This is in regard to Marc Friedenberg's article ("The buzz on electricity," Sept. 23). Friedenberg states in the article that Centre County is too cloudy to generate a "significant" amount of electricity from solar power. This is false. The Penn State solar cell array is a small system -- only enough to provide energy for about half of an average home. The energy produced from solar cells is directly proportional to the area. So it is no surprise that our system with a few panels produces little solar power.

If we want to produce "significant" amounts of solar electricity at Penn State, we simply need to cover "significant" roof areas with solar cells. Other schools, such as Oberlin College in Ohio, have begun to do this. Unfortunately, unless the enormous subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy are reduced, or solar power receives financial incentives to level the playing field (as it is in a growing list of states like California, New Jersey and New York), solar energy will not be economically competitive in the United States.

Resistance to solar energy is strong. For example, the solar cell company which produced the panels for Penn State was bought by British Petroleum. Then last year, when it was producing the cheapest solar cells in the United States, British Petroleum closed it down. For comparison, in Japan where solar power is taken seriously, companies are selling solar panels that are three times more efficient for half the cost than the panels shown in Friedenberg's article.