Personal pledges: a CLF supporter "walks the walk" through clean energy.

• Position: Conservation Law Foundation - Brief article

Recycle. Turn off the lights. Cut down on car trips. When asked, most people can name important ways to cut energy use and be more environmentally conscious. Others, like CLF supporter Sara Molyneaux, are taking their environmental commitment to bold and innovative levels: This past year, Sara, who also serves on the CLF Board of Trustees, demonstrated her passion for energy conservation by installing three arrays of photovoltaic panels on her lawn to generate much of the energy consumed by her family of four.

The arrays each support ten solar panels (shown right) which can generate 6.5 Kilowatts of electricity, and use a single axis tracker system, allowing the panels to follow the sun's trajectory. Essentially a small power plant, the arrays work on a "net metering" system, whereby the kilowatts generated are used first to meet electric requirements (e.g., appliances, lights) in Sara's Dover, MA home. If more electricity is produced from the solar panels than the home needs, the extra kilowatts are fed into the utility grid.

Sara's interest in solar energy began years ago, she says, while...