In the late 1800s and early 1900s, UW-Madison was an international leader in the first renewable energy to produce electricity for the public — hydropower. During some of those years, the Wisconsin River was known as the hardest working river in the world because it produced so much electricity.
Now Wisconsin lags behind in renewables production when we most need it. UW-Madison should publicly seek to become the first large campus to become fossil-fuel free and a major center for solar research. If an institution is formed to do this, it should be named after Farrington Daniels, a UW scientist and international pioneer in solar research. Some great brief biographies about him are online. His wife, Olive Bell Daniels, wrote a 540-page book about him that was published in 1958, titled “Farrington Daniels: Chemist and Prophet of the Solar Age.“
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If former Wisconsin U.S. Sens. Bob La Follette and Gaylord Nelson have institutions on campus named after them, Daniels should have one, too. Wisconsin is sitting on and trying to decide how to spend billions of dollars. This would be a wise way for the state to spend some of it.
Steve Kokette, Madison
This post was originally published on here
