SOLAR TODAY Blog

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

 The California Energy Commission on Wednesday approved construction of a 250-MW solar power plant in Kern County, after a 29-month permitting process.

The Beacon Solar Energy Project will be the first large CSP plant built in California since SEGS 9 was completed at Harper Lake, 20 years ago. But several more are in queue for approval this year. That's because developers need to meet a Dec. 31 deadline to break ground, or lose ARRA stimulus funds. In addition, California's large public utilities are obligated under the renewable electricity standard to produce 20% of their power from renewables by the close of this year, and they're still several hundred megawatts short of that goal.

By Rosana Francescato

We live in one of the sunnier areas of San Francisco, and from my roof I can see ten solar arrays on neighboring blocks. For anyone with an electric bill of $75 a month or more, solar makes financial sense. In this town, the combination of federal, state and city incentives can cut installation costs by a third or more.

It certainly made sense for our Sierra Heights condominium complex, so I started a Green Committee and began looking into getting solar panels installed. We have three large buildings with plenty of roof area, though it's probably not area to provide power for both the individual units and the common electricity. That's a challenge for any tall building. But we spend about $1,500 a month on the common electricity, so even if we concentrate on that, depending on the system, we could save an estimated $500 to $1,000 a month over 25 years - that's $150,000 to $450,000 total.

I had representatives from four solar companies assess our site, and they all confirmed that we have enough roof space for a system that would provide energy for the common electricity. Three of the companies submitted preliminary proposals for systems that would cost between $74,000 and $450,000, before incentives and rebates.
Our main challenge would be financing. Since our HOA is a nonprofit, we don't qualify for some tax incentives. The upfront costs are too high for our 4-year-old complex, which doesn't have large reserves built up yet, so we looked into ways to make it affordable.

As part of my research, I attended a "solar mixer" hosted by 1 Block Off the Grid (1BOG), a community-based program that helps people buy solar panels. By negotiating group discounts, they reduce costs. They also help to sort out all the confusing details that homeowners face in buying a solar system.

The mixer was intended to share information with people interested in going solar. In addition to representatives from 1BOG and their local solar installer, attendees included residents who had already installed solar panels in their San Francisco homes. I was grateful for the opportunity to talk to people with experience installing solar systems, and it's inspiring to see this kind of work being done. 1BOG is a small local company, but they've facilitated installations all over the country. And the 1BOG website contains all kinds of useful information, from an interactive tool that lets you check if solar would work on your house to general information on how solar works to a video showing how solar panels add value to your property.

Most installations go onto buildings with a single owner, and that's what the 1BOG website focuses on. Information on installing systems for condo complexes is sparse. As a condo, we needed to determine which incentives we could qualify for, and how we would finance the system. For a while, we thought our answer could be a program sponsored by the San Francisco Mayor's Office, GreenFinanceSF. They offered PACE loans, a way to finance sustainable building improvements with 20-year loans that are paid back as part of property taxes, which are tax-deductible. That makes payments affordable: often the payment is less than the amount saved by the solar system.

The Mayor's Office had not yet applied this program to condominiums, so they were eager to work with us to help encourage others to follow suit. But then Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the lenders they work with said that they will not support loans under the GreenFinanceSF or PACE programs. Because of that, GreenFinanceSF and many similar programs have been suspended. The Mayor's Office and other local governments around the country are working with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to encourage them to reconsider their position.

We were left with a lot to work out. Even if the GreenFinanceSF program was resumed and we adopted it, we couldn't force all residents to opt in. So the HOA board researched our options. Are we allowed to reduce HOA dues for those who do opt in, and raise them for those who don't? That would be necessary for this program to be financially feasible. The good thing was that this would cover more than solar panels. We're also looking into electric-car plug-ins, tankless water heaters, LED lights and energy-efficient windows. However, our HOA board finally decided it would be too complicated, legally, to implement this program.

So now we're looking at leasing the panels. That could allow us to get the system installed, though it won't give us the advantage of ownership and increased property values. A lease-to-own option would be even more attractive. I'm waiting now to hear about leasing options from a couple of third-party companies. Many don't work with condos or don't lease solar systems, so that's narrowed down our list of potential vendors.

This process has made me wonder about the many condos around our country. Though I know a few condos exist with solar systems, they're rare, and it seems that we're pioneers in this area. I'm hoping that I'll learn enough through this process to share some information with others. I welcome any insights or stories about others' experiences condoizing solar.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

A power struggle of sorts is under way in the waters around northern Britain. Atlantis Resources, based in London, this week unveiled what it called the world's largest tidal-flow turbine, with twin rotors of 18-meter diameter capable of producing a megawatt of grid-tied power. Plans are to test the rig, weighing in at 1,300 metric tons, in the Orkney Islands this summer.

Atlantis may be huge, but the SeaGen unit in Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, has been generating 1.2 MW of grid power since December, 2008, and it now feeds its full capacity to the local grid, 24-7.  Its rotors are only 16 meters across. So which is bigger? I like results, so until Atlantis produces more than 1.2 MW, SeaGen remains the leader.

Meanwhile, American companies are building much smaller units. Ocean Renewable Power announced a successful test of its 60-kilowatt tide turbine, destined for installation this summer at a Coast Guard station near Eastport, Maine. ORP calls this the largest tide turbine in the U.S., and it does beat the previous record-holder, a 35-kW unit tested by Verdant Power off New York's Roosevelt Island in 2006-2008. ORP plans to deploy a 150 kW unit before the end 2011, feeding the Eastport grid. Verdant has signed a deal to develop a large turbine array - in China.

Tidal power is the great undersold potential resource in renewable energy. It's absolutely predictable -- a typical installation produces eight hours of inflow power, then a few hours of slack, then eight hours of outflow power, then a few hours of slack, every day and every night forever. The big barrier to entry is the high cost of developing a massive installation that will stand up to the huge forces involved. Water is about 100 times as dense as air so tide turbines have to be far more robust than wind turbines. And they must resist salt corrosion while keeping their electrical systems dry. It's like building a submarine.

By Eric Fitzer

Gila Bend, Ariz., 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, finds itself planning for 1,080 MW of utility-scale solar developments. That would give this town of 2,000 souls about a fifth of the solar generating capacity as currently exists in the United States. In fact, the town council has established a goal of making Gila Bend the solar capital of the world.

In early July, the Department of Energy announced a $1.4 billion loan guarantee for the 280MW Abengoa Solana CST facility, and Pacific Blue Energy Corporation is in the process of purchasing 100 acres with an option to purchase 700 more to establish a 150MW PV facility.

The proposed utility scale solar developments in and around Gila Bend are as varied as the solar industry. Proposals include 100 MW to 280 MW of CST troughs, 150 MW of CST power towers, a 20 MW CPV plant and a number of PV plants ranging in size from 20 to 150 MW. The town has positioned itself to become a virtual incubator of solar power technologies in use and under development.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

Respect!  The mainstream press, and culture, has finally begun to acknowledge the maturity, and viability, of solar power.

Latest example is this story from CNN, acknowledging that rooftop PV does better than grid parity, at the retail level.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

Our air-quality columnist Robert Ukeiley pointed out this morning that in April, for the first time, non-hydro renewable electric generation totaled more than 5 percent of the American total. Poking around in the monthly report from the Energy Information Administration, we learn that for April, non-hydro generation amounted to about 15.3 terawatt-hours, compared to 287.8 terawatt-hours from all energy sources. This computes out to 5.33%.

Doesn't sound like much, but recall that in 2009 wind and solar capacity in the United States grew roughly 40%, and that growth rate has been pretty consistent over the past five years. If we project that growth rate forward, and assume that hydro, coal and nuclear power sources will NOT grow (that's a pretty safe bet over the next 10 years), then wind, solar, biomass and geothermal sources can be expected to provide more than 10% of all electric power by the middle of 2012, 20% by 2014, 25% by 2015, and 50% by 2017. At that point, renewables replace coal.

By 2018, renewables can provide 75% of all electric power. Existing hydro and nuclear facilities easily make up the rest, and we're more-or-less carbon free. By 2019 we're at 100%. The nuclear plants can retire, and we can even give the rivers back to the salmon.

What happens to the coal industry in that scenario? We can expect a lot of kicking and screaming, but there's probably not much room for coal mines to cut prices enough to compete with free wind and sun. One thing I learned trying to run a profitable website is that it's very hard to compete with free.

This calculation may be a pipe dream, but it makes me feel a lot better about the flat refusal of conservative legislators to deal with climate and energy issues. Maybe, just maybe, market forces can save the world.

Good news for solar installers:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., July 15 (press release) -- A recovery in home improvement spending will soon be underway according to the Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity (LIRA) released today by the Remodeling Futures Program at the Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University. Remodeling spending is expected to increase on an annual basis by the end of the year, and the LIRA points to growth accelerating to the double-digit range in the first quarter of 2011.

"Absent a reversal of recent economic progress, there should be a healthy upturn in home improvement activity by year-end and into next year," says Eric S. Belsky, managing director of the Joint Center for Housing Studies.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

In an historic move, India imposed a nationwide carbon tax today, in the form of a tax on coal production.

Dubbed a clean energy measure, the tax of 50 rupees per metric ton is imposed on all coal mined or imported. It's expected to generate about $535 million to support carbon-neutral energy projects.

By Seth Masia
SOLAR TODAY deputy editor

Last Friday, MIT released a report advocating natural gas as a "bridge" fuel to displace both coal and petroleum motor fuel while more sustainable energy sources come on line. Notable by its absence from the report was any summary of the water- and air-quality issues created by natural gas drilling. Because the report comes in the wake of the network debut of the award-winning documentary Gasland, the omission seemed startling.

Frank Clemente of Penn State, usually an apologist for coal and oil, has a nice summary of the MIT-gas-drilling situation at Energy-Facts.org.

Here in Colorado, natural gas producers have been fracking new wells on the West Slope for a decade. The result has been serious contamination of the groundwater in a region that has precious little water to begin with. We're also worried about heavy-metal poisoning of streams from uranium mining, which is set for another boom.

It's a little-known fact that Colorado decommissioned its only nuclear power reactor some 18 years ago, replacing it with a gas turbine. We'd love to see gas turbines displace our remaining coal plants, but hope that as each conversion is done the steam circuit also include a trough field for concentrating solar, and a geothermal well. We have plenty of coal and gas and uranium here. We also have plenty of sun, wind and hot rock. What we don't have is fresh water.

By Adam Boucher
Private Lender & Portfolio Manager to Green Energy sector

Cities and counties throughout the U.S. are developing new finance programs that help Americans install solar and improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses. Called Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE), these programs help local governments bring new jobs, energy bill savings, and environmental benefits to their communities.

Unfortunately, PACE is facing a serious threat that could render these programs dead in the water.

The threat comes from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, quasi-governmental entities that underwrite over half of the mortgages in the country. They recently issued guidance suggesting that property owners with mortgages from these lending giants may be prohibited from participating in PACE programs. If this situation is not addressed immediately, the Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "Lender Letters" will likely mean that federally authorized and supported PACE programs across America (over $100 million in federal funds allocated thus far) will shut down, employees will be laid off, and our nation will lose the ability to unlock an extraordinary new means to retrofit homes and buildings across America.

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