May 2008

Riverside, Calif. – A new 14.6 kilowatt solar system activated this week in the City of Riverside will be the first non-residential solar system to take advantage of a recently approved solar rebate program for Riverside Public Utilities’ business customers.

The system was installed on the roof of Monster Media Inc., a digital imaging technology and services company, by HelioPower of Murrieta, CA. The roof-mounted installation is made up of 96 Mitsubishi 185 watt solar photovoltaic modules and two SMA 7000 inverters. On an average month the system will produce 2,500 kilowatt hours of electricity and offset 2 tons of greenhouse gasses (the equivalent of taking 5 cars off the road).

While this system is not the first business solar project in the City, it will be the first to be able to benefit from Riverside Public Utilities’ new Non-Residential Solar Rebate Program. Under the program, businesses can receive $3.00 per watt installed, up to fifty percent of the project’s total cost. Depending on customer type and usage, rebates can be as high as $500,000. Monster Media’s rebate will be more than $44,000.

“A lot of people talk about doing things to make a difference and be environmentally conscious,” said Monster Media Inc. owner Derric Swinfard (pictured above with his roof mounted photovoltaic system), “but they don’t take the next step to actually do something about it.”

“It’s important that we back up our ideas with actual efforts.” For Swinfard, that environmental stewardship extends beyond his business to his home where he also has installed a solar system.

“This project marks an important step for the Utilities' rebate program,” said Riverside Public Utilities General Manager David H. Wright. “It sets an example for Riverside businesses to follow as we encourage them to do their parts to become environmental stewards of our community and state.”

"It was our pleasure to work again with Derric," said HelioPower's VP of Sales, Steve LoRusso. "Derric and his wife are very environmentally pro-active. We installed their residential system as well." He added, "The Monster Media system will include a monitoring system to insure system performance 24/7, 365 days a year. Derric will be able to access this information online, with data showing power generated and CO2 averted."

Energy from renewable sources has the potential to provide 50 percent to 60 percent of U.S. power needs by 2030 if policies are put in place to support the growing technologies, industry and environmental experts said Tuesday.

Representatives from the wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower and biomass sectors said Congress must extend tax credits, set minimum renewable energy requirements for states and cap greenhouse-gas emissions as quickly as possible to ensure continued growth.

"Stable, consistent policy is what this country is lacking and what we really need," said Randy Swisher, executive director of the American Wind Energy Association.

Industry officials, along with environmentalists and congressional aides, spoke at a briefing on the role renewable energy might play in reducing U.S. greenhouse gas output.

John Stanton, executive vice president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, said solar power production could provide 23 percent of electricity needs by 2015.

For the full story,click here.
Source: Reporter Sara Spivey, Stephens Washington Bureau

What do solar power industry insiders think of the chances of the Federal ITC being extended this year? Check out this poll at the Solar Power Conference and Expo home page: How confident are you that the US federal investment tax credit will receive a long-term extension before it expires?

Proceeds from the Solar Power Conference are used to support the industry and grow US solar markets. They go to SEPA and SEIA, the 2 non-profit presenters, and are used to support the organizations' year-round activities.

New York Times Op-Ed Columnist, Thomas L. Friedman, took a hard look at the U.S. energy policy and summed up his thoughts today in "Dumb as We Wanna Be." Some excerpts:

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away. Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer’s travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: we borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

But here’s what’s scary: our problem is so much worse than you think. We have no energy strategy. If you are going to use tax policy to shape energy strategy then you want to raise taxes on the things you want to discourage — gasoline consumption and gas-guzzling cars — and you want to lower taxes on the things you want to encourage — new, renewable energy technologies. We are doing just the opposite.

Are you sitting down?

Few Americans know it, but for almost a year now, Congress has been bickering over whether and how to renew the investment tax credit to stimulate investment in solar energy and the production tax credit to encourage investment in wind energy. The bickering has been so poisonous that when Congress passed the 2007 energy bill last December, it failed to extend any stimulus for wind and solar energy production. Oil and gas kept all their credits, but those for wind and solar have been left to expire this December. I am not making this up. At a time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation, we are squabbling over pennies.

It is also alarming, says Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association, that the U.S. has reached a point “where the priorities of Congress could become so distorted by politics” that it would turn its back on the next great global industry — clean power — “but that’s exactly what is happening.” If the wind and solar credits expire, said Resch, the impact in just 2009 would be more than 100,000 jobs either lost or not created in these industries, and $20 billion worth of investments that won’t be made.

While all the presidential candidates were railing about lost manufacturing jobs in Ohio, no one noticed that America’s premier solar company, First Solar, from Toledo, Ohio, was opening its newest factory in the former East Germany — 540 high-paying engineering jobs — because Germany has created a booming solar market and America has not.

In 1997, said Resch, America was the leader in solar energy technology, with 40 percent of global solar production. “Last year, we were less than 8 percent, and even most of that was manufacturing
for overseas markets.”