Solar Power trade show goes international

I was lucky enough to get to the Solar Power conference in San Diego this year, and boy has the event grown. The preimenent solar energy event of the year is a co-production of SEPA and SEIA and was launched in 2004 as a combination trade show and policy forum to discuss all things solar.

As the interest in solar energy has grown in the US and abroad, so has this conference. About 20,000 people were in attendance. Manufacturers, installers, and suppliers of solar PV, thermal, and even wind were in abundance. I was floored by the size of the show - 400+ companies with amazingly elaborate displays were there. Germany had an entire section of the show floor, as did Taiwan. There were flat plate, thin film, evacuated tube, and good 'ol glass and copper thermal products as far as you could see.

It was great to see the exponential growth of this industry and I'll try to post some reflections on what this means for Florida and Miami in particular.

Solar Tax Breaks Survive

So the Senate (after what, nine tries?) finally passes the solar investment tax credit. Now it looks like solar energy companies may be the only bright spot in the stock market. See Reuters report: Solar stocks enjoy rally as US tax breaks renewed

So solar wins out for once, but it can't win without giving big wads of cash to good-ole' Big Oil. It looks like the leadership in the Congress is buckling under the pressure of an uninformed electorate that insists that punching holes in the American coastline for more global warming juice is going to give them a break on the price. It probably will - in a decade. By then gas will be $5 a gallon anyway.

So is this a win for Florida? I guess so, as long as we don't consider the detrimental effects of continued growth in the combustion of fossil fuels and that Florida is the State that will suffer the most from sea level rise. The Florida Congressional Delegation also secured the extension of the moratorium for Florida.

At least we can now get closer to serious about solar energy production in this country. Hopefully Florida will take advantage.

MIami Herald: PSC OK's deals on electricity fed back to grid

BY JOHN DORSCHNER

jdorschner@MiamiHerald.com

After months of discussion, the Public Service Commission on Thursday approved agreements from the state's five investor-owned power companies so that customers can receive credit for electricity that they feed back to the grid from solar panels and other forms of renewable energy on their property.

The concept, called net metering, is to promote the development of customer-owned renewable energy by minimalizing costs. Excess power that the customer generates and doesn't use will be allowed to go into the grid, and then the utility will give the homeowner a credit for that power.

''By making it more attractive for customers to use renewables, we are promoting fuel diversity and reliability and increasing development of renewable generation in Florida,'' said PSC Chairman Matthew M. Carter II in a prepared statement. ``Today's approval will encourage eligible customers to reduce the electricity purchased from their utility -- saving money for the customer and increasing grid capacity for the utility.''

The discussion about net metering has been taking place in PSC workshops and commission meetings for a year and a half.

The new measure applies to customers of Florida Power & Light, Progress Energy Florida, Gulf Power, Tampa Electric and Florida Public Utilities.

Under a previous rule, only renewable systems of 10 kilowatts or smaller were eligible. That has been expanded to two megawatts, meaning large businesses with solar panels occupying rooftops can now qualify for the program.

Also on Thursday, the PSC approved FPL's request to build another generator powered by natural gas in western Palm Beach County.

Some thoughts on drilling our way out of our fossil fuel dependency

For some reason, I never actually posted the following screed. Probably because it didn't deal directly with solar. It's a bit dated now that gas has come all the way down to $3.85 or so, but the nuts-and-bolts remain the same.

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Since the amount of oil available throughout the world has increased over the last year, while demand has begun to decline (everywhere - not just in the US), the run-up in oil prices has been entirely driven by speculators doing classic pump-and-dump market manipulation. Thanks for this newest artificial crisis goes to the Repubs for deregulating the commodities market in 2005.

Even the frikin' Saudis say that there's no rational explanation for the price of oil - THEY think it's overpriced.

So drilling for a tiny quantity of oil off Florida's coast (most of what's out there is believed to be natural gas) gets us what?

If ANWR was opened up tomorrow, it would lower prices by a couple pennies in 10 years (straight from the Federal Energy Information Agency). For those who say that if we opened it when Cheney first sneered about conservation being a lifestyle choice not worthy of real Americans, we'd still be two years off from dropping gas prices from $4.12 all the way down to $4.10 a gallon. And that's assuming that "supply and demand" had ANYTHING to do with oil prices right now.

We consume 10-13 million barrels of oil a DAY in this country. Our domestic production peaked in 1974 for no other reason than we're running out of the easy to reach stuff. What remains is much harder to get out of the ground (ie way more expensive extraction and in much lighter volumes) and is often dirtier stuff requiring more processing (additional cost). In the not too distant future, domestic production will reach the point where it will take a barrel of oil to extract a barrel of oil. And that first barrel will be better quality stuff.

People who say that we can drill our way to energy independence remind me of those RedBull contests with the home-made flying machines - "if only I flapped my arms harder I could fly."

Oil will remain an important commodity for a long time to come, but without significant investments in efficiency and alternative energy development this country's economy will be crushed on the shoals of the oil age.

Remember, "the Stone Age did not end for lack of stones." They found a better tool and moved on.

FPL has some 'splainin to do

The Florida Public Service Commission - not really known as the most rabid watchdog of the public trust - really clamped a fang into FPL over their shockingly inept management of their green energy program called Sunshine Energy.

The PSC took Florida's largest utility to task for squandering the majority of the $9.6 million raised through their volunteer subscribers on marketing the frigging program. Green Mountain, the contractor charged with running this program, blew 74% of the $8.6 million they received from FPL on marketing.

Read the synopsis on the Florida PSC website

The Sunshine Energy program was supposed to support the purchase of 1000 kWh of green energy for the customer's voluntary $9.95 contribution to FPL. On top of that, the Utility promised to install 150 kW of solar energy somewhere in Florida for every 10,000 members. They are over the 30,000 subscriber mark, so they should be well on their way to installing 450 kW of solar power in Florida - just through this program.

The PSC found that FPL fell way short. And I find that they're fudging the numbers even more than the PSC will admit. For example, here's the list of solar project that FPL can point to as examples of their good-faith effort:

• 8 kW of solar installed in cooperation with SunSmart Schools – 2 kW at 4 schools
• 2 kW of solar installed at the Miami Science Museum
• 54 kW of rooftop solar installed on homes at The Quarry residential subdivision in Naples, Florida
• 250 kW solar array at Rothenbach Park in Sarasota
• 75 kW Publix Supermarkets project – 50 kW complete, 25 kW in progress
• 124 kW of solar photovoltaic systems under the Sun Funds Program

Here's the catch - SunSmart schools was funded by taxpayers through a FDEP grant. The Sun Funds Program, according to the information provided by the PSC (I've never heard of it) is a minor incentive of $1.50 per installed watt for FPL customers on top of the $4 the State provides for solar PV installations. So FPL seems to be taking 100% credit for 15% of the contribution, or in the case of the SunSmart schools grants, 100% of the credit for no financial contribution to the projects at all.

As for the green tags, it looks like only 21% of the funds that went to Green Mountain actually went to buy Renewable Energy Credits.

What a shame.

Palm Beach Post: Bulk of FPL money for renewable energy goes to start-up costs