Posted on 02/27/2005 5:11:21 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger aims to make California a world leader in solar energy with a new proposal he's sending to lawmakers Monday.
The plan, which drops some controversial provisions that doomed his "million solar homes" proposal last year, would create a 10-year incentive fund encouraging both residences and commercial buildings to install solar power. But it would drop a requirement that half of all new homes eventually be solar powered. Those changes are designed to mute opposition from businesses and the building industry.
The Public Utility Commission would decide how electricity consumers pay into the incentive fund, most likely with a new fee on utility bills. The administration and solar advocates say consumers will save money because the fee would be offset by money earned from the extra solar power generated by some consumers and used by others.
The revised proposal requires some larger developers to offer solar power as an option by 2010, and to inform home buyers of the costs and savings.
California builds about 150,000 new homes a year. Experience shows about 10 percent of homeowners would choose solar if offered the option - about 15 times the roughly 1,000 solar homes currently built each year in the state, said Bernadette Del Chiaro, a solar advocate for the nonprofit Environment California.
"It's clearly the most ambitious solar initiative ever proposed in the United States," said David Hochschild, policy director for the nonprofit organization Vote Solar.
The incentive approach is modeled on Japan, the world leader in solar power, which has seen a 72 percent drop in solar costs as 70,000 homes have been outfitted for the alternative power over the last 10 years.
California already is the third-largest consumer of solar power equipment, behind Germany, but gets 40 percent more annual sunlight than Germany and 20 percent more than Japan. Hochschild calls California "the Saudi Arabia of sunlight."
That's part of the appeal for a state that may soon again see a repeat of the power shortages that led to rolling blackouts and soaring electricity costs in 2000 and 2001, said Sen. John Campbell, R-Irvine, who is sponsoring the bill package with Sen. Kevin Murray, D-Culver City.
"The sun shines in California - it's homegrown. No other state or country can take it from us," Campbell said.
The goal is to have 3,000 megawatts worth of solar power by 2018, which amounts to about 5 percent of the state's entire electricity usage at peak periods - generally hot summer afternoons when electricity is most in demand, most expensive, and when solar panels are most efficient.
That's the equivalent of 40 new, $30 million, 75-megawatt natural gas plants. One megawatt is enough to power about 750 homes.
"We will be building literally power plants' worth of solar on roofs across the state," said Del Chiaro.
The net projected savings over 10 years would be as much as $1 billion, said Campbell.
The proposal also encourages time-of-use metering, in which consumers pay more during periods of peak demand, encouraging them to run appliances in off-hours.
The measure also would direct the California Energy Commission to consider requiring solar energy in the same way the commission has in the past mandated low-flush toilets.
The goal is to create a large, stable solar market that will lower the cost not only of components but also of installation to the point that incentives will no longer be necessary to make solar energy affordable.
Hochschild installed solar panels on his San Francisco home three years ago, with the state's current rebate program paying about a third of the cost.
His home now feeds electricity into the power grid during the day's peak demand, and draws power at night. Because his energy supply and demand balances out, Hochschild's electricity bill last year was zero - the result advocates and the administration predict statewide.
The systems are projected to pay for themselves in five to 15 years, depending on location and climate. A desert dweller, for instance, is likely to break even more quickly than a resident along the foggy Pacific coast.
Joe Desmond, the governor's deputy secretary for energy, is optimistic about legislative support for the proposal, though he acknowledges some roadblocks. "What we have here is a broad consensus between many of the stakeholders," he said.
The existing solar incentive program is likely to run out of money in the next few months unless lawmakers act. And the proposal could face continued opposition from utilities and labor.
---
On the Net:
Read SB1 and SB1017 at www.sen.ca.gov
Vote Solar: www.votesolar.org
Environment California: www.environmentcalifornia.org
fyi
It's time to quit subsidising expensive power and take the restrictions off of nukes and replace gas powered generators with nuke generators.
As far as i'm concerned all electricity in this country should be either hydro or nuke generated.
I thought John Campbell had more sense than to sign on to attempts to force the marketplace to go somewhere it doesn't want to. Johnnie, Johnnie, Johnnie. Why have you forsaken us?
This Gov appears to be more/all talk no action. Has anyone else noticed?
Well so much for "Mr. Free-Market". I guess he didn't learn much from Gov. Davis' failed reign. Govt. can't sovlve problems, they only make them worse. What a clown.
Well so much for "Mr. Free-Market". I guess he didn't learn much from Gov. Davis' failed reign. Govt. can't sovlve problems, they only make them worse. What a clown.
What they are not saying is the average corner gas station has the energy equivalent of 84 sq miles of solar cells.
If he were a true conservative, he'd veto it...
most likely with a new fee on utility bills."
Just what we need -- one third of our utility bills are already fees and taxes, all we need is more.
I do wish Arnold would focus on fixing the fiscal mess of CA and leave this enviro-nut stuff alone.
But I guess we should be glad they took out the requirement to have half of all new homes use solar power.
This hardly seems worth the effort.
And these same people say it's not worth drilling in ANWR, because it would only provide 25% of the energy needs of the US for the next 20-30 years.
So where the White Knight, Tom McClintock riding to the rescue, mobilizing to defeat this idiotic bill?
We never heard from him, when there is something to be done.
Germany's Top Solar Leader to Visit Sacramento
http://renewableenergyaccess.com/rea/news/story?id=23004
At a lunch-time briefing next week in California's state capitol, leading representatives from Germany and Japan, home of the world's two largest solar markets, as well as three American economists will discuss the economic benefits of growing California's solar power market while examining various proposals to increase solar power in California, including Governor Schwarzenegger's Million Solar Roofs Initiative.
The event will take place on March 1, 2005 from 12:00 to 1:00 PM in room 112 at the California State Capitol building. Senator Kevin Murray and the Environment California Research & Policy Center will host the event which will feature speaker Dr. Hermann Scheer, German Parliament and Chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy who was instrumental in passing Germany's renewable energy legislation which has caused a solar market explosion in the country. Other speakers will include: Shirley Neff, President-elect of the U.S. Association for Energy Economics; Steven McClary, MRW & Associates, Inc.; Dr. Daniel Kammen, University of California, Berkeley; Chris O'Brien, Sharp Solar Electronics. Summary of presentations will be provided at the briefing and also will be available for download at the following link.
lol.. nice try..
so ya knockin' everybody now,, there'd hope for ya yet. ;-)
8 | The goal is to have 3,000 megawatts worth of solar power by 2018...The net projected savings over 10 years would be as much as $1 billion, said Campbell. |
Solar power is so economically and energy inefficienct that is now time to consider bringing criminal indictments for fraud against the manufacturers and promoters.
ref. | source | loss (%) |
power (per m2) |
---|---|---|---|
Solar flux |
|
1,368 W | |
Atmospheric losses |
|
752 W | |
|
Night times losses |
|
376 W |
Solar angle losses |
|
188 W | |
Cell conversion losses |
|
22.6 W | |
DC®AC inverter losses |
|
20.3 W | |
|
Net efficiency |
|
1.5% |
|
Net energy (per m2 per day) |
|
0.5 kWh |
Value of energy (per m2 per day) |
|
4.3 ¢ | |
Solar panel cost (per m2) |
|
$530 | |
|
Payback period |
|
33 years |
|
--Boot Hill
He's been on record for a long time re: energy and California , btw.
Build nukes,, what's so difficult about that?
Why do you expect McClintock to accomplish things which are not supported by the majority of Kalifornians? Arnold won the leadership and now he is leading.
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