September 30, 2010
When meeting your prospective in-laws, they say, stay off politics and religion. And if you’re in the renewable energy game, add feed-in-tariffs to that list. The payment scheme popularized in Germany, Spain, Italy and a growing number of countries has fierce proponents who point to the unprecedented number of solar power installations it has caused to be deployed; it also has detractors who consider it the most expensive way imaginable of growing the solar market.
Ontario launched its feed-in tariff a year ago, and in this Toronto Star article, Tyler Hamilton describes it as a success, while expressing reservations about how large such a scheme could become without overburdening the grid or the public’s purse.
For those interested in following this argument in depth, you can also check out Paul Gipe’s Wind-Works site.
September 29, 2010
The 15th. ASES National Solar Tour is coming to a community near you this weekend!
With a few exceptions, solar tour organizers have scheduled their tours for this Saturday, and you can find the tour nearest you here. Take a trip around the world’s largest grassroots solar event, in which homeowners and business owners show visitors how they’re using solar and other sustainable technologies.
Late breaking news: for the first time ever, there will be a tour in all fifty states and the District of Columbia, not to mention Mexico and the Virgin Islands. And while St. John, V.I. comes in as the furthest south and furthest east of all the tours, Alaska can claim the furthest north and west sites. In between them there are some 650 separate tours covering 5500 buildings, and showing the phenomenal extent of solar power in everyday life.
You won’t find a better forum anywhere for asking real-life solar users about the practicalities of installing and using solar power. So go on a tour and ask away!
September 29, 2010
Nobody wants Big Government, except when they do. Right?
And the Stimulus Act was an absolute failure. Right? (Check out last month’s report here before you answer).
In fact, it would be a win-win situation if our Big Government could reinvigorate two specific aspects of the Stimulus Act (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009). One is the Treasury Grant Program (TGP), the other is the Manufacturing Investments Tax Credit Program (MITC).
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Click graph for larger, more detailed version.
The Treasury Grant Program (TGP)
It took a lot of work and support from solar advocates to get the 30% federal investment tax credit (ITC) for renewable energy uncapped and extended a couple of years back, and no sooner had this important milestone been reached when the deteriorating economic situation robbed many companies of the tax appetite that would have made the credits valuable to them. So in 2009 the Government used ARRA to create the Treasury Grant Program, which allows, for example, the owner of a commercial solar property to receive a 30% grant in lieu of taking the ITC.
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September 29, 2010
Another program that may require the good offices of a lame-duck ‘extenders’ package is the Department of Energy’s Loan Guarantee Program (LGP). This program, a creation of the 2005 Energy Policy Act, was meant to provide Government backing for private investment in renewable energy projects. It brought with it, however, such a long ‘due diligence’ administrative tail that the actual results are less than impressive. Nonetheless, under Energy Secretary Chu the program has finally begun to issue grants, freeing private capital on behalf of much-needed clean energy, energy efficiency and advanced transmission projects. As of this writing, fourteen grants have been announced, four of them final (to a total value of $800 million) and the rest conditional. These loan guarantees help to ensure that larger loans from private sources can be secured for the projects.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 allocated six billion dollars to the LGP in an attempt to accelerate deployment of renewable energy projects. But it may have been the slow pace of grant issuance that led to the ‘raiding’ of more than half of that amount by other, unrelated government programs. First, two billion dollars were siphoned off for last year’s ‘Cash for Clunkers’ program. And only last month, an additional $1.5 billion were taken to help fund the FAA Air Modernization and Safety Improvement Act. These actions put at risk some $40-$55 billion of private investment funding.
For those wondering how the Government truly regards renewable energy, the term ‘slush fund’ might be appropriate.
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September 29, 2010
The news that solar power is cheaper than new nuclear power plants in North Carolina seems to have gotten around – at least to the company that had been considering building the latter in the Tar Heel State.
In July we reported on the study co-authored by the former chancellor of Duke University, Dr. John Blackburn, which found that electricity from new solar installations in North Carolina was cheaper than that which would come from proposed new nuclear plants. Now Progress Energy, who had planned two new reactors at its Shearon Harris site in Wake County, is instead considering nuclear payment alternatives that include joint financing and co-ownership with other power companies, according to the News & Observer of North Carolina.
The company cites a 75% downward revision of its projections for power needs in 2021 as the prime reason for its decision, but we can’t help believing that planners at Progress must also be considering the unenviable position they would be in, eleven years on, if their newly completed nuclear plant could not compete on the spot electricity market with the mass of solar installations that had come on line in the meantime.
According to the News & Observer story, while the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is still reviewing 16 applications for a total of 25 reactors, Progress has also announced a delay in plans for two reactors in Florida, and two other power companies have cancelled plans for three reactors.
