August 30, 2010
This year’s Congressional elections are officially of the “off-year” or “mid-term” variety, which I find a little disappointing, since without a presidential race I will not have the opportunity to root for my longtime presidential candidate of choice, Vermin Supreme.
Not that there aren’t plenty of incumbents and candidates this election cycle whose positions and prejudices are in the same league of wackiness as would-be President Supreme; and in their case, it’s a more worrying phenomenon since they are actually serious candidates and don’t seem to be aware of the outlandlishness of their platforms.
However, absent the distraction of an overarching presidential contest, we can focus our attention on the senators and representatives and their challengers who’ll be on the soapbox this Fall. And it behooves us as responsible voters to know as much as possible before November about their positions on the issues that matter to us.
Here, for those of you who want to hunt down and compare the official statements and independent evidence of contestants’ positions this election season, are several useful resources:
The Solar Nation advocacy page:
- Go to http://capwiz.com/re-action/home/
- Click on Find Election info and Candidates
- Use the ‘My Races’, ‘Find a Candidate’, or ‘Browse Races by State’ box to locate the relevant candidates and incumbents.
- Click ‘On the issues’ (opens in a new tab); this will take you off the Solar Nation site to the candidate’s site.
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August 30, 2010
Plus if you act now……
We thought we’d get your attention with that headline, but in some parts of America it’s an accurate statement.
Warning: math. follows.
Here’s the Washington D.C. home of Russ Gaskin and Bernadette Morales Gaskin and their family, with its newly installed 7-kW PV array.
The installation is expected to cover 60% - 80% of their electrical needs. Total dollar hit? According to the Gaskins’ numbers (see below), around zero…
Project cost (inc. installation, permitting, etc.) $36500
less 30% Federal investment tax credit $10950
less DC Renewable Energy Incentive Program rebate $17260
Net cost $ 8290
Have I got a deal for you…
As for that eight thousand dollar balance, the Gaskins will be able to recoup that by selling the Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SREC)* they will earn from their generation of clean energy. While they could do this in a somewhat speculative way by finding buyers on the spot market and taking advantage of variable SREC prices, they’re also thinking seriously about locking in this income stream by entering into an agreement with an SREC aggregator, Sol Systems LLC. (more…)
August 30, 2010
If you haven’t already heard it, you will likely hear a great deal in the run-up to November’s elections about what a dismal failure the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA - aka ‘the Stimulus’) has been. Pundits, pandits and would-be’s of all stripes are lining up to point out how few of the many billions of dollars allocated by the federal govenment have actually been spent.
This was actually fairly close to the truth until a few months ago, but for that we should, perhaps, be grateful. Because the ARRA funds were never meant to be loaded onto dump trucks in small bills and emptied out on the lawns of statehouses, no questions asked. At a briefing held by the National Association of State Energy Officials in the U.S. Capitol in July, it was pointed out that the ‘watchdog’ provisions of the act meant that each state had to have approval processes, permits, contracts and other legal provisions completely in place, and work satisfactorily completed, before any money percolated down from Washington to state programs. And it’s highly appropriate that this briefing focused on the use of ARRA funds for energy-related programs, since it was followed a month later by a very encouraging report by Vice President Biden on the impact of ARRA funds on energy innovation. (more…)
August 30, 2010
Interest in the National Solar Tour, staged by the American Solar Energy Society every year, has rocketed upward in the last twelve months. At time of writing, this year’s event will feature well over 600 tours - an amazing increase from last year’s total of less than 250.
The ASES National Solar Tour is the world’s largest grassroots solar event, in which homeowners and businesses invite visitors into their living or working spaces to see how they are using solar and other sustainable technologies. It’s estimated that more than 160,000 participants will visit some 5,500 buildings in 3,200 communities across the U.S. this year.
Most of the tours will take place on Saturday October 2nd. You can find details of tours near you here.
Richard Burns, National Solar Tour Director, says: “the ramp-up in interest from tour organizers in recent years is stunning. This, and the increase in visitors to solar homes on the tours, seem to confirm what we’ve felt at ASES for a long time - that there’s a great thirst in this country for practical information about solar solutions. People go on solar tours to find out what works and doesn’t work, what systems might cost, what financial help they might get from government bodies, and what cost savings they might enjoy.” (more…)
August 30, 2010
…might not stay in California. Back in May, we told our Californian readers about the bald-faced attempt by (mainly) out-of-state oil companies to overturn the Golden State’s anti-pollution law, AB32.
It’s time to spread the word around a little, in case this particular plague starts coming east. Forewarned is forearmed.
AB32, known as the ‘Global Warming Solutions Act’, enjoys broad bipartisan support in the Golden State. It aims to reduce California’s carbon emissions by some 15% by 2020, without – contrary to the propaganda issuing from the ballot initiative orchestrated by those oil companies – costing businesses or individuals thousands of dollars more on their electricity bills.
That ballot initiative, by the way, is known as Proposition 23, the ‘California Jobs Initiative’. Catchy title, but you wouldn’t expect it to have a name like ‘Oil Company Profits Retention’ or ‘Pollution Maintenance’ initiative, would you? And the organizers’ tactic - a proposal simply to put the law on hold until unemployment in the state drops and stays below 5.5% - would sound reasonable were it not for the fact that the law is expected to lead to substantial growth in clean energy jobs. But why 5.5%? Perhaps it’s because that figure has only been reached three times in the last thirty years, which would effectively put AB32 into abeyance for years to come. (more…)
July 29, 2010
An anecdote, to start with…
A colleague, on a recent visit to Washington DC, found himself in conversation with a recently retired, well-known and -respected U.S. senator. He took the opportunity to ask him what it would take for a congressman to vote for an issue that he knew in his heart was right for the country and the planet, irrespective of partisan attachments and personal considerations. The retired senator (whom, in order not to betray a trust, we will not name, but who is known as a strong supporter of energy independence) replied that only when the congressman no longer needed an influx of money, e.g., after he had decided not to run for office again, might this happen. Until then he would always vote in accordance with his source of funding, working hard to produce whatever arguments were needed to justify his vote.
Lamentably, the above is probably not particularly surprising to readers. The pernicious influence of ‘big money’ in politics (one would say ‘campaigns’ except that campaigns seem to be a permanent condition of politics today) is well known, but it’s sobering to hear a veteran legislator sympathetic to renewable energy confirm, in effect, that until our industry can throw money at his former colleagues with as much abandon as does the fossil fuel industry, then that latter industry can absolutely count on congressional votes in its favor. What works for the country, what is needed for the health of the planet, what can revitalize American jobs and create new industries here will always lose out to the demands of the campaign chest.
Unless… (more…)
July 29, 2010
Around the world, there are more and more indicators to be seen of the dramatic effect of government policy on solar power development. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, since the whole purpose of policy is to further the political philosophy of government; what’s surprising and unsettling to Americans is the extent to which policy in other countries is driving unprecedented levels of renewable energy deployment, while theirs is mired in minimizing the number of interest groups it offends.
Where Policy Works
Italy, for example, is another country that has adopted a policy of feed-in tariffs to drive solar PV growth, along with Germany, Spain, France, the UK, and many others. According to renewable energy industry analyst Paul Gipe, Italy’s previous policy of tradable green certificates had been found to be ineffective, and the switch was made in February 2007. By the end of that year, the country had installed five times more solar PV than in the previous year, and in 2009 installed more than the entire U.S. By the end of the first quarter of 2010, Italy’s total installed PV capacity exceeded that of the U.S., putting the country second only to Germany in the world for PV market size. (more…)
July 29, 2010
How much of our need for power could we actually satisfy with renewable energy in America?
Today, renewables account for less than 10% of our electricity supply, most of that in the form of large-scale hydro; (check out the National Academies web site here). But many studies have been done in recent years, either on specific technologies or renewables in general, to indicate how much they could contribute to our energy demand. Scott Sklar of the Stella Group has assembled and interpreted some of these studies, and the menu of potential clean energy contributions is very impressive. We would be more impressed if a side order of political will were available to actually bring these solutions to the table. Absent that, what you see below may just be an a la carte listing of missed opportunities.
We hope that’s not the case.
Energy Self-Reliant States
“All 36 states with either renewable energy goals or renewable energy mandates could meet them by relying on in-state renewable fuels. 64% could be self-sufficient in electricity from in-state renewables; another 14% could generate 75% of their electricity from homegrown fuels. Indeed, the nation may be able to achieve a significant degree of energy independence by harnessing the most decentralized of all renewable resources: solar energy. More than 40 states plus the District of Columbia could generate 25% of their electricity just with rooftop PV. In fact, these data may be conservative. The report does not, for example, estimate the potential for ground photovoltaic arrays – although it does estimate the amount of land needed in each state to be self-sufficient relying on solar – even though common sense suggests that this should dwarf the rooftop potential….. It is at the local level that new technologies like smart grids, electric vehicles, distributed storage, and rooftop solar will have their major impact.”
from Energy Self-Reliant States
published by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance
October 2009, updated May 2010
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July 29, 2010
“When it’s cheaper.” “When it’s cheaper.” “When it’s cheaper.”
That’s a familiar and understandable refrain heard from people debating the best time to go ahead with solar power. But cheaper than what? Right now it would be cheaper than new nuclear, at least in North Carolina, according to a report co-authored and issued this month by the former chancellor of Duke University, Dr. John Blackburn.
The Historic Crossover
The report, Solar and Nuclear Costs - The Historic Crossover, was commissioned by North Carolina Waste Awareness and Reduction Network (NC WARN) to highlight the changing economic underpinnings of both solar and nuclear power. The report’s major finding was that electricity from new solar installations in North Carolina is now cheaper than the electricity that would come from proposed new nuclear plants there. It also found that the continuing downward trend of solar prices will widen the price gap dramatically as time progresses. (more…)
June 28, 2010
It all started in February with a solar blogger, Tom Valenza (@SolarFred), who proposed the idea that the 44th president should install solar panels on the White House roof, as the 39th had done back in 1979. The idea was taken up in April by a commercial company, Sungevity, which offered to donate the entire $100,000+ system (if the White House decided on a purchase plan) or lease it over ten years at a monthly rate of $537.
The President himself has said he thinks this is a ‘great idea’, and the White House has pinned its decision largely on the amount of public support the idea garners. It’s for this reason that Sungevity launched the ‘Globama’ campaign, calling for Americans to sign a petition urging President Obama to go ahead with the project. At time of writing, the campaign is well over half-way toward its target of 10,000 signatures.
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