I hope that Gov. Paul LePage will veto solar power bill LD 1504, and that the Legislature sustains the veto. That bill subsidizes customers who install solar panels for another 15 years. During that time period, thanks to Sun Cell and other emerging technologies, current roofing panels are likely to become obsolete. Mainers will be stuck paying for obsolete technology.

Solar panel installations are competitive in California and Hawaii due to electric rates approaching 40 cents per kWh. Mainers pay 13.6 per kilowatt-hour. That includes a 1.45 cents per kilowatt-hour surcharge (11.65 percent of the total bill) to support renewable energy programs. Mainers cannot afford to pay such high electric rates just to make the solar industry competitive.

Brilliant Light Power recently announced it has a new solar panel technology that will be released to the market in 2018. The Sun Cell is 50,000 times more efficient than standard solar panel applications. It has replicated the sunlight wavelength, right here on Earth, with the aid of a continuous burning white plasma. They are encapsulating the white plasma with common solar panels. It is the renewable energy breakthrough of the century and it will not require a subsidy due to the low cost and high yield.

Such technologies will bring down Maine’s electric costs. I hope that the Legislature will follow Gov. LePage’s veto lead and kill LD 1504.

Michael Brakey, New Gloucester

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