surprises me that every roof on campus isn’t covered with them turning our precious rays of sun into solar energy.
The primary reason solar panels can’t be installed is usually because of an infrastructure that can’t support them. Other people shy away from the idea of solar panels because of their hefty price tag. While our school obviously doesn’t have enough money to go completely solar overnight as students we should advocate that solar power be higher up on Pepperdine’s list of priorities.
Sadly most people tend to defer the thought of solar power as an “ideal” that has no importance especially considering how uncertain our economy has been lately. This mindset couldn’t be more flawed. One incentive my family had in purchasing solar panels was that government subsidies helped pay them off. In a sense our financial fate is in some ways tied to the University’s. If solar panels were able to save our school $200000 a year imagine how those savings might impact our tuition costs.
Nevertheless I feel like most businesses and institutions overlook the value of solar panels. An area such as Malibu (that receives 310 days of sunshine on average per year) shouldn’t pass up the opportunity to cash in on solar power. Pepperdine should take the opportunity to do so both for the environment and for students.