Four democratic senators have introduced an initiative urging the Obama administration to suspend a U.S. Treasury grant program formed under the Recovery Act. The program enables renewable energy producers to receive grants in lieu of Investment Tax Credit payments, essentially providing valuable financing up-front rather than over a number of tax years. That program has spawned a revival in investments for clean energy projects in the wake of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, and is widely lauded by RE industry members.

However, senators Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), Bob Casey (D-Penn.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jon Tester (D-Mont.) are concerned that components for these projects are coming from foreign companies. In other words, they believe funds intended to boost the U.S. economy should be doing just that, not bolstering economies overseas. I absolutely agree with the notion that U.S. dollars should not be spent overseas, but the problem goes deeper than a Recovery Act grant program and ends with one gaping hole in American clean energy policy: a national renewable electricity standard (RES).

The grants-in-lieu-of-credits program has been wildly successful, and its removal could be detrimental to green energy investing and deployment, as recently argued by wind industry representatives before Congress. The Recovery Act stipulates that all stimulus funding must be spent within the United States, and industry executives argue that it is…to the highest possible degree. The problem is that key components of a wind or solar installation may not be available in this country.

Now that manufacturing credits are in place, that sector of the RE industry is picking up. Those same wind power industrialists noted that several new manufacturing plants have opened up in the last year, but that the U.S. still does not have a complete supply chain in place. They also posit that had a national RES been in place at the time of the Recovery Act’s passage, even more manufacturing jobs would have been created. I agree. Foreign and domestic investors still see energy policy in the U.S. as unstable; and rightly so. Anyone with even a marginal interest in national politics can see how unstable, inefficient and unproductive Congress has been on every front over the last few years.

We need some sort of national policy for — which would act as a national statement on — renewable energy. There are a lot of pleasant pieces, mostly found within the Recovery Act, but the glue that holds everything together is missing, resulting in a fractured and frenetic political environment in which legislation succumbs to the will of one belligerent senator or corporate lobby. Even loud-mouthed pundits and talk show hosts seem to have more power than elected officials.

The best way to quiet this storm, to move forward rather than stumble and swear, is to enact that national policy. I’ve argued before for increasing import tariffs long sacrificed to free trade and corporate globalization. A national feed-in tariff the likes of which propelled Germany to the front of the global solar stage would be another vital step. But these and other steps, including grants and tax credits, will only be as strong as the renewable electricity standard backing them. Our lack of any unifying RES is stunting the U.S. renewable energy industry. We’re grasping at straws instead of bailing hay.

One need only look at states with aggressive RES to see their effectiveness. Arizona enacted its first RES in 2006 and (if sudden turbulence within that state subsides) will be home to the first American manufacturing plant of Chinese solar giant Suntech Power Holdings. Oregon instituted both an RPS and state-level manufacturing tax credits and is now home to German giant SolarWorld’s North American headquarters that includes a 550-megawatt manufacturing facility. California needs no introduction.

To really advance renewable power, we must have a national RES. I’d prefer it were accompanied by a national FIT and a strong carbon tax, but the standard is step-one in bringing everybody in line. It will give foreign investors the confidence to invest in power plants on U.S. soil. Nobody wants to pay the oft-exorbitant shipping costs involved in overseas transport, but investors don’t like risk — something the Recovery Act grant program has helped diminish, a decrease that a national RES would all but guarantee.

Another benefit of national RE policy would be the actual and permanent creation of all these high-quality green jobs so proudly touted in renewable rhetoric. We must bring manufacturing to our shores. Grants have and are bringing some, a reason why repealing that program is not the solution, but an RES would bring more. Too many jobs in renewable energy (i.e. power plant construction) are temporary.

We often hear how this or that incentive will add so many thousands of green jobs per year, leading us to believe that employment will steadily rise by 3,000 each year. Hooray! But in reality, most of those jobs are temporary and the same 3,000 workers who manned new jobs one year will man the same “new” jobs the next year. Solar and wind power plants require relatively little maintenance or manpower for operation. A sizable power plant might require only a dozen or two permanent employees.

So where in the world is our national RES?

It’s in Germany, Spain, France and – gulp – China. Along with our jobs and prosperity and clean energy economy. The world is on the cusp of truly transitioning into a 21st-century energy economy, one dominated by wind and solar and geothermal rather than coal and gas and oil. Right now, the United States is stuck on the edge, bickering amongst ourselves while the rest of the world passes us by.

As Leonard Cohen once famously rhymed about America, “It’s there they’ve got the range and the machinery for change.” Well, let’s get those machines (and our congresspersons) fired up. Let’s have our national renewable electricity standard and be a positive leader and force for change at home and abroad.

Sincerely, D. Harding

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With an ambitious goal of being 100-percent renewable-powered, Wal-Mart wants to be a green company — but apparently on its own terms. The company has been fighting for more than two years against a pair of lawsuits that demanded that two planned stores get greener. The Center for Biological Diversity and a handful of other groups filed lawsuits against the California cities of Yucca Valley and Perris, contending that two Wal-Mart Supercenters, if built as planned and approved by the cities, would violate California’s greenhouse gas emissions standards under the California Environmental Quality Act.

After years of litigation, Wal-Mart finally decided to bury the hatchet by settling. And the settlement bodes well for environmentalists. In order to set things right, the infamous supermarket chain must add three rooftop solar power systems at least 250 kilowatts in size, install efficient heating and cooling systems, as well as LED lighting at the two new stores, and donate $120,000 to the Mojave Desert Land Trust — a group trying to expand Joshua Tree National Park.

Wal-Mart is happy that the mess is over, while the environmentalists are happy that a major retailer will, like it or lump it, set the example that a “big box” store can be built efficiently using renewable power. So, Wal-Mart has been testing new store designs and renewable energy systems that would make their “boxes” more energy efficient and hopefully totally renewable-powered. Several solar arrays have already been installed on California stores, generating 20-30 percent of each store’s power needs, says Wal-Mart. The company plans to add up to 20 new systems in the next year.

All that said, it seems weird that the company would go two years without settling lawsuits that simply wanted Wal-Mart stores to meet GHG standards already in place, of which Wal-Mart must have been aware of, considering the slew of other stores in California. Whatever the reasons for the holdout, be they financial or bureaucratic, the result will benefit both Perris and Yucca Valley, as well as Joshua Tree National Park — one of the most beautiful and fun parks I’ve ever visited.

Sources:  The Press-Enterprise & Environmental Leader

Photo Credit: Box Turtle Bulletin & Blue Oak Energy

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We have all seen calculators with solar cells, that enable the device to work without any batteries, and can be used for unlimited time period as long as there’s enough light.

These solar cells that are present in calculators and many other devices are also called photovoltaic (PV) cells. As the name depicts, these cells have the capability of converting sunlight directly into electricity.

A group of cells can also be connected together electrically, fitted into a frame to form a solar panel. Moreover, these solar panels can be combined together to form larger solar arrays, similar to the ones operating at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada.

Photovoltaic cells are made up of special material called semiconductors such as silicon, which is currently used most commonly.

When light falls on to the cell, a certain amount of the light is absorbed by the semiconductor material. The energy of the absorbed light is then transferred to the semiconductor. The energy is used to loosen up the electrons, allowing them to flow freely, and thus create electricity.

PV cells also have one or more electric fields that force electrons freed by light absorption to flow in a certain direction making a current. Thus by inserting metal contacts on the top and bottom of the PV cell, we can direct the current for some external use. This current, combined together with the cell’s voltage due to the built-in electric fields, defines the power that the solar cell can produce.

This is the basic process through which photovoltaic cells work, but clearly there’s much more to it, which will be explained in the proceeding articles.

Technorati Tags: Photovoltaic,panel,cell,energy,voltage,Cells,batteries,panels,semiconductor,electrons

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Nanoscience is quite fascinated with the process of photosynthesis. They want to duplicate this process exhibited by green plants and utilize the solar power for energy use. Till now power generating solar panels are not in a position to replace the fossil fuels. They produce little amount of energy and quite expensive also. Generation [...]
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Last week, Big Solar exercised some of its growing clout by killing an anti-solar bill in the Arizona legislature. Here’s what happened:  state Republican senator Debbie Lasko introduced a bill that would have gutted Arizona’s renewable portfolio standard as we know it. Thankfully, a threat by Chinese solar giant Suntech Power Holdings to withdraw plans to put its first U.S. manufacturing plant in Arizona rallied enough pressure to remove the bill from the floor. It was of great relief to solar proponents in the state, but unfortunately, Lasko’s H.B. 2701 was not the only threat to Arizona’s fledgling solar industry.

Republican Representative Carl Seel has introduced a bill that makes Lesko’s look tame in comparison. His legislation would remove the right of the Arizona Corporate Commission – the state board that regulates utilities – to mandate renewable energy standards at all. Arizona passed their RES in 2006, requiring power providers to get 15 percent of their energy from renewable resources by 2025, including a certain percentage from solar photovoltaics.

The Goldwater Institute, a very conservative thinktank named after infamous conservative Barry Goldwater, tried to sue the state, claiming that it was unconstitutional to force any such mandates or regulations on private utilities (unless, it seems, those regulations or incentives promote nuclear, coal or natural gas power plants). Goldwater Institute lost that lawsuit, but has responded by facilitating Representative Seel’s H.B. 2381 that would render the Arizona Supreme Court’s decision moot.

Furthermore, Arizona’s republican governor, who reportedly helped kill Lesko’s bill after industry pressure mounted, also killed a regional cap-and-trade program that Arizona pioneered to put a price on carbon-emitting energy sources.

The recent wave of attacks on solar power in Arizona is troubling for a state that has some of the best solar potential in the world. There are states where one could argue that solar power is not the best renewable option, like the windy Dakotas or the geothermal-laden Northwest, but Arizona is practically made of sunshine. Why any group or lawmaker would want to kill solar power in that state is beyond this writer.

But H.B. 2701 had 51 co-sponsors, and green-leaning governor Janet Napolitano is gone. While Suntech Power Holdings and the industry managed to kill Debbie Lesko’s anti-solar bill, a huge victory among recent attacks, and may very well succeed in killing Carl Seel’s anti-RPS bill, the fact that such contention exists in Arizona may scare off potential solar industry additions to the state. Several states are working to attract green tech industries and the market is highly competitive.

However the fate of Arizona’s solar industry is decided, it will likely be decided soon, as Suntech’s potential industry followers are unlikely to wait around for long while California, Oregon, Michigan, Colorado and other states wait with open arms and less uncertainty.

Photo Credit: Interesting Energy Facts & CleanMPG

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The ins and outs of tomorrow’s energy grid will be tested on an unprecedented scale in Chicago. Local utility ComEd, a subsidiary of Exelon Corporation, will use $5 million in Recovery Act funding to institute the program, which will initially outfit 8,000 homes with advanced smart meters in order to test how well consumers manage their energy consumption when monitoring and programming are available. The project will also include outfitting 100 homes with distributed solar power systems, creating “mini-utilities” through which ComEd can glimpse the smart home of the future.

Eventually, the project will extend to cover 131,000 Chicago homes. The first $8,000 will test a small range of smart meters for comparative purposes. 3,100 customers will receive a basic energy use display meter, 1,500 will get a touch-screen version that allows for electricity monitoring and internet access, and 400 will also receive programmable thermostats that allow remote control of heating and cooling systems.

The program will also enact an unprecedented pricing program in which pilot participants will be offered a six-tiered pricing approach.

The 6 options are widely accessible. They are:

• Regular current flat rates
• Rising rates based on higher-than-average consumption
• Hourly rates based on day-ahead wholesale rates
• Rising rates based on peak demand
• Rebate for customers that reduce consumption during peak demand
• Time-of-use pricing in which costs differ between peak and non-peak loading periods

The goal is to teach homeowners how to be more efficient consumers of energy, as well as find out which smart grid products are most efficient at helping to make that happen. America’s electric grid is aging and, quite frankly, dumb. Half the battle in easing the pressure on our unkempt, deregulated grid is to reduce peak demand while increasing the use of distributed renewable energy. Moreover, a key ingredient in any smart grid is a smart consumer, a fact that ComEd and the feds’ joint venture in Chicago will hopefully illustrate in the real world  — and in real time.

Sources: CleanTechnica, Cooler Planet

Photo Credit: Anastasia Marie & Rockefeller Group Development

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Sunpods Inc. is California-based manufacturing company. They produce modular, fully integrated and tested solar power generation systems. Recently they have come out with an idea of the first solar power-assist system for buses. They should be applauded for developing it in a mere six weeks. Their partner is Bauer Intelligent Transportation. The system developed [...]
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