SAN FRANCISCO - State energy officials, seeking to revive a key element of the Schwarzenegger administration's push to expand renewable energy use, on Monday outlined a plan to increase annual spending on new solar energy units to nearly $300 million.
The plan, set for formal release today, would shuffle programs among state agencies in order to revive the administration's high-profile program to build 1 million homes with units to make electricity from the sun.
That initiative died in the Legislature this year after the administration balked at union wage guarantees sought by Democrats. The new solar push aims to bypass the Legislature by tapping the state Public Utilities Commission's authority to collect money from electricity customers and spend it to boost subsidies to homes and businesses that install solar units.
Currently, two state agencies spend about $80 million annually to subsidize solar power installations. The new solar plan takes existing programs, "keeps them going and focuses them where they have the greatest impact," said Jackalyne Pfannenstiel, a member of the state Energy Commission. The proposal, which requires approval by the PUC, calls for spending $3.2 billion over 11 years to install 2,600 megawatts of solar capacity.
By comparison, PG&E's largest power plant -- its Diablo Canyon nuclear facility -- can produce 2,220 megawatts.
The new plan would not include requirements that new-home builders install solar energy units and that utilities buy excess power from home and business solar units. Those measures would require legislation.
The new solar initiative was unveiled at a joint meeting of the state Energy Commission and PUC that was also attended by two members of Schwarzenegger's cabinet.
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I notice there's not too much detail on how much this solar powered electricity will cost per kilowat hour. I guess that doesn't matter, as long as they all feel good and the taxpayers foot the bill.
Why not? California has TONS of Money, next stop for this charade and Light Rail... New Orleans!
Taxpayers are so gullible.
TT
Kalifornians can't be bothered to build a real power plant in the state but want to spend billions on a power source that only works 12 hours out of every day barring clouds. Smart. Real smart.
In the near future, Cali will either need to file for bankruptcy or state income tax rates on individuals with be higher than federal income tax rates.
No.
"Environment California, a nonprofit, nonpartisan environmental advocacy group"
BullSh*t! There is no such animal. All environmental advocay groups are intensely politically partisan. Virtually on the left wing.
Ping
And if they dug canals with teaspoons, millions of jobs could be created. In the rest of the universe, this is known as inefficiency.
I'm curious about this, though. Normally systems like the ones described would be purchased personally by individuals and the benefits would be given to them. So if I put a solar panel on my roof, I own the power coming from it, and can then sell it back to the utility, store it in batteries or use it myself.
If that's so, this seems like a huge subsidy to people who will just take the power and laugh all the way to the bank, without actually helping their fellow ratepayers.
If not, it seems like putting useless panels on people's roofs and then taking the power without any compensation would be a plan only a bureaucrat could love.
I know that some people in really out of the way areas can be self-sufficient in power from solar panels. This site, while chaotic, has the facts. Apparently if you just buy an expensive special 12v refrigerator, cook with gas and don't use an air conditioner, self-sufficiency is possible.
I'm not convinced it's cost-effective for most of the US, or that this idea isn't a bit premature.
D
It's a redistribution of wealth scheme that moves money from the unproductive lower class to the productive middle class. The poor, who already enjoy subsidized rates far in excess of the benefits this proposal provides, will be required to return a fraction of that largess to their principal benefactors.
EXCUSE ME! EXCUSE ME!!EXCUSE ME GOVERNOR SCHWARTZENEGGER!!!
That's NOT why we elected you!!! Gray Davis was a GangGreenGovernor! That's NOT WHAT YOUR MISSION WAS TO BE!!!
Without government money there would have been no canals to open the trans-Appalachian west; No transcontinental railroads until much much later; No commercial air travel (no airports, no aviation R&D); No Interstate Highway system; No nuclear generating plants producing electricity.
None of these enterprises made a profit initially, and many banks went broke funding growth in the 19th century. But we built this country on government assuming the risks, speculation and boom-bust cycles, and bad debt, for anyone who wants to know.
Maybe the time for government to act and pump life into the alternative energy field has arrived. If the people of California want to be the benefactors of the new energy economy, I say, Thanks.
Pretty sure this was originally John Campbell's baby.
Now he's been inflicted on the whole country...dang...
That's what they said the last twelve times.
California is hilarious.
Hertzberg (D) represented residents of the San Fernando Valley in the California State Assembly from 1996 to 2002, and was unanimously elected by both Democrats and Republicans to serve as Speaker of the Assembly from 2000 to 2002.
During his time in the Assembly, Hertzberg's energetic and bipartisan approach to problem solving earned him widespread recognition and success in addressing some of California's toughest problems, including the economy, education, traffic and crime.
After leaving the state Assembly, Bob Hertzberg returned to the private sector, joining the law firm of Mayer, Brown, Rowe & Maw. He also co-founded Solar Integrated Technologies, a startup firm located in South Los Angeles, developing the next generation of roofing materials to convert sunlight into environment-friendly power. And when Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected governor in an historic recall election, Hertzberg served as a key member of the governor-elect's transition team.
It would appear that the California Solar Initiative had a helping hand from at least one "uninterested" member of the Wilsonegger gang.