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The Row to Hoe Just Got Tougher

January 27, 2010

Can you help Solar Nation help the American Nation?

The need for citizens to be engaged in the fight for clean energy in today’s America just grew more acute, with the result of the recent U.S. Senate election in Massachusetts.

capitol bldg Is that a political statement that will alienate large numbers of solar citizens? It shouldn’t be, for it was meant as a cold statement of political reality, not a partisan plaint. And the cold facts are that practically the entire Congressional Republican delegation and an uncomfortable number of Democrats have decided that clean energy, energy independence, and climate regulation are not worth advancing through legislative means. It’s not even the case that senators dissatisfied with the Kerry-Boxer bill combined to offer alternative legislation, perhaps with a carbon tax instead of cap-and-trade. No serious alternative—by which we mean a bill with even a modicum of co-sponsors—was presented as a challenger. The strategy for the minority party is simply to defeat whatever initiative is out there and hand the Administration a major defeat.

It’s also clear that the minority party has been, for the last year, much more disciplined and united than the majority. One would think that a party controlling 58% of the votes in the upper chamber would be able to proceed with a fairly robust agenda, but that hasn’t been the case. Nor did the proposed energy and climate legislation especially smack of ideology; it was a long overdue attempt to exercise common sense and face up to reality. But, in a way that is endemic to our political system, parochial and personal priorities won out over farsightedness. And now that the governing party’s supermajority (which was always conditional upon the adherence of two independent senators) has disappeared, the kind of far-reaching and comprehensive energy legislation we need will be significantly more difficult to achieve. (more…)

The Solar Bill of Rights

January 27, 2010

The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), the trade association for the solar industry, recently published a ‘Solar Bill of Rights’ for the United States. The eight-point bill, reproduced below, appears not to contain any revolutionary concepts; nothing in it should appear unreasonable, irrational or excessive. Yet every one of the points listed is there because it has been, and in many cases still is being, resisted or abrogated by authority.

Of course, that other Bill of Rights—the eighteenth century one—was considered revolutionary at the time, and only in retrospect was seen to be unequivocally fair and reasonable. So if that seminal document from the early days of our nation could pass from being avant-garde to being accepted, how much more readily should these ‘solar’ rights, unquestionably fair, be accepted today?

Take a look at the Solar Bill of Rights and determine whether you feel Americans are entitled to them, whether they contain truths that are, in the words of another historic document of the time, “self-evident.” If you think so, perhaps your local and state officials need to consider adopting them too. (more…)

Gathering PACE

January 27, 2010

We wouldn’t normally revisit a subject as many times as this, but things are moving even faster than we thought on the subject of solar installations funded through property taxes.

We first reported on this phenomenon a year ago in connection with the first community to activate such a program: Berkeley, CA, in November 2008. This was, appropriately enough, the Berkeley FIRST program. By July 2009, interest in property-assessed clean energy (PACE) programs was spreading across the country, and in November last year we wrote about the efforts of the state of New York to allow for special tax financing districts as a precursor to launching their own PACE program.

Nothing succeeds like success, and there are now no fewer than eighteen states with PACE legislation on their books.* Better yet, the U.S. Department of Energy (DoE) is offering free technical assistance to local governments who are starting PACE programs with ARRA (stimulus) funds. (more…)

Maryland Finds a Way to Build Big Solar

January 27, 2010

part of Mt St mary's campus In a recent joint announcement, Constellation Energy Group and Mount St. Mary’s University of Emmitsburg, MD described plans for what could become the nation’s third largest photovoltaic power plant. The project serves as an example of the level of solar deployment that can be achieved with a favorable climate of incentives from state and federal sources.

part of Mount St. Mary’s campus

Clean Horizons

The project is being developed under Maryland’s Generating Clean Horizons initiative, which was launched a year ago to spur the development of large-scale commercial renewable energy projects. The initiative specifically calls for projects that encompass long-term power purchase agreements (PPA), under which customers would agree to purchase power at a price that is fixed, or that increments per an agreed schedule, over an extended term (in this case, twenty years).

Constellation Energy will build, own and operate the 17.1-megawatt DC, $60-million solar farm on 100 acres of Mount St. Mary’s 1400-acre campus. The university will receive income from leasing the land and will purchase 1.2 megawatts of electricity from the facility. The rest of the power will be sold to University System of Maryland under a similar PPA.

(more…)

What Happens in Pennsylvania…

December 21, 2009

What’s happening in Pennsylvania is a miniature of the clean energy battle being fought at national and international levels today (this story), as well as an example of how ordinary citizens can be energized when vital issues aren’t accorded the attention they deserve.

In November we issued an Action Alert to solar citizens in Pennsylvania about HB80, a bill that seeks to strengthen the alternative energy portfolio standard in that state to 18%, with a 3% carve-out for solar. It’s worthwhile legislation that can, if passed, give a boost to clean energy and create some 75,000 jobs in Pennsylvania between now and 2025.

The bill, introduced by House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee member Greg Vitali, has been debated and amended and is currently Greg Vitale awaiting a vote. Realistically, according to Vitali, this won’t happen until the new year—January or February, he expects. And at present, the usual suspects have lined up on both sides of the issue. Opposing the bill are electric utilities such as Pennsylvania Power and Light, coal producers like the Pennsylvania Coal Association, and the state Chamber of Commerce. Power company Exelon is pushing for a pro-nuclear amendment. On the supportive side, amongst others, are environmental groups like PennFuture, the local IBEW chapter and a veterans’ group called Operation Free.

(more…)

Don’t Mess with Them Seniors!

December 21, 2009

The Solar Nation Action Alert on Pennsylvania’s HB80 produced a reaction from a solar citizen in Pennsylvania that can serve as validation for the concept of grass roots advocacy. At a town meeting recently, Thomasville resident Annalisa Gojmerac demanded to know why HB80 had not been wholeheartedly embraced by the state legislature. The reaction of her own state representative notwithstanding, what’s noteworthy is the positive response that her enthusiasm produced from other attendees. This is how movements get started!

We’ve reproduced Annalisa’s commentary on the meeting below to show how individuals can create momentum at town level for worthwhile clean energy initiatives. And where can this momentum lead? Annalisa comments: “I don’t really know what I can do besides going to political meetings and speaking my mind about it, quoting facts about the progress of solar and wind for our communities, large or small.” (more…)

More Coal, Less Sun

December 21, 2009

The Pennsylvania story brings into focus the coal debate, and asks how much effort should be devoted to research into, and development of, clean coal. But is Solar Nation the place to be doing it?

It most certainly is, because the way we as a nation treat our future usage of coal impinges directly on solar energy’s development and deployment prospects. We currently use coal for nearly half of our electricity needs, mainly because of its low cost; this cost is, however, artificially low, thanks to government subsidies* and our failure to include harmful externalities in its price. To be charitable, let us assume that Seth Grove, the state representative referenced by Annalise Gojmerac in the above story, is not aware of those externalities. He would do well, then, to read Dexter Gauntlett’s article in Clean Edge, Inc. (jobs.cleanedge.com):

We can no longer ignore the not-so-hidden financial and human costs of coal.

To Capture or Not to Capture

If we continue to use coal without regard to its harmful effects, we mortgage our collective futures for the price of a kilowatt-hour. If we attempt to capture and neutralize its carbon emissions, it changes from one of the cheapest to one of the most expensive fuels available**—and it’s by no means certain that those emissions can be effectively neutralized or sequestered.*** More to the point, the first of these options excludes solar from a pricing perspective, while the second would soak up invaluable resources that could be used to fund R&D in clean energy and energy efficiency. (more…)

Something is (About to be) Rotten in the State of Denmark

November 29, 2009

With the UN climate change summit in Copenhagen only days away, observers a coat of arms round the world are talking less about seeing a firm emissions control treaty, with targets, come out of the meeting than a political agreement to aim for hefty reductions in the future.

This is, to say the least, disappointing. An international agreement on GHG emission reductions would, at long last, force governments to put a price on carbon, which would lead to more robust investment in clean energy solutions. These could include both utility-scale and distributed solar, as well as passive solar and energy efficiency measures. But to kick the problem down the road for another year or more would be to waste a rare opportunity, in which no fewer than 192 countries—more than 60 of which will be represented by their leaders—could have made tangible progress on international climate policy. Some twelve years after launching the Kyoto Protocol, the world’s leaders might have given us more. (more…)

Taking Our Ball and Going Home

November 12, 2009

In the first week of November, it was not just bipartisanship but basic, honest debate that took a hit in the U.S. Senate. We’re trying to restore some sanity — and adult behavior — on the Hill.

The minority members of the Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee, seeing that the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Bill was likely to pass successfully out of committee, decided en masse to boycott the planned mark-up session. As a reminder, this bill, S1733, is the Senate’s version of the energy/climate bill that passed the House in the Spring. And despite its weaknesses, it represents the one chance the country has this year of passing legislation vital to the growth of clean energy and the control of climate change.

Notwithstanding this unprecedented show of petulance, Committee Chair Barbara Boxer passed the bill out of committee, but the action of the minority, led by Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma, will make it that much more difficult to get the votes needed when the bill reaches the floor of the Senate. (more…)

New ASES Report Sees 4.5 Million Net Jobs Created by Clean Energy

October 27, 2009

So exactly how many jobs will be lost in this country, should we embrace the kind of energy and climate legislation that’s been tossed around in Congress since this spring? We’ve heard all kinds of projections of catastrophic job losses from bill opponents, should we actually see these bills become law, not to mention the mythical $1761 per household that the Administration’s climate policies would cost, according to a certain Mr. Glenn Beck.

As these words are being typed, the first of three hearings conducted by the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee this week is taking place. The first witness, Senator John Kerry (D-MA), cited several studies indicating that jobs will proliferate in a clean energy economy. He was followed by committee member Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who used his opening statement to describe his vision of a flood of jobs exiting the United States.

Congresspersons from states heavily dependent on fossil fuel production, like Tennessee, are understandably under pressure from constituents who see a swing toward clean energy as a threat to their jobs. But in wilfully seeing the employment glass as half-empty rather than half-full, these voters’ congressional legislators are doing them a disservice. They must know that when the buggy-whip business died it was because a new industry, promising large-scale employment, was growing fast. (more…)

The Row to Hoe Just Got Tougher

The Solar Bill of Rights

Gathering PACE

Maryland Finds a Way to Build Big Solar

What Happens in Pennsylvania…

Don’t Mess with Them Seniors!

More Coal, Less Sun

Something is (About to be) Rotten in the State of Denmark

Taking Our Ball and Going Home

New ASES Report Sees 4.5 Million Net Jobs Created by Clean Energy

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