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California Law Supports Alternative Energy

I have spent the bulk of my career around power and fuel plants and used to spend time jumping from one natural gas pipeline to another. In each of these facilities, I can tell you that pollution emissions were a priority, and CO2 emissions were not. It was not a matter of non-compliance, it was just that nobody was talking about or concerned with CO2. With that in mind, facilities that burned natural gas were generally preferred from an installation and emissions point of view. A natural gas power plant is generally much more portable than coal burning facilities, required less overall maintenance and was much cleaner burning; making it the favorite installation for many utilities. However, thanks to a new law in California, the preference for natural gas may be about to change.

New legislation is steadily moving the economics of power away from combustion-related power generation and toward renewable energy. An announcement was made last week that the California Energy Commission has imposed new rules that forbid municipal utilities from signing power supply contract with generation facilities that use coal combustion, unless those facilities provide a way to store or otherwise eliminate CO2 emissions. Now granted coal is not natural gas, and I have not personally read the new rules yet. However, if the coal rule is a harbinger of additional rules against other combustion technologies (natural gas) then the cost of power creation for utilities that use combustion is going to get a lot more expensive. Alternatively, the incentives put forward in the state in favor of renewable solar and wind technologies may help to shift the economics such that PG&E and other utilities substantially increase their investment in new energy technologies.

Let’s face it; local government is always going to be a utilities largest customer. If that customer says I can’t buy from you unless you assure me that greenhouse gases are controlled, the utility will likely make the changes. Hopefully, the economics play out so that the utilities make changes toward alternative energy.

TAGS: PG&E, California Energy Commission, natural gas, alternative energy, greenhouse gas storage, co2 emissions, CO2 laws

How else can you get the power company to pay you?

This is exactly why I think Solar is a good idea.

My Solar Neighbors

Undoubtedly, California is a hotbed of new and exciting solar technologies. Although the current US solar market is very small in comparison to the renewable activities in China, Europe, and even Australia, we do have our share of innovation. The intrepid American entrepreneur is making swift strides into this exciting industry and revolutionizing the technologies and associated costs of a solar installation.

What does this have to do with my neighbor up the street? Actually, I used to live in Lake Forest, California, and before that I lived in Aliso Viejo, California in Orange County. At this point I would be asking so what. However, in this area a two companies that are making some significant headway into the California solar market.

The first company is an organization in Aliso Viejo entitled XsunX. This small but innovative company has developed and is actively commercializing thin film photovoltaic technology. The obvious advantage of this technology is that the photovoltaic substrate can be applied directly to window glass; which significantly increases the available surface area for a solar installation. If XsunX can get the bugs worked out of their technology and bring down the unit cost; they can make integrating a PV power plant that meets the load demands of an entire commercial building a reality. Currently XsunX is looking for a US based manufacturing facility to expand commercialize their technology.

The other neighbor of mine is the Southern California office of Akeena Solar. This fast growing installation house is beginning to show a presence in most major markets of Southern California. It appears that their growth has been fueled primarily by the residential market, but they are a full service operation and are able to perform a complete site survey and installation for commercial and government buildings as well.

TAGS: XsunX, Akeena, thin film photovoltaic, panel manufacturing, solar glass

Panel Shortage Not Over, but Soon

The panel shortage and general shortage of silicon is far from over, but it is nice to know that panel manufacturers are planning to ramp up production to address the increasing demand that the 20% annual growth of the solar industry is creating. A recent article by Diane Lindquist in the San Diego Tribune details Kyocera’s Tijuana manufacturing facility and the overall position of the company in the solar industry.

Regarding the capacity of the Kyocera manufacturing facility, the article states:

“Increased silicon output should have production at capacity by the beginning of 2008. And construction has begun on an adjacent building that will quadruple by 2011 the number of panels the Kyocera operation builds for North America and
South America.”

Of the big three solar panel companies, Kyocera seems to be moving into a dominant position with vertical integration and decent distribution in the fastest growing markets. Now if they can only maintain the lead in technological innovation, they will be well positioned for the future.

TAGS: Kyocera, Tijuana, Solar Panels, Silicon Shortage, San Diego Tribune, Diane Lindquist, solar capacity

Rebate Debacle Rebuked

This year there has been a significant drop in the number ofCalifornia solar rebate applications; and indeed, many small installers have suffered an slowdown in their business this year. This is primarily due to an un-intended clause in the recentCalifornia rebate policy that required rebate recipients to purchase time of use power contracts. For a residential customer, this essentially made the cost per solar watt, the same as the peak rate (highest daily rate) from the utility. The consequence of this is that power would cost more from a person who made the investment in solar, than it would from the utility.

Now this obviously is a contradiction to the Governor’s million solar roofs program which is an ambitious goal to cut California’s dependence on fossil-based energies. In order to address this problem the Governor is rushing an amended bill through the California Legislature to fix the obvious fly in the ointment. The LA Time story has the details of this change and the benefits that removing the problem-causing clause will have.

Personally, I commend the Governor for taking steps to address this issue. I have been reading a number of solar blogs lately, and there seems to be discussion of conspiracy around the legislated loophole. Regardless, I will do my part to make sure the million roofs number happens.

Tags: California, Governor, LA Times, Million Solar Roofs, Legislature, California Rebate