Once again, Solar getting dropped. Worth getting mad about.

Congressional leadership has done an about-face. After a year of unsuccessful attempts to get Congress to authorize long-term extensions to solar energy investment tax credits by enclosing the measures in energy bills and economic stimulus packages, Speaker Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Reid had been planning to include these measures in the Iraq War supplemental legislation. We now understand that they may decide to drop the renewable energy provisions from this bill.

This is a serious setback and will mean great hardship for the solar energy community. Spending $110 billion for security in Iraq without spending a dime on energy security in the United States does nothing to advance us as a renewable energy society.

Read more and take action here!

Solar Tax Credits Redux

So much for that idea…..

After three unsuccessful tries by the House of Representatives in the last year, the U.S. Senate made its own attempt this month to pass legislation to extend tax credits for renewable energy installations and energy efficiency. The bill introduced by U.S. Sens. Cantwell and Ensign became an amendment to the Senate’s comprehensive housing bill (HR 3221), and passed the Senate by 88 votes to 8* on April 10. Included in the bill were $6.6 billion in tax credits for renewables, and a lifting of the $2000 cap on residential solar installations.

What was not included in it, unfortunately, was a method of funding the tax credits, and we now hear that the House has no intention of passing a bill without such “pay-fors”.

With earlier attempts the initial impetus came from the House, and the stumbling block for the Senate was always the source of funding for the tax credits–reducing some of the government subsidies enjoyed by the oil and gas industry. In this case it was a Senate-originated bill with no identified source of funding, and a week after it passed the upper chamber, that lack of revenue base sealed its doom. (more…)

Where there is no vision, the people perish

Proverbs 29:18

In the Massachusetts vacation spot known as Cape Cod there’s a grass roots group by the name of Clean Power Now, which sprang up five years ago to support a developer’s plans to build the country’s first offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound. The group came into existence to counter the increasingly hysterical propaganda of groups opposed to the proposed wind farm, which Clean Power Now founders suspected was rooted in the desire of well-heeled washashores to protect their ocean views. Seeing the value of a utility-scale clean energy facility so close to a population center, those founders quickly developed a slogan for their organization, which can still be seen today on tee shirts and bumper stickers in the Bay State:

It’s Not the View, It’s the Vision.

Vision. It’s a word and a concept well worth considering in this time of stumbling starts for the renewable energy revolution. Since a reasonable dictionary definition of the word is ‘the ability to think about or plan the future with imagination and wisdom’, why is it that true vision seems to elude those in our society charged with that task—our leaders in government? Why does an average citizen with a little understanding of energy and environmental issues seem to have a firmer grasp of the imperatives of clean energy development than half of the U.S. Senate? (more…)

Clunk! Solar Tax Credit Roller Coaster off the Rails

Roller coasters have, by design, a multitude of ups and downs, but it’s comforting even to thrill-seekers to know they rarely become completely derailed. The roller coaster that represents the latest iteration of the Congressional energy bill, however, has finally done that.

The news from Washington is that the House of Representatives has no intention of moving forward with the “Cantwell-Ensign” clean energy provisions that the Senate made part of their comprehensive housing bill in early April (see ‘News from the Hill’ below). House Democratic leadership does not believe:

• that energy provisions should be included in housing legislation
• that energy matters should be part of any future ‘Economic Stimulus’-type legislation
• that bills with tax titles should be passed with no identified source of funding

Unfortunately, those three characteristics well describe the clean energy amendment that Senators Cantwell and Ensign succeeded in attaching to the housing bill. (more…)

Solar Citizen Spotlight Redux

Back in August of last year, we told you about a solar citizen on Cape Cod who has worked hard to convince towns in that well-known vacation area to install PV systems on town buildings with help from grants from the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative.

Peter White’s efforts have started to pay off, as the town of Yarmouth threw the switch recently on the brand-new 10.5-kW solar array on its town hall.

Our congratulations to Peter, and to Liz Argo of Solarwrights, Inc. , who managed the installation. You can read the follow-up story, courtesy of CapeCodToday.com, by clicking here.

News from the Hill: Senate passes clean energy tax credits bill

Now it’s thank ‘n’ spank time for senators

If you’ve been wondering what happened to the bill introduced by U.S. Sens. Cantwell and Ensign that would, among other measures, extend solar investment tax credits for residential and commercial use, here’s some up-to-the-minute news.

By a vote of 88-8*, the Cantwell-Ensign language was successfully added as an amendment to the Senate’s comprehensive housing bill (HR 3221). This bill passed the Senate on Thursday April 10 with an estimated $6.6 billion in tax credits allocated to renewables, and including a lifting of the $2000 cap on residential solar installation credits.

This is a landmark development on Capitol Hill, since attempts to get the Senate this far have failed three times in the last year. Of course, on those occasions the initial impetus came from the House, and the stumbling block for the Senate was always the source of funding for the tax credits–reducing some of the government subsidies enjoyed by the oil and gas industry. In this case it’s a Senate-originated bill, with no identified source of funding, and that means that the problem this time around may be with the House. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), head of the Finance Committee’s Energy Sub-committee, has said that the House is unlikely to agree to the provisions without spending offsets.

(more…)

New Energy Bill from Senate has Good Prospects–with your help!

Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and John Ensign (R-NV) have introduced a bipartisan bill—S2821—in an attempt to break the Congressional deadlock over renewable energy tax credits. Their bill, know as the Clean Energy Tax Stimulus Act of 2008, contains much of what we’ve been fighting for over the past year, and needs a total of 61 senators to co-sponsor it, to ensure passage.

The bill is a pared-down version of previous House-originated bills that have failed to find means of financing acceptable to the Senate. It has a price tag of $7 billion, and proposes to:

• extend the investment tax credit for commercial solar power installations for 8 years
• extend the residential solar investment tax credit for one year and remove the current $2000 credit cap
• remove the exemption on utilities for claiming these tax credits
• allow the tax credit to offset alternative minimum tax
• extend incentives for energy efficiency improvements

What’s really vital is for this bill to garner enough co-sponsors in the Senate (61) to insure it against the threat of a filibuster. Could you send an e-mail today to your senator(s)’ office and urge them to get on board?
TAKE ACTION NOW! Go to this link, enter your ZIP code, and send your message.

http://capwiz.com/re-action/go/S2821

And thanks!

Nation’s Largest PV Installation Launched by S. California Edison

Southern California Edison (SCE) has launched an $875M project to install 250 megawatts of advanced PV hardware atop 65 million square feet of commercial buildings in Southern California. The project, which will represent the nation’s largest PV installation, will generate enough power to serve approximately 162,000 homes.

“This project will turn two square miles of unused commercial rooftops into advanced solar generating stations,” said John E. Bryson, Edison International Chairman and CEO. “We hope to have the first solar rooftops in service by August. The sunlight power will be available to meet our largest challenge – peak load demands on the hottest days.”

(more…)

Solar America Cities: 2nd Annual Award List Names 12 New Recipients

The U.S. Department of Energy has released the names of the twelve cities that will receive 2008 Solar America City awards.

The Solar America Cities program is part of the Bush Administration’s Solar America Initiative, an effort managed by the Department of Energy to make PV-based solar power cost-competitive with electricity generated from more conventional grid-connected sources by 2015.  Including this year’s awardees, twenty-five U.S. cities are involved in the program, committing themselves to accelerating the adoption of solar energy technologies at the local level.

The 2008 Solar America Cities are:

•  Denver, CO
•  Houston, TX
•  Knoxville, TN
•  Milwaukee, WI
•  Minneapolis - St. Paul, MN
•  Orlando, FL
•  Philadelphia, PA
•  Sacramento, CA
•  San Antonio, TX
•  San Jose, CA
•  Santa Rosa, CA
•  Seattle, WA

(more…)

They’re Coming to America

At an increasing rate, large-scale renewables plants and installations are appearing in America. Last month we reported on plans for a 280-megawatt concentrating solar power (CSP) plant to be built in Arizona by Abengoa Solar of Spain. And earlier this month, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson helped break ground near Albuquerque for a CSP and PV equipment manufacturing plant to be built by Schott AG of Germany.

image courtesy of Schott Solar 

The activity is not limited to solar. Vestas of Denmark, the world’s leading supplier of wind power solutions, is building a turbine blade plant in Windsor, Colorado. With this activity, it is in the company of such players as Gamesa of Spain (Pennsylvania), Suzlon of India (Minnesota), Siemens of Germany and U.S.-based Clipper (Iowa). And behind this group in the U.S. market are coming companies with names like Acciona, Ecotechnia and Fuhrlander. (more…)