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Let’s Get This Done!

OK, team, all you wonderful Citizenre Solar Advocates…

The battle has resumed. We all knew it was coming; after the failures to extend the Solar Tax Credits before Christmas, it was just a matter of time.

 This from Solar Nation:

A few minutes ago, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax of 2008 (H.R. 5351). The final vote was 236 - 182 with 11 members of the House not voting, and was largely split along party lines.

In a joint statement, Speaker Pelosi, House Majority Leader Hoyer and sponsor of the bill Rangel said: “The bill extends and expands tax incentives for renewable electricity, energy and fuel, as well as for hybrid cars, and energy efficient homes, buildings, and appliances. It does not add to our deficit, but rather repeals $18 billion in tax subsidies for Big Oil companies.”

“The bill extends and expands tax incentives for renewable electricity, energy and fuel, as well as for hybrid cars, and energy efficient homes, buildings, and appliances,” the Democratic leaders’ statement continued.  “It does not add to our deficit, but rather repeals $18 billion in tax subsidies for Big Oil companies. By strengthening our renewable energy sector, the bill will help create the next generation of good-paying, green collar jobs and bring down energy prices in the long term.”

House Democrats spoke out in favor of the bill, saying that it will help push the U.S. toward energy independence. On the other side of the aisle, House Republicans spoke out against it on the grounds that it would do nothing more than single out America’s domestic oil industry with higher taxes that will hurt the economy and the pocket books of consumers.

H.R. 5351 will increase investment in renewable energy and energy efficiency and will pay for that investment by repealing unnecessary tax breaks to traditional energy companies. It is similar to the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act (H.R. 2776) that passed the House as part of a bipartisan energy package in August 2007 but was stripped in order for the package to pass in the Senate.

The Bush Administration has already issued a letter indicating that the president will veto a bill that rolls back tax breaks for the oil and gas industry, so all eyes are now on the Senate, to see whether the Finance Committee can find less objectionable sources of revenue

So what to tell Senate Republicans?1) We want these extensions now. And, 2) We support the plan to pay for these incentives by repealing the fossil fuel subsidies.

It is very predictable that this vote will be framed as a “new industry” vs. “old industry” battle. The environment, while important, will not carry as much sway as do jobs. The core point: fossil fuel jobs are shrinking because the resource is shrinking. Clean energy jobs will grow, because clean energy is readily available, in many forms. These jobs can grow faster- but only if and when policy makers speed up that growth.

Please call your Republican Representatives today. Ask them to Please support H.R. 5351. Here’s the mantra:

+ Renewable energy is abundant, sustainable and inexhaustible– an economy fueled by renewables is secure.

+ Long term incentives help grow markets, which help grow companies and create jobs.

+ Tax breaks for the oil and gas industries keeps their prices artificially low- and uses those finite resources up more quickly.

+ Renewable energy –in all forms — is in everyone’s interest. (”renewable” does not mean “clean coal”, LNG or nuclear in any form).

Decision in the Senate could happen quickly or it may take a week or more to get to the vote.
Let’s once again show those folks on Capitol Hill that the time for clean energy has arrived.

THANK YOU.

HOUSE ACTION ON H.R. 5351 EXPECTED MID-WEEK, SENATE UP NEXT

 

As reported last week, SEIA has confirmed the House will take up H.R. 5351, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax of 2008 this week. H.R. 5351 includes extension of the solar 30 percent ITC (8 years for commercial and 6 years for residential), increasing residential solar cap to $4,000 plus extension of other renewable provisions including the wind production credit, new clean renewable energy bonds, energy efficiency tax credits, renewable fuels credits, and plug-in hybrid vehicle credit.

 

This will be the third time the House tries to complete legislation to extend renewable energy tax credits. What differs this time around is that House leadership has expressed openness to Senate proposed pay-for’s that differ from the current House version that repeals oil and gas industry subsidies. Also, it appears House and Senate leaders have stepped up their public relations efforts promoting passage of H.R. 5351 (See Media Corner below.)

ACTION ALERT: Contact your Republican representatives in the House (not Senators nor House Democrats at this time) and ask them to vote for H.R. 5351, the extension of the solar investment tax credit. Use the SEIA support letter (dated 2.22.08) at http://www.seia.org/itc.php and send the message on your letterhead by FAX and EMAIL to your representatives. Then place a call to the Chief of Staff in your representative’s office. Again, do not contact Senators or House Dems at this time.

 

Summary and full text of H.R. 5351:

http://www.seia.org/HouseEnergyTaxBillSummary2-12-08.pdf

http://www.seia.org/HouseEnergyBillText2-12-08.pdf

February 2008

Arizona Public Service Co. (APS) has announced plans for one of the world’s largest solar facilities – a 280-megawatt (MW) concentrating solar power (CSP) plant – to be built 70 miles southwest of Phoenix, near Gila Bend, AZ.

A ‘power tower’ type of CSP plant
near Seville, Spain; photo credit: Abengoa

The project is enthusiastically supported by Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano. However, its viability is dependent on the long-term extension of investment tax credits for solar facilities, which have gone down to defeat twice since December in the U.S. Congress. On both occasions, ironically enough, Arizona senator and presidential candidate John McCain was absent for the crucial vote.

Read more about the Solana CSP generating station here.

Posted by Martin LaMonica |

NEW YORK–The solar industry’s trade group is borrowing political tactics from the oil and gas industry to try to extend a tax credit that it considers vital to continued growth of renewable energy.

Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA), said Wednesday that his group has created a lobbying coalition of utilities, homebuilders, and environmentalists to pressure Congress to pass a law to extend–and improve –an existing tax credit for renewable energy investments. The group has also formed a political action committee to ensure that Congress members who voted against the renewable energy tax credit are not re-elected, he said.

“We talk about the green revolution…It’s not a revolution until some blood gets spilled,” said Resch, who spoke at the Piper Jaffray Clean Technology and Renewables Conference here Wednesday.

Resch added that the investment tax credit has become a political football. “There’s going to be a lot less grand-standing in the next couple of weeks,” he said.

He noted that a tax-credit bill needs to be passed by the end of the first quarter.

An existing federal tax credit for renewable energy projects is set to expire at the end of 2008. An extension of the tax credit was narrowly defeated at the end of last year during the creation of the 2007 Energy Act, and an economic stimulus plan was passed without the extension earlier this month.

Resch said that the solar industry is abandoning its strategy of pushing for a repeal of a tax break for oil and gas manufacturers in order to pay for the solar tax credit. The solar industry will favor a broader lobbying push instead.

The industry is seeking an eight-year extension of the existing investment tax credit and a more generous credit, which is now 30 percent of the total cost of commercial renewable-energy projects.

Resch said that the industry has already started to see “significant sales drop-off” because of the uncertainty surrounding the investment tax credit, particularly for large-scale solar projects.

He said he’s optimistic about the passage of a law this year.

Next year is shaping up to be much more supportive for the renewable-energy industry because all three top presidential candidates are very strong on addressing climate change, Resch said.

February 19, 2008

Solar-to-grid Conversion Efficiency World Record Set

On a perfect New Mexico winter day — with the sky almost 10 percent brighter than usual — Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems (SES) set a new solar-to-grid system conversion efficiency record by achieving a 31.25 percent net efficiency rate. The old 1984 record of 29.4 percent was toppled Jan. 31 on SES’s “Serial #3″ solar dish Stirling system at Sandia’s National Solar Thermal Test Facility.

“The demonstrated high efficiency means more energy is generated for the given investment, lowering the cost of the energy delivered.”
– Bruce Osborn, President and CEO, Stirling Energy Systems

The conversion efficiency is calculated by measuring the net energy delivered to the grid and dividing it by the solar energy hitting the dish mirrors. Auxiliary loads, such as water pumps, computers and tracking motors, are accounted for in the net power measurement.

“Gaining two whole points of conversion efficiency in this type of system is phenomenal,” says Bruce Osborn, SES president and CEO. “This is a significant advancement that takes our dish engine systems well beyond the capacities of any other solar dish collectors and one step closer to commercializing an affordable system.”

Serial #3 was erected in May 2005 as part of a prototype six-dish model power plant at the Sandia Solar Thermal Test Facility that produces up to 150 kilowatts (kW) of grid-ready electrical power during the day. Each dish unit consists of 82 mirrors formed in a dish shape to focus the light to an intense beam.

The solar dish generates electricity by focusing the sun’s rays onto a receiver, which transmits the heat energy to a Stirling engine. The engine is a sealed system filled with hydrogen. As the gas heats and cools, its pressure rises and falls. The change in pressure drives the pistons inside the engine, producing mechanical power, which in turn drives a generator and makes electricity.

Lead Sandia project engineer Chuck Andraka says that several technical advancements to the systems made jointly by SES and Sandia led to the record-breaking solar-to-grid conversion efficiency. SES owns the dishes and all the hardware. Sandia, a National Nuclear Security Administration laboratory, provides technical and analytical support to SES in a relationship that dates back more than 10 years.

Andraka says the first and probably most important advancement was improved optics. The Stirling dishes are made with a low iron glass with a silver backing that make them highly reflective — focusing as much as 94 percent of the incident sunlight to the engine package, where prior efforts reflected about 91 percent. The mirror facets, patented by Sandia and Paneltec Corp. of Lafayette, CO, are highly accurate and have minimal imperfections in shape.

Both improvements allow for the loss-control aperture to be reduced to seven inches in diameter — meaning light is highly concentrated as it enters the receiver.

Other advancements to the solar dish-engine system that helped Sandia and SES beat the energy conversion record were a new, more effective radiator that also costs less to build and a new high-efficiency generator.

While all the enhancements led to a better system, one aspect made it happen on a beautiful New Mexico winter day — the weather.

“It was a ‘perfect storm’ of sorts,” Andraka says. “We set the record on Jan. 31, a very cold and extremely bright day, a day eight percent brighter than normal.”

The temperature, which hovered around freezing, allowed the cold portion of the engine to operate at about 23°C, and the brightness means more energy was produced while most parasitic loads and losses are constant. The test ran for two and a half hours, and a 60-minute running average was used to evaluate the power and efficiency data, in order to eliminate transient effects. During the testing phase, the system produced 26.75 kW net electrical power.

Osborn says that SES is working to commercialize the record-performing system and has signed power purchase agreements with Southern California Edison (SCE) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E) for up to 1,750 megawatts (MW) of power, representing the world’s two largest solar power contracts. Collectively, these contracts require up to 70,000 solar dish engine units.

“This exciting record shows that using these dishes will be a cost-effective and environmentally friendly way of producing power,” Osborn says. “SES is actively engaged in the commercialization of the system, called the ‘SunCatcher,’ including continuing to prepare it for mass production, completing project site development and preconstruction activities, and establishing partnerships with substantial manufacturing and industrial organizations to develop a cost-effective manufacturing process and supply chain. The demonstrated high efficiency means more energy is generated for the given investment, lowering the cost of the energy delivered.”

SUSTAINABILITY NEWS OF THE WEEK:
Two new studies published in the journal Science will hopefully Force Congress and the Bush Administration to think twice about the billions of federal tax dollars used to subsidize corn-based ethanol instead of other tried and tested programs such as energy conservation and solar or wind power. One study, conducted by Princeton University and Iowa State, concluded that over 30 years, use of traditional corn-based ethanol would produce twice as much greenhouse gas emissions as regular gasoline. A companion study found that the current process of converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas and grasslands in Southeast Asia and Latin America to produce biofuels from soybeans and palm oil will increase global warming pollution for decades, if not centuries. In the last issue of Organic Bytes, the OCA called on readers to sign its ago-fuels petition.
Learn more and take action here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_9980.cfm

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=F-QA2rkpBSY[/youtube]

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Pb3JI8F9LQQ[/youtube]

Solar City to Rise in Persian Gulf; Why Not Arizona?

By Andrew C. Revkin

The push to find ways to build not just buildings, but communities — even small cities — with low environmental impacts is under way, although mainly outside the United States, it seems. Ever since I stumbled onto the fascinating Web site http://www.inhabitat.com/, I’ve been assembling a list of large-scale projects designed for negligible fossil-fuel use and emissions of greenhouse gases, access to mass transit, and other environmental and social attributes.

Nearly all seem to be somewhere other than the United States, although I’d happily be pointed to examples I’ve missed. I have a story in this week’s Science Times on Abu Dhabi’s Masdar City — a 2.3-square-mile complex that by 2016 should, if plans hold, house nearly 50,000 people working on next-generation energy technologies. No cars. Solar cells for electricity and solar-thermal arrays for the energy needed for air conditioning. Local agriculture. Waste fully recycled.

The community and the research institute at its core are part of a $15-billion advanced-energy initiative rolled out over the past two years by the government of Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. There’s added cash coming from outside investors under the “clean development mechanism” of the Kyoto Protocol, which allows industrialized countries to get credit toward their greenhouse-gas targets by paying for non-polluting development projects in developing countries (the Emirates included).

Sultan Al Jaber, the chief executive officer of the overarching Masdar Initiative, told me that the goal is to use the wealth accrued over a half century of oil extraction to help shift the economy slowly toward exporting renewable or non-polluting energy technology.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=YjL1ug-PU9g[/youtube]

Some experts in urban planning and related matters are cautious about such initiatives, particularly given the marketing appeal of “green” these days.

Ellen Dunham-Jones, the director of the architecture program at the Georgia Institute of Technology, told me the project potentially signaled a real shift in the Persian Gulf, which until recently has been focused more on architectural flamboyance than energy efficiency and the like.

“While it’s easy to poke fun at the U.A.E.’s use of spectacular architecture to attract investment, tourists, and a more diversified economy for its post-oil future, the reality is that it certainly is in their interest to develop energy-sufficient systems,” she said. “I just hope that Abu Dhabi is indeed committed to it and not just latching onto it as a ‘theme’ to distinguish their flashy building/city from those of Dubai.”

Those involved with the project insist its goals are real, and say the project will be open to outside monitoring.

It’s notable to see someone somewhere looking beyond fossil fuels, just as Thomas Edison recommended in 1931 when he told Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone: “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Perhaps Abu Dhabi, at least, isn’t waiting.

In the meantime, where’s Nevada, or Arizona?

Where’s the federal government? Have a look at President Bush’s proposed energy budget for 2009, particularly the parts dealing with energy efficiency, solar investment, and the like.

For sharply contrasting views, try the Heritage Foundation and Joe Romm

1-30-08 5:26 PM EST

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- Solar and wind-power companies won support Wednesday for a one-year extension of key tax credits, as a Senate panel included the tax breaks in an economic stimulus package.

The Senate Finance Committee agreed to an economic stimulus bill Wednesday that would extend tax credits for new wind and solar projects through the end of 2009. The ultimate fate of the measure remains uncertain as President

George W. Bush is trying to pressure the Senate to agree to a more limited bill passed by the House. Unless Congress acts, the renewable-energy tax credits will expire at year’s end. Companies have said that if lawmakers delay for too long, companies might pull back on new projects on the chance that new wind or solar systems might not be up and running in time to benefit from the tax credits.Under the Senate Finance Committee’s measure, wind-generation companies would receive a tax credit, currently 2 cents per kilowatt hour of electricity generated, for each new wind turbine that goes into operation through 2009. The tax credit, which also would apply to electricity from geothermal and other sources, would cost $3 billion over 10 years, according to a document summarizing the details.

In the meantime, companies that install solar or fuel-cell equipment would have another year to receive a 30% tax credit. Currently, the tax credit expires in 2008.

Residential customers who install new solar equipment, such as solar hot-water heaters or solar panels, would also have another year to take a tax credit for 30% of the cost of the system, although the credit would remain capped at $2, 000.

-By

Siobhan Hughes, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6654; siobhan.hughes@ dowjones.com

What is energy illiteracy?
This can be explained as follows: Imagine a person who is 3 meters tall (9feet) and has a bodyweight of 40kg (80pounds); your mind will directly be able to visualize this person’s body shape……right? This means you are length and weight literate!
 
If I tell you that this morning I ate 5kJ (kiloJoule) of food for breakfast; for sure you will be puzzled about this information; you probably have no clue about if that amount is a lot or a little. The same when I tell you that my car is very energy efficient because it consumes only 5MJ ((MegaJoule) per km. You will again probably have no clue if it is really efficient or instead extremely inefficient. You are simply not able to determine if this energy amount is a lot or a little because we never talk about a car’s energy performance in Joules per km.  The fact that most people have no clue about if a certain amount of energy is a lot or a little can be called energy illiteracy.
 
Even the energy-people are energy illiterate because they never look outside their own industries. The oil-guys talk in barrels; the power-guys in watts, mega and GigaWatts, the coal-guys talk Metric Tons; the gas-guys talk in Cubic Feet or meter, Alternative-fuel –guys talk Mtoes, Solar-guys talk Wattpeaks, battery-guys talk Amp-hours, wind-guys talk watts although they should talk wind-watt-peaks to be fair to solar guys……..and the list goes on and on…..
 
No wonder that most people are energy illiterate; the right unit for energy is never used!
 
No wonder we are ending up in a huge worldwide energy-crisis while continuing to burn everything we can find and even specifically grow stuff for the purpose of burning it….energy illiterate energy experts are advising energy illiterate politicians who in turn try to tell the energy illiterate public what to do…..
 
It’s time to start addressing the energy illiteracy problem!
 
The first step towards eradicating Energy illiteracy is introducing a standard:
That should be obvious! The reason why people are length and weight literate is because we always measure those properties with the same standardized units; no matter if we measure a door or the length of a room or a table. So in order to eradicate energy illiteracy we have to start using a standard unit for all energy forms.
 
The most obvious unit for Energy is Joule for the following Reasons:
1)      Joule is already standardized as the unit for energy in the metric system.
2)      Joule is already widely used all over the world in electricity (you probably never heard of that because Joule always has gone under cover of Watt; the definition of Watt is Joule per second.) Most electric enegineers do not know that because they only learn one definition that Watt = Current x Voltage…and thus even electric engineers are energy illiterate…
 
Watt Cheats the energy conscious customer…..
 
If you were an energy conscious customer and had a choice between 2 refrigerators that look exactly the same but have a different wattage; which one would you choose.
 
Let’s say fridge 1 has a 70 Watt compressor and fridge 2 a 100Watt compressor:
 
Most people will without second thought go for the 70Watt thinking that it consumes less energy.
 
That’s the way you get cheated; Watt gives you only information about how many Joules it consumes per second while most of the appliances in and around our house consume electricity the whole day with a continuously varying pattern. Information about a second is for sure not enough to determine if something is energy efficient or not.
 
What is more important to know is how many Joules per hour per day or per year are consumed.
 
Let’s assume the 70W fridge has a compressor that runs for 3.000 seconds per hour; this means that the fridge consumes 70 x 3000 x 24 = 5.040.000 Joules per day  ( = 5 MJ per day). It could be possible that with a new more efficient compressor of 100W the compressor only runs for 1.000 seconds per hour; this means that the fridge will consumes 100 x 1000 x 24 = 2.400.000 Joules per day  ( = 2,4 MJ per day).
 
You see the wattage does not say anything about how much energy is consumed; in above sample the 100W fridge consumed less than half of the 70Watt fridge. This means you can be badly cheated as an energy conscious customers’ when you focus on a low Wattage.
 
What should be mentioned on all energy consuming devices is how many kJ, MJ it consumes per hour, day or year or certain result. Lamps and TVs are used on hourly basis and thus should be labeled in MJ or kJ per hour. Fridges are used on daily or monthly basis and so should be labeled with how many MJ’s are consumed per day or month.
 
In fact Watt should be eradicated all together because it is misleading information; and it has no importance at all for the operation of a certain device.
 
What we really need to know is energy and current to determine if the electrical wiring can stand the current draw. Wattage is completely irrelevant.
 
 
Read more on this subject on www.kajul.org (under construction)