Four wins for Renewable Energy....

Today's post: Wednesday, 11-3-2010

We need an 80% reduction in fossil fuel use by 2050 to avoid the worst global warming effects. And, practically speaking, we need to also double our electricity generation and double the useful work done per unit of electricity & other energy sources as well during that same time to have a decent economy.

At some point, the oil that we’ve been using to power much of our economy will begin to run low enough that our world economy will shrink due to lack of supply or excessive costs or both. Kuwaiti scientists recently predicted peak oil in 2014 – just 4 years from now.

And, once the demand for oil picks up again with the apparent economic recovery or supply begins to plateau or drop, the prices will again go back up. That will cause more hard times economically unless we have enough alternative sources of energy to turn to.

Today’s post: Four wins for Renewable Energy

1. Voters including me and perhaps you voted against Proposition 23. It LOST. That means that California will begin to work on a large scale to build more renewable energy, become more energy efficient, and begin gradually to cut the release of CO2.

The effort to do this will begin to add even more new jobs than it has in the last 3 years and do this every year. And, most of these jobs will be in California. The new sources of energy and the increased energy efficiency of California’s economy will also strengthen the California economy.

2. In California, the candidate for Governor who had actually taken action to protect renewable energy and supported No on 23 and the clean energy and jobs that AB32 will now create defeated the woman who was so clueless about this she would have suspended AB32 as being bad for the economy. He was qualified by this to be Governor despite his faults and she was NOT despite her good points. The candidate that will actually be most likely to bring new jobs and a strong economy to California won.

California’s economy and its ability to lead the transition to the new clean energy economy are now MUCH better off!

3. In the Senate races, two of the most valuable supporters of clean energy in the United States congress have been Senator Barbara Boxer from California and Harry Reid of Nevada. They both won reelection against candidates who also were unqualified to be in the US Senate because they were clueless about clean energy.

In either case to have lost a knowledgeable supporter and had an unqualified person to replace them who opposed clean energy would have had grave and negative consequences.

So, to have won both these races is a very important victory for clean energy.

And, since each of their states, California and Nevada, have such large potential for both photovoltaic and thermal solar power, it was extremely important that each of them win and they did.

4. Despite having less solar energy than California, Germany has been consistently building about 15 times as much solar every year as California.

If California built as much solar in relation to its available solar energy as Germany has been doing it would begin to build about TWENTY-FIVE times as much solar!

Since that’s exactly what we need now, it makes superb sense to use the proven incentive system that Germany has been using and that California has not.

This system is called the Feed-in Tariff or FIT. Companies, builders, and developers – even homeowners --who are willing to contract to supply solar electricity are offered a fixed contract and at just enough of a higher rate than other sources to guarantee the person or group building the solar capacity a reliable profit.

That in turn makes their project financeable even in today’s tough credit environment.

But if California cannot offer rates high enough to guarantee the person or group building the solar capacity a reliable profit, even a modest one, virtually no new solar will be built for many years or at all.

As of late last month, it was ruled that California now CAN offer rates high enough to do the job!

Since that literally may increase the amount of solar built here and producing clean electricity by as much as twenty-five times in just a few years, that IS a very significant piece of good news for clean energy!

I get news from CEN, the clean energy network and from the FIT Coalition by email. In the last one I got from CEN a few days ago, it had this news.

They also had a link to a story about it in the GreenTech Solar news. (They had the link; but I was unable to do a cut and paste to show it here. But you should be able to find the GreenTech Solar website and this article in it online.)

Their story was by Herman K. Trabish. And October 28, 2010 was its publication date.

“FERC Decision Boosts Renewables

Federal regulator’s ruling makes the price paid to renewable energy producers more competitive.
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The federal transmission system regulator ruled October 21 that California can require its utilities to pay a price for renewable energy that will support its Feed-In Tariff (FIT) plan. The ruling resets the existing price standard and is expected to drive the deployment of renewable energy.”



The news for clean energy from yesterday’s election on a national basis was far less promising.

But these four things were quite good. And, since their combination strongly suggests clean energy in California will begin to do really well soon, once people see a stronger economy and more new jobs in California soon, the national picture should improve also.