A state legislative effort headed up by an Upper Peninsula Republican seems to be in the right track, as far as solar energy generation is concerned.

State Sen. Ed McBroom of Waucedah Township, along with a downstate Democrat, has introduced bills encouraging the building and regulation of solar centers to help power entire small communities.

A front page story in today’s Mining Journal has details.

In a nutshell, together the measures, if approved, will set up a statutorial roadmap on how such projects would be established and operated.

“I think that renewables in general are much more efficient and practical on a small scale than they are on the large industrial scale and that the state should be promoting that much more than large wind farms and large solar arrays,” McBroom said for today’s story.

Escanaba has a leg up in this area, building a working community solar farm about 5 years ago. Owned and operated by the city’s utility company, electrical customers have the ability to purchase one or more solar panels, which are located at the Delta County Airport on the outskirts of town.

The value of the electricity that’s produced by the panels is directly credited to the customer’s bill.

Everybody wins.

“There’s a lot of opportunities, a lot of communities have some space whether it’s out by their airport or former industrial land, and if the citizens would like to see solar generation put on that and help save some energy costs for both their government and them as residents, these bills hopefully that up to be much more practical than it is right now,” McBroom said.

We agree and would add that it is heartening to see state lawmakers engaged in the public’s business in a way that actually benefits the public, never mind the continual waging of the cultural wars.

We hope these bills, which have been moved to the Committee on Energy and Environment, continue to find bipartisan support.