Here it is, your daily dose of solar energy news and related info:
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday signed legislation creating an “innovative new program to finance energy-efficiency, renewable energy, water conservation and other environmental improvements to San Francisco residential and commercial buildings. “This green financing program is going to create green jobs and fuel the next wave of energy and water efficiency and renewable energy development in San Francisco,” said Mayor Newsom. “It helps home and property owners overcome the large up-front costs of major environmental improvements to their buildings.” In a nutshell, property owners can take out a loan to finance their renewable-energy project, then pay it back through a surcharge levied on their annual property tax bill. First adopted by Berkeley two years ago, the approach is called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing. You can read more about it in this post on solar project finance in San Diego.
The University of Colorado at Boulder has finished installing solar panels on three buildings, reports Campus Technology. The university, a non-taxable entity, partnered with Rockwell Financial Group, which benefited from associated tax credits and other incentives when financing the installation. The Colorado U solar installations are expected to generate 140,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year — enough to power 20 medium-sized houses.
Fidelis Energy — an oil and gas company with interest in California, Texas and Canada — has signed contracts to install about one megawatt worth of photovoltaic (PV) systems across Greece, reports iStockAnalyst. Now if they could only solve that country’s sovereign debt crisis, we’d all be on our merry way…
The National Journal on Monday presented a concise discussion entitled “What’s a Winning Strategy for Renewables?” Among the respondents are Gary Fazzino, VP of Government Affairs for Applied Materials; Lewis Hay, Chairman and CEO of utility giant FPL Group; and Margo Thorning, Chief Economist for the American Council for Capital Formation. Notably, Thorning splashed some cold water on the notion that clean energy can be cheap energy: “Renewables like wind, solar and biomass can certainly play a complementary role in U.S. energy supply, but because of their cost … it is foolish to think that they will replace large amounts of our more traditional energy sources in the next 10 to 20 years.” I agree it’s naive to think we’ll meet a bulk of our demand with solar resources at any time in the near future. I imagine, however, that as an economist Ms. Thorning would agree that if the externalities associated with, say, burning coal were reflected in its market price, renewables may not seem quite so expensive.
Con Edison wants more solar power in New York, according to a release on CNNmoney.com. The utility filed a proposal with the NY State Public Service Commission to support the development of 25 megawatts of solar energy in New York City over the next five years. Moreover, ConEd suggested the state reserve nearly $25 million of its renewable energy funds to provide solar energy rebates to residential and commercial customers within the city.
The Governator Arnold Schwarzenegger yesterday visited the headquarters of REC Solar in San Luis Obispo, where he promoted his $500 million plan to create jobs in California. REC — which had 40 employees in 2005 and now employs more than 500 — could hire as many as 200 more employees in California should the plan go through. True to form, the Governor walked that delicate line between Left and Right: “Government must not be an obstacle to success, but must be a partner in prosperity.”
Sunetric, a solar energy company based in Kailua, Hawaii, has selected a new CEO, Alex Tiller, via Starbulletin.com. Tiller previously oversaw the company’s financing arm.
You travel bugs out there should check out how companies are trying to make solar power portable.
And finally, last night I caught the tail end of Saved by the Sun, an old installment of NOVA. From what I saw it was both informative and interesting, though at times the narration was a little too cheesy. Plus, while he’s undeniably a genius, Amory Lovins may not be the spokesperson best equipped to take solar mainstream. The show is definitely worth a look, regardless.
