Koch brothers and big utilities campaign to unplug solar power

HUFFINGTON POST. By David Hosey. April 23, 2014.  The Koch brothers have a new ploy to protect the traditional energy business that helped make them the planet’s fifth- and sixth-richest humans. They are funding a campaign to shackle solar energy consumers who have escaped the grip of big electric utilities.  Of all the pro-business, anti-government causes they have funded with their billions, this may be the most cynical and self-serving. On Sunday, a Los Angeles Times story by Evan Halper outlined the Koch’s latest scheme. Along with anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, several major power companies and a national association representing conservative state legislators, the brothers are aiming to kill preferences for the burgeoning solar power industry that have been put into law in dozens of states. Kansas, North Carolina and Arizona are their first targets, with more to come.  They already have their first victory. On Monday, Oklahoma’s Republican Gov. Mary Fallin signed a bill passed by the GOP-controlled Legislature that authorizes electric utilities to tack a surcharge on the bills of private citizens who have installed solar panels or wind turbines on their homes. That’s right, Oklahomans who have spent money to generate their own clean and green power now must pay compensation to the power companies.

See Original Article

The Tea Party Wants to Help You Go Solar

SLATE. By Josh Voorhees. April 23, 2014.  Photo by David McNew/Getty Images  Last week, with little fanfare and even less debate, Oklahoma lawmakers quietly voted to reverse a nearly four-decade-old law that had barred utility companies from charging customers who install solar panels on their homes more than those who don’t. The bill, which passed almost unanimously, would have effectively cleared the way for utilities in the Sooner State to force homeowners who install solar panels to pay for both the electricity they buy from the grid and for a portion of the electricity they sell back to it. The vote marked a rare victory for power companies in their quest to stymie the growth of the rooftop solar industry. It also represented a sharp departure from the wave of well-publicized, big-dollar federal and state efforts currently aimed at making solar energy cost competitive with more traditional energy sources like coal and natural gas.  TUSK boasts an impressive record of defeating the utility companies’ effort to make solar panels less appealing for homeowners.  Then, on Tuesday, to the surprise of pretty much everyone involved, Oklahoma’s Republican governor, Mary Fallin, issued an executive order largely undercutting the provision, dealing an unexpected defeat to major utilities and their deep-pocketed backers—a group that includes the Koch brothers and the American Legislative Exchange Council, a powerful national membership group for conservative state lawmakers.  Perhaps the only thing more surprising was who had helped defeat Oklahoma’s power companies. Tucked among the usual green suspects were the type of advocates that typically don’t associate with the clean energy movement but have nonetheless proved crucial to securing a political victories in a string of dark-red states: Tea Party conservatives.

See Article 

How to Sniper-Proof the Electrical Grid

For years, lawmakers and critics have warned that our aging electrical grid is vulnerable not just to natural disasters, but to physical attack. “Our enemies have the motive, the means, and the capacity to attack our grid with potentially catastrophic consequences,” Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) told Bloomberg last year. “The question is whether the utilities have the same determination to protect our country against these threats.” A newly revealed incident is evidence they don't—or even the wherewithal to keep the public informed about said threats. The Wall Street Journal reports that nearly a year ago, snipers attacked a power plant operated by PG&E and nearly caused a blackout in parts of California. First, someone cut telephone cables in an underground vault. The Journal describes what happened next: "Within half an hour, snipers opened fire on a nearby electrical substation. Shooting for 19 minutes, they surgically knocked out 17 giant transformers that funnel power to Silicon Valley." None of the shooters have been caught. Officials were able to keep the lights on by routing power around the station, but the man who was serving as the chairmen of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission at the time, Jon Wellinghoff, is so concerned that another attack is immanent that he went public about the breach. Wellinghoff called it "the most significant incident of domestic terrorism involving the grid that has ever occurred." He says that if the attack were copied, and carried out to scale, it could knock out the grid "and black out much of the country." The problem, as he sees it, is that there are 2,000 such substations across the country, and if only a handful of them were knocked out at once, he believes widespread outages would follow. Naturally, Wellinghoff feels that security is inadequate, and is pushing for more protection at transformer sites. It's a familiar call to action that's been sounded in response to the rising specter of a number of grid-threatening events—hacker intrusions, downed power lines during a weather disaster, terrorist attacks aimed directly at power plants, even that mostly laughable EMP scenario—but this time with real life action at its core.
See original article

Arizona Rooftop Solar Power Under Threat From APS, Again!

CLEANTECHNICA (SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.) Not content with getting a tax imposed on solar customers, Arizona Public Service is now looking to back out of promises it made to the Arizona Corporation Commission, its customers, and the people of Arizona. APS is required to get 15% of its power from renewable energy by 2025 with 4.5% of that 15% coming from rooftop solar. However, APS has just submitted a proposal to eliminate its rooftop solar requirement and cut its overall renewable requirement to 10.5%. By comparison, neighboring states have renewable energy targets that range from 20-30%. The Arizona Corporation Commission is expected to discuss APS’ latest attempts to kill rooftop solar and customer access to it on Thursday at 10 am in the Corporation Commission hearing room.

This move by APS represents the latest in their unrelenting attempts to undermine the rooftop solar energy industry in Arizona and eliminate competition. APS has also pushed the Arizona Department of Revenue to implement a new property tax on rooftop solar customers—and they’ve succeeded. In November, APS also convinced the Arizona Corporation Commission to implement a $5 a month tax on rooftop solar customers although the utility had been seeking ten times that amount. APS’ consistent anti-rooftop solar actions and proposals result in the conclusion that the utility is anti-solar and anti-business, as it attempts to use government regulation and taxation to eliminate competition and extract more money from ratepayers.
Read more at http://cleantechnica.com/2014/02/05/arizona-rooftop-solar-power-threat-aps/#oICIMPlRD50Xs8ig.99

Power play: Utilities want solar users to pay up

NBC News. By  Mark Koba CNBC. Jan. 9th, 2014.  The explosive growth of solar power -- a new rooftop system was installed every four minutes in 2013 -- has utility companies pushing in several states to scale back what they call unfair rate advantages that solar users have long received.  The debate centers on net metering, which requires utility companies to credit customers for solar energy that they generate in excess of their own usage. The credits were part of financial incentives to invest in solar energy.  Policies for net metering, which is used in 43 states, vary from state to state, but most credits are set at the local retail price for electricity. That bothers utilities, which contend that the retail price is set too high, resulting in excessive credits to solar users. Utilities want credits set by wholesale prices, which are much lower than retail.  "The principal issue is making sure everyone is paying a fair price for what they use," said Ted Carver, CEO and chairman of Edison International, the parent company of utility Southern California Edison. "We don't care where or who we buy the power from, but it should be purchased at the wholesale price."  But some experts say the mere fact that utilities—which generate $360 billion a year in energy sales—are battling with solar indicates the threat it now poses to them.  "The success of solar power is forcing utilities to rethink their business model and push for the changes," said Franc Del Fosse, an energy industry lawyer and partner at Snell & Wilmer. "If you have an individual putting solar panels on the roof, it's easy to suggest that a utility is making less money."  The effort for higher fees on solar panel users could backfire, said Alan Beale, general manager of SolarMax.  If the fees are too high, he said, "it will just delay ... the inevitable, and more companies and individuals will go to the independent energy producers." 
See original article

California added more rooftop solar capacity in 2013 than in the past 30 years combined!

TreeHugger. By Michael Graham Richard January 8, 2014. From 1 gigawatt to 2 gigawatts in a single year It took the residents of California about 30 years to reach 1,000MW of rooftop solar. And during 2013, that number doubled to just over 2,000MW. The previous record for rooftop solar was in 2012 with 500MW. Let that sink in: In a single year, as much rooftop solar was installed as during the previous 30 combined. If that's not a good sign for clean energy, I don't know what is.  While California is the leader for solar power in the US, other states are also doing well. Bloomberg recently reported: "About 200,000 U.S. homes and businesses added rooftop solar in the past two years alone – about 3 gigawatts of power and enough to replace four or five conventionally-sized coal plants."  "If California continues to grow its rooftop solar market at its 2013 pace, the state may very well top 5,000 MW in 2014 - far exceeding the goals of the Million Solar Roofs Initiative, which aimed to install 3,000 MW of rooftop solar by the end of 2016," writes Bernadette Del Chiaro in Solar Industry Magazine.  The data also shows that residential solar is mostly a middle-class phenomenon (not just a thing for wealthy people).
See original article

Utilities fight back as rooftop solar heats up

http://bloom.bg/1g3jWt4 By Mark Chediak, Christopher Martin and Ken Wells Bloomberg News If you wonder why America’s utilities are rattled by the explosive growth in rooftop solar — and are pushing back — William Walker has a story for you. A flip-flop wearing Walker stands in his driveway pointing to a ubiquitous neighborhood feature – solar panels on the roofs of five of six houses nearby. He lives in Ewa Beach, a development on the sultry leeward coast of the Hawaiian island of Oahu built on land cleared of sugar cane fields. Shade is scarce and residents here call their homes “hot boxes,” requiring almost round-the-clock air conditioning. Hawaii, which imports pricey oil to power its electricity grid, has the highest utility rates in the nation — at 37 cents a kilowatt-hour, they’re more than double California and triple the national average. With bills for 1,600 square foot houses like these running as high as $400 a month, solar is seen as less a green statement than an economic no-brainer given state and federal tax credits for as much as 65 percent of installation costs. Almost every day since Walker and his wife Mi Chong moved in last April, solar installers came rapping on the door, hawking a rooftop system. They finally bought one: an 18-panel, $35,000 installation producing 5.9 kilowatts of power financed for $305 a month. It would be connected to the grid under a system known as net metering that essentially lets residents deduct the value of their solar-produced electricity from their power bill and even be paid for electricity in excess of that.

See original article

The Pros Pick Four Solar Stocks For 2014

By Tom Konrad, Contributor. FORBES. 12/20/2013. With the average solar stock having doubled in 2013, it’s much harder to find bargains in the solar industry than it was a year ago. But two of the professional green money managers think there is still value to be found. When I asked them for their top three green stock picks for 2014, they came back with two solar picks each. You can also read about my panel’s green income stock picks and green information technology picks the earlier articles in this series. Shawn Kravetz is the solar expert on my panel. He is President of Esplanade Capital LLC, a Boston based investment management company one of whose funds is focused on solar and companies impacted by the emergence of solar. Last year, he had the top pick of all my panelists, Amtech Systems (NASD:ASYS), which was up 160%. This year, Kravetz says “Finding extreme values is challenging” but he still was able to find two that he considers “quite compelling.” Shawn Kravetz His first pick is Meyer Burger (Swiss:MBTN), a “Leading solar equipment manufacturer whose business has finally troughed.” Kravetz thinks the company’s business is about to make a “substantial turn” for the better, but the stock has hardly advanced despite the large increase in price for other solar stocks. Even after a strong 2013, Kravetz says “Global solar installations will likely grow 20% in 2014. With demand finally nearing an equilibrium with cost efficient supply, this will drive leading players to modernize and expand. The hangover of the solar nuclear winter and a poorly timed acquisition of competitor Roth & Rau is ending, leaving Meyer Burger extremely well positioned for 2014.”
See rest of article

Wearable Solar Clothing: fashion with embedded solar panels to charge your cell phone

11 December 2013. Wearable Futures: flaps in this range of clothing by Dutch fashion designer Pauline van Dongen open up to reveal solar panels, enabling the wearer to become a walking mobile phone charger (+ movie).  Pauline van Dongen collaborated with Christiaan Holland from the HAN University of Applied Sciences and solar energy expert Gert Jan Jongerden on the Wearable Solar project, which aims to integrate photovoltaic technology into comfortable and fashionable clothing. "Wearable Solar is about integrating solar cells into fashion, so by augmenting a garment with solar cells the body can be an extra source of energy," Van Dongen told Dezeen at the Wearable Futures conference in London. "It's really about the true integration of technology and fashion, which can transcend the realm of gadgets."  The dress features 72 flexible cells attached to panels on the front of the garment that can be folded outwards to capture sunlight. Forty-eight rigid crystal solar panels are incorporated into leather flaps on the jacket's shoulders and waist so they can be revealed when the sun shines and hidden when not in use. A standard charging plug connects the solar panels directly to a mobile device, and Van Dongen claimed that a garment exposed to direct sunlight for one hour could capture enough energy to charge a typical smartphone to 50 percent capacity.

See rest of original article

Solar Dominates New US Generating Capacity

Big solar’s big year just keep getting bigger.  The monthly energy infrastructure report from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [PDF], which tracks utility-scale projects, shows that through October, 190 solar units totaling 2,528 megawatts in installed capacity had been added in 2013. That’s more than double the 1,257 MW for the same period in 2012, and constitutes 21 percent of all new electrical generating capacity this year. Through the first three quarters of last year, solar had accounted for just 7 percent of new capacity additions in the year.  Solana Generating Station, Gila Bend, Ariz. (image via Arizona Public Service) October, in particular, was a huge month for utility-scale solar, with the five projects with capacities in double figures coming online – the 280-MW Solana Generating Station in Arizona; 139-MW Campo Verde Solar project in Imperial County, Calif., a 36-MW final phase of the 249-MW California Valley Solar Ranch in San Luis Obispo County, Calif.; the 30 MW Spectrum Solar project in Clark County, Nev.; and the 10-MW Indianapolis International Airport Solar Farm Phase 1.  As the Solar Energy Industries Association gleefully pointed out on Monday, “12 new solar units accounted for 504 MW or 72.1 percent of all new capacity last month” in the United States.
See rest of original article

Solar-panel sunglasses recharge your iPhone in the evening

By Tim Hornyak November 16, 2013. Slap some solar panels on your Ray-Bans and soak up some juice for your iPhone 5. Could these Ray-Ban Shama Shades be a portable power pack? This may have been suggested before, but if not it's a great idea that's been sitting on our noses all this time.Designer Sayalee Kaluskar has turned a pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses into an iPhone charging device by adding solar panels to them. The Ray-Ban Shama Shades are part of a student project at Miami Ad School--San Francisco. The shades have a small solar panel on each arm, and that's apparently enough to charge an iPhone 5 when the sun goes down.We've seen solar panels on wearable gear like Ralph Lauren backpacks, and we've also seen a recent Apple application for a patent on a system to outfit mobile devices with their own solar power converters. It seems people are keen on tapping solar energy on the go, provided they can harness enough of it to be useful. 

See rest of original article

LA Could Create Tens of Thousands of New Jobs if Solar Were on 5% of Rooftops

By Marc Lifsher November 13, 2013. Los Angeles County could create tens of thousands of new jobs and reduce global-warming-causing carbon emissions if solar-voltaic panels are installed on just 5% of available rooftops, says a just-issued report. The study by the Environmental Defense Fund and the Luskin Center for Innovation at UCLA, released Wednesday, predicts that 29,000 installer jobs would open up. Carbon emissions would be reduced by 1.25 million tons, the equivalent of taking a quarter of a million cars off the roads each year.  Researchers came up with the data doing the Los Angeles Solar and Efficiency Report (LASER), which includes detailed maps of nine sub-regions that have the potential for cost-effective and efficient solar arrays on buildings. The "Solar Atlas" is to be used as a guide for local government officials, building owners and investors in planning to expand the use of renewable energy and to mitigate the effects of climate change. The three zones with the best potential for expanding rooftop solar power are the San Fernando Valley, East Los Angeles and downtown Los Angeles, researchers said. All three areas have many large roofs and enjoy many sunny days, they said.
See rest of original article
See LA Solar & Efficiency Report 2013

Solar in Italy - Renewable Energy Provides 25% of Power for the Country

By Mark Smith of Solar Forward. Italy is a beautiful country, and it gets over 25% of its electricity from renewables! I'm greatly enjoying my visit to Italy, and touring solar installations across the picturesque countryside. From the looks of it, the solar panels are from China with no labels on them. Windmills are everywhere spinning faster than I have ever seen. As I travel the Italian countryside, I’m hearing great stories of energy independence. There seems to be more wind and sun power here, than anywhere in Europe. I’ve been told there is never a problem passing an inspection for a solar installation, there is no 3 foot or 4 foot rule on top or side for homes or businesses ("who wants to walk on burning building and you have insurance, no?"), and up time is great once the projects get finished. Sicily has done more in less time for renewable energy, and can even export electricity on a good day. The National Research Council released Sicily’s Solar Report 2012, showing that there are 250 PV companies, 20,000 solar plants employing 3,000 people, and 5 million solar panels on the island, of which 93% are installed on the rooftops of private homes which supplies 10% of the electricity need in the region. I’m impressed.

Solar Thermal vs. Solar Electric

There are a lot of new solar companies out there that ONLY do solar electricity (because it is relatively easy) that simply do not understand energy efficiency. I have a potential customer with 2 electric water heaters who has received many quotes on solar electricity. Not one of those companies told him he should install a solar water heating system to shrink his electric need because that would be MUCH more cost-effective than installing a bigger solar electric system.

The fact is that solar thermal (or solar hot water) is 4 times as efficient as solar electricity at producing energy savings per square foot of sunlight. Price wise, solar hot water is about half the cost per unit of energy. And with today's thermal rebates and tax credits, it is a no-brainer all thermal needs such as hot water should be done with thermal solar, period. Only things that can only be done electrically should be left for the PV system.

Embedded energy of solar electric modules

A client of mine had heard that it took as much energy to make a solar electric system as that system would produce in its life. I am happy to report that after considerable research of the available published studies on this question, solar modules have an "energy payback" of only 2 to 6 years. Since they last over 30 years, this means a minimum of 5 times the energy consumption in production...and up to 15 times perhaps.

It should also be noted that the alternative, consuming fossil fuels, has an infinite payback, and a negative result of increasing pollution and global warming (not to mention the occasional environmental disaster such as the Gulf mess).