Published on July 7th, 2009
Solar is already a source of power. Now some hope solar projects’ striking appearance can also make them a powerful marketing tool.
For the Fourth of July, concentrating solar-thermal startup eSolar programmed a quarter square mile of mirrors in Lancaster, Calif., to form the American flag and the Statue of Liberty.
The point? To celebrate Independence Day, and to help lobby for the American Clean Energy and Security Act, also known as the Waxman-Markey bill, which would enact a carbon cap-and-trade program and other emission-reduction measures if approved and signed into law. The House of Representatives passed the controversial bill last month, and the Senate is now considering it.
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Published on June 29th, 2009
As stimulus funding leads some industry insiders to think of Washington as “the new Wall Street” for green energy, some investment experts say they’re concerned about the government’s new role. “I worry about the government as a dealmaker in this space,” said Tom Bratkovitch, director of LP Capital Advisors, a consulting firm for private-equity investors, at a Thomson Reuters conference in Palo Alto, Calif., this week. “I just don’t know if the government is the best one to make decisions in this space.”
After all, the federal government has supported some technologies that have not panned out, while missing some that have ultimately been successful. The government also has a reputation for moving slowly – though the Department of Energy certainly is trying hard to get stimulus money out as quickly as possible – and the applications for the grants and loan guarantees can be extremely time-consuming. Read the rest of this entry »
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Published on June 25th, 2009
Move — to Louisiana:
According to SolarPowerRocks! Louisiana has a state tax credit of 50% for solar roof installations, the most generous state subsidy for solar — Combined with the 30% Federal tax credit for solar that we all get now; (you knew about that, right?) so in Louisiana you can put a solar roof up, paying only 20% of the cost: (30% + 50% = 80% off).
The way this credit is designed it will benefit modest homeowners the most. If you need a $25,000 system, you get the full 50%. If you need a larger system you get less than 50%, because it maxes out at $12,500.
So, if you have ten plasma tvs and a pool pump and run the A/C day and night, you won’t get as much help with running all that…but
Details:
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Published on June 23rd, 2009
The California solar market faces a serious potential roadblock next week, warns Solar Nation. The policy that allows us to roll our meter backwards when we generate more solar electricity than we use — Net Metering — is capped at 2.5 % of system peak load. Once we reach that limit, solar net metering sunsets out.
And we are now almost at that limit. If the Legislature does not extend net metering by June 30th, that solar roof you planned in a year or two might soon be unaffordable.
If you want to stop it, take action through Solar Nation: Don’t kill Net Metering!
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Published on June 22nd, 2009
As U.S. policymakers debate the best renewable policy for the country, many German experts are already convinced they know the answer: a feed-in tariff. Germany’s feed-in tariff, which offers generous set prices for renewable electricity fed into the grid, stimulated 1.5 gigawatts of new solar capacity last year, and similar programs also have boosted markets in countries such as Spain, Greece, Italy, Turkey and South Korea. All the fastest-growing solar markets in the world today have feed-in tariffs.
Gainesville, Fla., and Ontario, Canada, also recently created German-style feed-in tariffs, but the policy hasn’t yet taken hold as a U.S. state or federal policy. I recently wrote a post for Earth2Tech about the difficulties of implementing a German-style feed-in tariff in California: the policy isn’t responsive to market signals that would encourage electricity generation when and where it’s most needed, it’s more challenging to make work in places with lower conventional electricity prices and widely varying utilities with different restrictions, and it doesn’t address retail electricity or encourage customers to use less energy.
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Published on June 19th, 2009
Since even Big Solar is now advertising for help with the huge amounts of renewable energy stimulus funds suddenly gushing forth from Steven Chu’s magnificent new DOE, it’s not surprising that local communities are also unsure on how to fund their renewable projects.
Here’s some help for them, that you might want to pass along:
Next Wednesday the DOE will run a webcast on on how to access low-cost financing using Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) at 3:00PM EST on June 24, on “How to Use CREBs for Financing Renewable Energy Projects on Public Lands.”
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Published on June 11th, 2009
One of the key arguments in the denier industry here has been that the Kyoto Accord doesn’t work: Aside from the oft touted argument that
A. global warming doesn’t exist… or if it does;
B. then human activities have nothing to do with causing it…
C. or even if we do have something to do with causing it, then mere legislation can’t lower CO2 emissions
D. …or even if legislation can make countries seek out more renewable power; then any non-fossil energy just doesn’t ‘work’ somehow.
So ever since most of the civilized world signed Kyoto, there has been a constant drumbeat from all the No We Can’t Think Tanks like the American Enterprise Institute or CATO propelling the idea that Europe is failing to meet the Kyoto goals.
Never mind that to be short of a 2010 goal in 1998 is no indication of failure. But now 2010 is within sighting distance.
And as they sing it in that great American musical South Pacific: If you don’t have a dream…? If you don’t have a dream? How… can you - make a - dream come true?”
This week we have news of yet another Kyoto nation to not just make its Kyoto dream come true - but to…
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Published on May 12th, 2009
Editor’s note: This post is a contribution by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. See his last post on electric vehicle charging infrastructure or all of his previous posts here. A companion piece was also posted on RedGreenandBlue.org earlier today.
San Francisco is a city that knows how to recycle. We work hard to give new life to our paper, bottles, cans and other waste.
New statistics released today show we are keeping 72 percent of all discards from going to the landfill – up from 70 percent the year before.
That’s a big leap for one year. The most significant gains came from the recycling of material from building sites – due in large part to our 2006 mandatory Construction and Demolition Debris Recovery Ordinance.
By requiring builders to recycle debris from construction projects, we were able to divert tens of thousands of new tons of material away from the landfill. This ordinance is unique in that it doesn’t require deposits or bonds, making it small business-friendly and limiting the amount of bureaucracy needed to implement the program.
When it comes to our recycling programs, we’re always in the development phase. In order to meet our ambitious goal of 75 percent recycling by 2010 and zero waste by 2020, we are constantly looking for additional materials to recycle, and for emerging markets to make use of our recyclables.
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Published on March 20th, 2009
A measure calling for 400 megawatts of solar power on city-owned property in Los Angeles has officially failed. After a final tally, the city clerk’s office announced Thursday evening that voters rejected Measure B by a narrow 1 percent margin, with “yes” votes trailing 2,644 votes behind the “no” votes.
The announcement ends more than two weeks of suspense. Voters went to the polls March 3, but the result of the solar measure remained too close to call as provisional, late and write-in ballots had to be carefully counted.
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Published on March 5th, 2009
Last night was a long one for Los Angeles solar aficionados, and the wait’s not over yet. The fate of Measure B, which calls for the LA utility to install 400 megawatts of solar power on city-owned property, is still too close to call after Angelenos cast their ballots Tuesday.
At last count, the measure appeared to be on the verge of failing, with the “No” votes ahead by 1,322 votes — a narrow 0.6 percent — and only one precinct, with about 156 ballots, left unreported. But supporters still have a chance, as thousands of late, provisional and write-in ballots have yet to be tallied.
At stake is the only piece of Solar LA, an ambitious 1.3-gigawatt solar plan that newly reelected Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled in November, put to a public vote.
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