State Incentive Updates!

Published on November 10, 2007 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Legistlation, Solar State Incentives.

Ohio

New Mexico

Arizona

Florida

Texas

You are all now on board! See how well your legislature is doing at promoting solar legislation!

Leo from Lodi's Awesome Solar Power System

Published on by Dave Llorens.
Categories: solar video.

State of Vermont Solar Incentives are Up!

Published on November 8, 2007 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Vermont.

Vermont solar incentives were updated today. Lots of great links, legislative updates, and municipality info. Check them all out here!

State of New Hampshire Solar Incentives Up!

Published on by Dan Hahn.
Categories: New Hampshire, Solar Legistlation.

If you haven’t had the opportunity to travel through the state during peak leaf season, you’re missing out. Solar incentives for the state of New Hampshire have been updated. Check them out here!

State of Michigan Solar Incentives Up

Published on November 7, 2007 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Michigan, Solar Legistlation.

Nothing says Michigan like captured fireflies in front of an old red barn. I can just imagine the waves of the lake echoing off the nearby trees. Hmm. Solar incentives and programs for the state were updated last night. Check them out here.

Berkeley Passes the Kick Ass Solar Loan Program!

Published on by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Legistlation.

The Berkeley City Council met yesterday and decided to move forward on the solar power tax-based financing system that we covered two days ago. The details still have to be smoothed out (half a year?) and then anyone can install solar in Berkeley and get them to pay for their photovoltaics, and add the cost to your tax bill over 20 years. That means you don’t need cash on hand to do something that saves you money then and there. Piece of cake. It will be hard for people to ignore the possibilities now.

AWESOME!

Solar Power Rocks Interviews the man on the Street… and Conan

Published on November 6, 2007 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: solar video.

2 Days until Berkeley, CA Votes on Revolutionary Solar Legislation

Published on November 4, 2007 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Legistlation.

Ahhhh, Berkeley. Hippies, bumper stickers, bikes, activists, the guy who made this goofy solar car, the naked guy, and the state of California’s best whack at Chicago deep dish – Zachary’s pizza. I love Berkeley. I love everything about it. It’s a happy place, and it’s about to get happier.

To help with Measure G (an aggressive initiative to get an 80% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050), Tom Bates, mayor, will urge City Council to approve “Sustainable Energy Financing District,” two days from now on Nov 6. I’m excited.

This will be the most progressive city legislation concerning renewable energy in the US. It’s huge. No one has done it before. Berkeley will be fronting money for solar energy systems. They’ll PAY FOR YOUR SYSTEM and charge it back to you on your tax bill for 20 years. If successful, look for numerous other municipalities around the state and the nation to copy it.

I mean, forget compelling… This would make it so undeniably easy to determine if solar is a good financial move. People won’t be able to ignore this. If this legislation passes, it eliminates all variables from a homeowner’s decision to go solar. All a homeowner needs to do is:

1) Call an installer to come out and give them a quote on a solar system.

2) See if the increase in their property tax assessment from the system would be less or more than the power savings.

If it’s less, a homeowner goes ahead and employs the solar power system, no question, no brainer. There’s no risk anymore. Even if you sell the house, the tax liability AND the system transfer with the house! Homeowners need not worry about continuing to pay for a system they aren’t using anymore.

So now, instead of evaluating several risk factors, all you have to do is compare two numbers. If you one is bigger you buy a PV system, if it’s not, you don’t. Very rarely are there investment opportunities where you can pinpoint with such certainty what the return will be.

Some further reading on the measure here:

Berkeley Daily Planet

Sustainable Business

SF Gate

Wanna Leave Solar Net-Metering Standards up to Utilities? Here’s What You Get.

Published on November 3, 2007 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Politics.

Since the state of Arizona currently has no net metering standards, individual utilities are free to develop their own. This is a disastrous situation, and there is no better example than what Arizona Public Service, the state’s largest utility, is trying to do. In their latest rate case, APS filed for a net metering tariff that would be devastating to solar in their service territory. To begin with, APS’s net metering proposal would cap installations at 10 kW. Fine for the residential market, but that pretty much eliminates commercial systems.

APS claimed that they are deprived of “lost revenues” for which it deserves compensation if customers install solar systems. Excuse me, but that statement made me break out the giant “BULLSH*T” button. Hey, ASP, if a customer decides to invest in a system which draws less energy from the grid, you assholes are not entitled to compensation from them for “lost revenues”. Such a proposition is preposterous and flat-out dumb.

If this isn’t enough, ASP wanted to be paid about 6.7 cents for every kWh a customer-sited solar system generates. Yes, you read that right. If you buy electricity from them, it’d cost you 11 cents a kWh. If you install solar and don’t buy electricity from them, you still owe them 6.7 cents per kWh! Are you kidding me?!? The good people at Vote Solar got some colleagues together, hired a lawyer, and successfully fought APS’s proposal. APS will offer net metering up to 100 kW for the time being. However, the fight continues.

For some perspective, the Germans have this net-metering business all figured out. If you go solar there, the utility company is required to pay YOU three times the going rate for the electricity you produce. That’s why, even though it’s cloudy as all get out in Germany, there is more solar per capita installed than anywhere else in the planet. Meanwhile, customers that WANT to go solar in sunny Arizona have to deal with this kind of crap.

If this isn’t enough, there are no interconnection standards in Arizona. This is also a significant hindrance on solar development. Why?? According to a report by votesolar.org:

“Tucson Electric Power, one of the state’s larger utilities, recently decided that commercial grid-connected solar systems in its service territory must have a data monitoring system capable of collecting “plane of array solar insolation in watts/M2, ambient temperature in degrees F., wind speed in miles/hour and actual AC power output in watts … on an average time interval not to exceed five (5) minutes for each data point throughout the day.” Why is measuring wind speed relevant? It’s not — but purchasing and installing this system will increase costs by up to $8,000.”

Blech! To get involved in the fight against these big utilities, check in with Votesolar.org

EDIT: 11/4/07

I awoke to find a reasonable amount of chatter on this story at reddit.com. I’d urge many of you to read through the comments there as some are quite informative. One of the users submitted this link to an AZCentral story urging me to read up on the tariffs APS is proposing and all the incentives APS has already to spur on solar development. Indeed, since utilities in Arizona are required to have 15% of their power portfolio come from renewables in 15 years, they have provided some incentives to get more solar on roofs. They’ve also proposed a tariff similar to that in Germany to catalyze more solar installed. However, there are no standards for the rates they pay solar installers for the power they are generating once those systems are installed. This is the main problem. Installation incentives are there, however the utility seeks to maximize their revenues by proposing to bill solar power producers for electricity they are producing. This is rapacious and continues to be Bullsh*t.

More links:

Someone please make us a logo. There’s an 8GB iPod in it for you if yours rocks. Have you seen ours? Right, cause we don’t have one, and if we made it ourselves, it would suck, not rock. We need help.  Also, if any of you have a fark membership throw the contest up there if you don’t mind.

Floridians Implore Governor Crist to sign Solar Roofs Initiative

Published on by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Florida, Solar Politics.

Yeah, that’s Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s rendition of Florida governor Charlie Crist. He needs to come out of that dark closet. Solar energy is a total foreigner in there and citizens from all over Florida have signed a petition to urge him out. They want him to sign the Florida Solar Roofs Initiative into law. Two weeks ago, a solar advocacy group called Vote Solar delivered more than 10,000 votes to him. If enacted, the initiative creates targets to surpass California in solar roofs per capita. That’s a pretty big deal. Additional goals are to utilize PV and solar water heating for at least 2% of the state’s energy portfolio by 2020. The Florida Solar Roofs Initiative will generate enough zero-pollution solar energy to eliminate 20 coal-fired power plants! Will he come out of the closet? Stay tuned.