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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June 28, 2010
Two steps forward, one step back.
Yes, sometimes it feels like competing in a three-legged race with someone who’s been placing bets on the opposition. But this is not a race we can afford to give up - not if we truly want clean energy and a stabilized climate to characterize our age and future ages.
So even at a time when the BP oil disaster is turning the Gulf of Mexico into the world’s biggest deep-frying pan, and even as the country begins to wake up to the fact that the natural gas industry is poisoning the air and water in 34 states to extract natural gas from the ground*, we still find ourselves fighting entrenched interests for whom energy and climate considerations come a very distant second to quarterly profits and re-election.
Solar Nation monitors activities and developments both in Congress and at state level to find suitable openings for advocacy actions on energy and climate bills. It’s at the state level where many renewable portfolio standards and emissions limits first become law, and also where some of the fiercest fights to advance clean energy occur.
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June 28, 2010
You’ve heard from us several times about Property-Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) programs, those innovative financing plans that are spreading rapidly across the country from their birthplace in Berkeley, California. In a PACE program a city or regional authority raises funds, often with a tax-free bond, and citizens apply to have solar arrays installed on their property at no initial cost to themselves. The municipal authority pays for the installation and recovers its expenditure from homeowners through property taxes over a lengthy period.
These programs have proved so popular that the enabling legislation has spread to some sixteen states, but now the ever-popular banking industry threatens to throw a wrench in the works. It seems that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are moving toward prohibiting their mortgagors from participating in PACE programs.
Rosalind Jackson and Annie Carmichael of Vote Solar have written in Greentechmedia about this threatening tactic. As you will see from their excellent article, this groundbreaking way of funding clean energy and energy efficiency is in danger of being proscribed by banking concerns. And that really concerns us.
We’ll keep you posted.
June 28, 2010
Would you like to show others how you solarized your home or business?
The world’s largest grass roots solar event, the American Solar Energy Society’s National Solar Tour, is open for online registration for its 15th annual tour. Most of the tours will take place on or about October 2nd, 2010.
The tour has grown from its inception into exactly the kind of event most solar-interested people want and need - a close encounter with solar installations and the people who use them. As National Solar Tour Manager Richard Burns says: “The ASES National Solar Tour is bringing families and businesses real-life examples of how their neighbors are harnessing free energy from the sun to generate electricity to warm and cool their homes and heat their water – without polluting our environment.”
If you have a solar home or business that you’d like to show off to your community, check out the Call for Hosts, Sponsors and Volunteers here.
