India plans astounding $25bn renewables investment funds

BY:  MAX HALL
VIA http://www.pv-magazine.com/


The Indian government is reportedly planning to establish five $5 billion renewables investment funds.

Flickr/fumasivil

Business website outlines plans for state-owned bodies to create five $5bn funds. Government-owned institutions concerned yet to comment on investment plan.

With the Indian government having revised up its solar investment target to $100 billion by 2022, reports are emerging of a plan by Narendra Modi's administration to finance the nation's ambitious plans with the creation of five $5 billion funds.

According to a report today (Friday) by Indian business daily Livemint, the government is planning to call on state-owned institutions including the Power Finance Corp., Rural Electrification Corp. (REC), the Indian Renewable Development Agency (IREDA), the Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI), SBI Capital Markets Ltd and the majority state-owned Industrial Credit and Investment Corp. of India Bank.

Although the report cites an anonymous REC employee as stating the funding plans are at an early stage, it is based on information from unnamed government sources and includes a denial by an IFCI spokesman of having any knowledge about the plans and no comments from any of the other institutions named.

According to Livemint, the resulting $25 billion funds would be used to finance all renewables, with Modi having previously stated his desire for solar, hydro, biomass and wind to drive a renewables revolution in the nation.

Livemint states IREDA has already leverage JPY 30 billion over five years from the Japanese International Co-operation Agency, $1 billion from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and €100 million from French development bank Agence Francaise de Developpement.

Read more: http://www.pv-magazine.com/news/details/beitrag/india-plans-25bn-renewables-investment-funds_100017722/#ixzz3ORMYDgdB

Protection 1 Raises $250 Million for Residential Solar Systems

Via http://www.bloomberg.com/
By Justin Doom

Protection 1, a closely held security company backed by private equity firm GTCR LLC, raised more than $250 million to fund its residential solar operations.

Protection 1’s Brite Energy unit began offering rooftop power systems in San Diego  in September, and now has six offices in “multiple U.S. states,” according to a statement today. It’s working with MySolar IX LLC, a joint venture of Morgan Stanley (MS) and Main Street Power Co.

Protection 1 has almost 2 million residential and commercial customers in the U.S., and is seeking to leverage these relationships to expand into solar power. Brite Energy typically leases systems using a model similar to those of SolarCity Corp. (SCTY) and Vivint Solar Inc. The financing will cover development costs. About $200 million came from Morgan Stanley and $50 million from GTCR.

“We love the idea of being able to make a national footprint and meet that solar demand over the next five or 10 years,” Chief Executive Officer Timothy Whall said today.

Less than 1 percent of U.S. homes have solar power.

“There’s such a low penetration rate,” Whall said in a telephone interview. “We found a good time to get in.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Doom in New York  at jdoom1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reed Landberg at landberg@bloomberg.net Will Wade, Steven Frank

U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar cells may be reduced by half after review

By Ehren Goossens Bloomberg News
VIA http://www.chicoer.com/

U.S. tariffs on Chinese solar cells may be halved after a Department of Commerce review, boosting manufacturer and installer margins with little consumer benefit.

The review of 2012 import tariffs recommended that the countervailing and anti-dumping duties levied on most Chinese solar manufacturers be reduced from a combined 31 percent to about 18 percent, the department's International Trade Administration said in its preliminary results released Jan. 2.

Manufacturers of solar panels, including JinkoSolar Holding and Canadian Solar, and customers, such as installers SolarCity and Vivint Solar, are likely to see "a substantial potential improvement to U.S. margins," Philip Shen, an analyst at Roth Capital Partners in Newport Beach said Tuesday in a research note.

Homeowners who want to install rooftop systems shouldn't expect lower prices, said Shayle Kann, an analyst at GTM Research in Boston, by email. That's because the cost of panels represents less than a third of the total cost.

Soft costs, like the costs to install, permit, inspect and finance systems, make up the rest. Panel prices will probably fall about 5 cents by late 2015 into early 2016, he said.

That makes a bigger difference for large utility-scale solar projects, where prices can be below $1.50 a watt, he said, compared with $4.40 average cost of residential systems installed in the U.S., according to a report by the country's National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

The U.S. and China are caught in a dispute over the role of government in aiding renewable energy companies that originated with a case brought by SolarWorld, a German solar manufacturer with a factory in Oregon. SolarWorld asked the Commerce Department in 2012 to apply tariffs to solar cells imported from China.

After the tariffs kicked in, imports of panels with cells made in Taiwan boomed, and SolarWorld said a year ago that Chinese makers had shifted production to skirt the duties.

The final determination is not expected until early May or June, said Kann. The biggest impact will be on new imports, with shipment cash deposit rates likely to drop to about 15 percent, Kann said.

Chinese solar companies are required to set aside a cash deposit equal to the percentage of duties owed on products being imported to the U.S. that will be refunded if the final determination rate is lower.

A World Trade Organization body said last month U.S. duties on panels made in China violated trade rules, reversing an earlier finding, in response to China's appeal of a WTO finding earlier this year.

The Obama administration said Dec. 17 that it will set duties on solar products from China and Taiwan that may exceed more than 200 percent combined. The Commerce Department also completed a plan to include in the tariffs any solar panels assembled in China, regardless of the origin of the cells.

The U.S. International Trade Commission must rule on this last step before the tariffs go into effect. A decision is due next month.

Arizona "Solar customers could get hit with big rate hike"

by Jaime Cerreta

Bio | Email | Follow: @CerretaNews

via azfamily.com

Posted on January 9, 2015 at 9:47 AM

Updated yesterday at 9:47 AM

GLENDALE Ariz. -- If you've gone solar, you could really be feeling the burn on your upcoming heating bills.

Salt River Project is proposing a rate hike for all customers, but it's the solar customers who will see the biggest increase and they are not happy.

The utility company held a forum at Glendale High School Thursday night. It was a full house and the meeting was peppered with interruptions, questions and jeers. The customers are mostly upset with how solar customers will be billed under these new proposals.

SRP wants to charge all customers a 3.9 percent hike so that would be $4.60 per month for most average customers. Economy price customers would go from $17 to $20. New solar customers could be hit with paying $50 more per month. 

"We're losing on average about $50 a month for every one of our 15,000 solar customers and that is adding up, it's more than $10 million a year and if we go on, that's just going to grow exponentially and our other customers who don't have solar are going to have to pick up those costs and we don't believe that's the prudent way to go," said Scott Harelson, spokesman for SRP. 

Current solar customers and those hoping to become solar customers had a lot to say at the meeting. 

"What you're really doing is destabilizing solar households," said SRP customer Jason Manning. "You're destabilizing household budgets, you're destabilizing home values. You're basically destabilizing the househould as a whole."

Current solar customers would not be impacted by the change for 10 years, but new customers would be. 

This is the second meeting of its kind. The first one was in Gilbert on Monday. Some customers said the locations were inconvenient and others said they wanted Spanish translators for these meetings. But for now, the next public meeting will be held at the SRP offices in Tempe at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 9. The SRP board will then make a final vote on Feb. 26.

Republicans push for new law in Florida to boost solar power

January 9th, 2015 by Jake Richardson 

Originally published on Solar Love 
A petition for a 2016 ballot measure in Florida has been launched that could give a big boost for solar power in Florida. This petition is momentous because even though Florida has a great deal of sunshine, there has been stiff political resistance to solar power. Consequently, Florida has been a solar power laggard when it could be a national leader. Interestingly, the petition was launched by Conservatives for Energy Freedom.

Property owners and business owners would be able to generate up to 2 MW of solar power using their own solar power systems that could be sold directly to other Floridians, if the petition has enough signatures  to become a ballot measure (it needs nearly 700,000) and then enough votes to pass (60% of the votes or more).

Imagine people creating their own solar power and being able to sell it in the free market, with no utilities involved. Creative entrepreneurs and solar power system owners with an entrepreneurial bent might really run with such a new freedom. In point of fact, having such freedom might create something of a new market space, in addition to the opportunity for small solar power operators to recoup the cost of their rooftop systems even faster than is possible at this moment.

As it stands now, solar power owners can pay off the cost of their systems by saving money each year that they would have paid to a utility company for electricity. So, for a $20,000 system, it might take about eight years to pay back that cost, when combined with incentives like rebates, refunds, or tax breaks.

Net metering does allow small solar power operators to sell their excess electricity back to the grid in exchange for credits from utility companies. These credits are applied to utility bills, so when electricity is used from the grid as a supplement, the credits can cover that cost, or most of it.

However, if small solar power operators could sell their excess electricity in an open market directly to their tenants, neighbors, city, school district, or local businesses, they would have more freedom to sell for money and not only receive credits. They also might be able to sell at a higher rate and generate more income for themselves.

Democrats, generally speaking, support renewable energy, so it isn’t surprising that this new petition is looked on favorably by them in Florida.

“I think the people understand that … the power companies have been running the show in Florida for too long. I’m very excited and happy they’re doing it,” explained Rep. Dwight Dudley, D-St. Petersburg.

However, some Republicans there are also behind it. In fact, it was launched by conservative group Conservatives for Energy Freedom. Tory Perfetti is a Tampa resident and Republican that supports the petition. Tea Party leader Debbie Dooley has had some success in pushing for solar in her home state of Georgia, so she is working with Perfetti in Florida to help the solar cause.

Florida has enough sunshine that it could become a national leader in solar power, if only the political mindset could shift. This kind of change, in some cases, is more difficult than improving technology and creating favorable economics. The cost of solar panels has dropped very much in the last six years, so solar power has never been more affordable.

Georgia’s utility and conservative element was much more resistant until recently, but has accepted solar more in the form of new power plants only using solar panels.

Hopefully, Florida will wake up to the fact it is wasting a golden opportunity to capitalize on a free, clean, natural resource.

Image: Marc Avarette

Solar power drives renewable energy investment boom in 2014

By: Damian Carrington
Via http://www.theguardian.com/

Westlands solar park in Fresno County in the Central Valley of California. US investment in clean energy rose 8% to $52bn in 2014 behind China, where investment rose 32% to $90bn. Photograph: Proehl Studios/Proehl Studios/Corbis

Global investment in clean energy jumped 16% in 2014, boosted by fast-growing solar power in the US and China. Solar, whose costs have plummeted in recent years, attracted over half the total funding for the first time.

The green energy market has been gloomy in recent years and the rise in investment is the first since 2011. But despite strong growth in most regions, only a series of large offshore wind farms stopped Europe going into reverse, while the Australian government’s antipathy to renewables saw investment there tumble by 35%.

The new figures, from Bloomberg New Energy Finance  (BNEF), show $310bn (£205bn) was ploughed into green energy last year, just short of the record $317bn in 2011. However, as green energy gets ever cheaper, the money invested in 2014 bought almost double the clean electricity capacity than in 2011.

“The investment bounce back in 2014 exceeded our expectations,” said Michael Liebreich, chairman of BNEF’s advisory board. “Solar was the biggest single contributor, thanks to the huge improvements in its cost-competitiveness over the last five years.”

Solar investment rose by 25% in 2014, while wind power rose 11% to comprise a third of all investment. Energy efficiency and electric vehicles rose 10%, including the $2.3bn Tesla Motors raised. But amid concerns over how green they actually are, biofuels investment fell 7% and biomass and incinerator projects attracted 10% less finance.

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China was the clear national leader, with investment rising 32% to $90bn, with the US second, up 8% to $52bn, and Japan up 12% to $41bn. Canada, Brazil and India all saw significant rises too, to about $9bn. But in Europe, despite the flurry in offshore wind, investment edged just 1% higher to $66bn. In both the UK and Germany, investment rose 3% to about $15bn, while France jumped up 25% to $7bn, in part due to Europe’s biggest ever solar photovoltaic plant, the 300MW Cestas project.

Among the mega solar and onshore wind projects financed in 2014 were the $1bn Setouchi solar project in Japan, the $1bn Xina Solar One plant in South Africa, and the $860m Lake Turkana wind project in Kenya. There were also seven mega offshore wind projects, including the $2.6bn Dudgeon project in UK waters and the $3.8bn Gemini array off the Netherlands, which is the most valuable renewable energy investment ever made, excluding hydro-electric dams. Rooftop solar also had a strong year, up 34% to $74bn.

The falling price of oil has had little effect on clean energy investment, said Liebreich: “2014 was too early to see any noticeable effect on investment, and anyway the impact of cheaper crude will be felt much more in road transport than in electricity generation.”

“The figures show that renewable energy is increasingly cost-competitive, with solar in particular rapidly approaching parity with fossil-fuel generation. They suggest also that investors are growing weary of increasingly volatile fossil fuel markets,” said Richard Black, director of the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit .

“Some developing countries have increased low-carbon investment hugely – a staggering 88% in the case of Brazil – and there is a danger that the UK, with its restrictive planning regulations for renewables, will find itself increasingly swimming against the global tide,” Black said.

“It’s encouraging to see the smart money in the world’s economic powerhouses is betting on clean energy,” said Doug Parr, Greenpeace UK’s chief scientist. “The only disappointment is that, save for offshore wind, the UK and the EU are now lagging behind. For all the whinging about UK ‘going it alone’ on clean energy, it is increasingly clear that the bigger economic risk is being left behind as the low-carbon jobs go where political leaders show genuine commitment to a clean energy future.”

Investment in renewable energy soars for first time in three years

Credit: Creative Commons license
Via http://www.computerworld.com/

Solar power is expected to reach price parity with coal-generated electricity by 2016

By Lucas Mearian

 

FOLLOW

Computerworld | Jan 9, 2015 11:10 AM PT

Corporations and venture capitalists loved renewable energy last year, and will continue to embrace it this year.

That's the picture that unfolded from several new reports. According to Bloomberg Energy Finance , new funding for wind, solar, biofuels and other low-carbon energy technologies grew 16% to $310 billion last year. It was the first growth since 2011, erasing the impact of lower solar-panel prices and falling subsides in the U.S. and Europe that hurt the industry in previous years.

A new report from consultancy Mercom Capital Group showed that $26.5 billion was invested globally in renewable energy last year, a 175% year-over-year increase.

Last year was also a record year for public market or government financing, which accounted for about $5.2 billion in 52 deals in 2014, nearly double the previous year. In 2013, $2.8 billion was spent on 39 deals.

This year's investment picture for renewable energy looks to be bright as well.



"Healthy investment in clean energy may surprise some commentators, who have been predicting trouble for renewables as a result of the oil price collapse," Michael Liebreich, chairman of the advisory board of the London-based Bloomberg Energy Finance, said in a statement. "Our answer is that 2014 was too early to see any noticeable effect on investment. The impact of cheaper crude will be felt much more in road transport than in electricity generation."

The cost to install and finance rooftop solar power is expected to contine to decline over the next several years, and then level off around 2019.

Demand for solar power grew 16% year-over-year in 2014, representing 44 billion watts (gigawatts) of capacity purchased during the year. Worldwide solar demand in 2015 is projected to be 51.4GW, compared with 39GW in 2014, according to a recent report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.

China, the United States and Japan will represent 57% of the overall uptick in solar demand in 2015.

Part of that growth is because the cost to deploy renewable energy has plummeted over the past few decades, and in many regions has achieved price parity with traditional energy generation.

Today, 10 U.S. states boast solar energy costs that are on par with those of conventional electricity generation methods, such as coal-fired power plants. Those states are Arizona, California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico and Vermont.

The average cost of solar panels has gone from $76.67 per watt in 1977 to just 61 cents per watt today, according to PVinsights.

The cost of rooftop solar-powered electricity will be on par with prices for common coal or oil-powered generation in just two years -- and the technology to produce it will only get cheaper, according to Deutsche Bank'sleading solar industry analyst, Vishal Shah.

In a just-released equity research report , Deutsche Bank noted that recent volatility in solar stocks, driven largely by oil price weakness, could make the industry attractive for investors. Deutsche Bank expects 2015 to be a year of stable industry pricing and accelerating growth.

Global venture capital funding in the solar sector saw a sharp increase over the previous year with more than $1.3 billion raised in 85 deals. In 2013, $612 million was raised in 98 deals, according to Mercom Capital's report.

Solar venture capital funding in the fourth quarter of last year totaled $315 million in 16 deals, similar to the $326 million raised in the previous quarter, the report said.

Deutsche Bank reported that the U.S. rooftop solar market will be a key highlight and utilities will also start competing in the solar market.

Government policies will continue to improve for renewables -- solar, in particular -- given that anti-dumping duties imposed on Chinese modules by the U.S. last year are expected to be removed this year, Deutsche Bank said.

Bloomberg predicted that installations for solar and wind power will grow about 10% this year.

The new investment data has eased industry concerns that the recent oil price collapse would lead to a sharp reduction in funds for low-carbon energy, Bloomberg reported.

"This increase in renewable energy investment demonstrates the resilience of the sector in the face of tumbling oil prices," said Ben Warren, head of environmental finance at the consulting firm EY. "This trend is set to continue as technology around renewables becomes more affordable. The increasing role that renewable energy plays in emerging markets will also help ensure sustainable growth for the sector."

he price of solar power has plummeted over the past four decades.

Caribbean Island Ditching Diesel In Favor Of Renewable Energy

Originally published on RMI Outlet .
By Kaitlyn Bunker

Bonaire (pop. 14,500), a small island off the coast of Venezuela, is famous for its beautiful marine reefs, which are visited by 70,000 tourists every year. What many of the tourists don’t realize is that the majority of the electricity powering their needs comes from renewable energy. Yet for the residents of Bonaire, the switch from fossil-fueled to renewable energy systems has made a world of difference.

Like many Caribbean islands, Bonaire originally relied on diesel fuel to generate electricity for residents, with a peak demand of 11 MW. This fuel had to be shipped in from other nations, resulting in high electricity prices for Bonaire residents, along with uncertainty about when and how much prices might increase with changing fuel costs.

In 2004, everything changed when a fire destroyed the existing diesel power plant. Although tragic, the situation provided an opportunity for Bonaire to consider what kind of new electricity system to build. Temporary diesel generators were rented to provide power for the short term. Meanwhile, the government and local utility began working together to create a plan  that would allow Bonaire to reach a goal of generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Bonaire’s Electricity System Transformation

The result is a transformed electricity system on Bonaire . The island is now home to 12 wind turbines with a total of 11 MW of wind power capacity, which contribute up to 90 percent of the island’s electricity at times of peak wind, and 40–45 percent of its annual electricity on average. Battery storage (6 MWh) is included in order to take advantage of available power in times of excess wind, and provide that stored electricity in times of low wind. The battery also boosts the reliability of the overall system—it is capable of providing 3 MW for over two minutes , allowing time for additional generation to be started when there is a sudden drop in wind.

The Bonaire system also includes 14 MW of diesel generation, five total generators, which provide the necessary power to meet the load when there is not enough wind power available. The generators are equipped to run on both traditional diesel as well as biodiesel. The next steps in the island’s energy transformation involve using local algae resources, grown in the large salt flats  on the island, to create biofuel, which can then be used in the existing generators. This will allow Bonaire to operate a 100 percent renewable electricity system—with on average 40–45 percent from wind and 55–60 percent from biodiesel.

The new electricity system led to more reliable electricity, more employment opportunities, reduced dependence on oil (and its fluctuating prices), and a reduction in electricity bills. Bonaire residents currently pay $0.22/kWh  for electricity, much lower than prices on other nearby Caribbean islands, which are often $0.36/kWh or above. When oil prices spiked in 2008, while Bonaire was still using temporary diesel generators before making its transition to renewables, electricity prices on the island reached $0.50/kWh . The new electricity system also created jobs  for the construction and ongoing operation of the wind farm, and for research and development of algae production capabilities and conversion to biofuel. Additional employment opportunities will be created for continuing algae production and operation of the biodiesel plant.

The success of the updated electricity system on Bonaire provides an important example  to other nearby islands of the opportunity to achieve high levels of renewable energy penetration.

Why Did Bonaire Make the Switch to Renewables?

Two aspects unique to Bonaire’s situation may have contributed to the decision to switch to a 100 percent renewable electricity system. One driver may have been Bonaire’s status as a special municipality within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. This provides a connection with the Netherlands and Europe in general, where many countries have incorporated large amounts of wind and other renewable sources of electricity. Nearby Aruba, also a Dutch Caribbean island, has a wind farm as well, which provides up to 20 percent of the island’s electricity. There may be a common theme of islands with ties to European countries moving to renewables more quickly than others. In the case of Bonaire, the consortium that is developing the project , Ecopower Bonaire BV, is made up of Dutch and German companies.

Secondly, Bonaire’s government and local electricity provider were presented with an opportunity to build a new renewable electricity system since they needed to replace the plant that was damaged. Many other Caribbean islands still have existing diesel resources that are not at the end of their lifetime. These existing generators may remain a part of the electricity system, especially as renewables are incrementally added to the system, and may even remain as backup power for a transformed system that operates mostly with renewables. However, if some or all of the existing diesel resources on an island are completely shut down before the end of their available lifetime, that island will need to consider the sunk costs involved and incorporate that into their overall energy transformation plan.

Bonaire as Inspiration for the Caribbean

RMI and Carbon War Room’s ongoing Ten Island Challenge  works with Caribbean islands to utilize their local renewable resource potential to transform electricity systems and provide a renewable, reliable, secure, and affordable energy supply for their citizens. One of the participating islands is Aruba, which neighbors Bonaire and forms part of the ABC islands in the Netherlands Antilles, along with Curacao. Although the shift to renewables on Bonaire is not part of the Ten Island Challenge, RMI and CWR’s ongoing work in the area will strive to spread the success that Bonaire has achieved to the rest of the region, so that more Caribbean islands can take advantage of efficient and renewable electricity systems.

It Just Makes Sense "Americans Want America To Run On Solar and Wind"

This is the second article I have read from Jeff McMahon in Forbes and I have to say I am very impressed. He has an in depth way of expressing what is common knowledge backed up by facts.

 

Jeff McMahonContributorStory VIA Forbes.com


Americans “overwhelmingly” prefer solar and wind energy to coal, oil, and nuclear energy, according to a Harvard political scientist who has conducted a comprehensive survey of attitudes toward energy and climate for the last 12 years.

Americans see natural gas as a bridge fuel that falls somewhere in between, offering some benefits over traditional fuels but more “harms” than solar and wind, said Harvard Government Professor Stephen Ansolabehere during a December appearance at the University of Chicago.

“Americans want to move away from coal, oil and nuclear power and toward wind and solar,” said Ansolabehere, introduced as “the leading energy political scientist in the world” to climate scientists, physicists, economists and public-policy experts at The Energy Policy Institute of Chicago (EPIC). Ansolabehere described solar and wind energy as “hugely popular, overwhelmingly popular.”

So popular, in fact, that they easily cross the partisan divide that polarizes Americans on so many other issues. About 80 percent of Americans said they want solar and wind energy to “increase a lot,” and another 10 percent or so want it to increase somewhat. “In order to get 90 percent, that means a lot of Republicans like solar and wind—more than coal. Everybody likes those sources. This is non-partisan.”
Ansolabehere began surveying Americans on their energy preferences in 2001, when engineers and scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, including now-Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, asked him to gauge public support for a plan to address climate change by building 300 new nuclear power plants.
Ansolabehere found that even Americans who worry about climate change don’t support nuclear power. While such a result would not be surprising post-Fukushima, it surprised the engineers, who were envisioning a nuclear renaissance.

“People who were concerned about global warming did not want the technology that they were going to put forward. For the engineers, this was a show stopper.”

Ansolabehere’s findings might also be a show stopper for the Obama Administration’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy.

“There are very few conservationists, people who want to use less electricity overall,” he said. “There are also very few people who say all of the above, and this is an interesting note because I don’t know if you remember a few years ago the Obama administration decided this would be a good thing to campaign on, this all-of-the-above strategy. It might have been a good idea to placate West Virginia coal miners, but in fact there aren’t a lot of people who want all of the above in the energy sector.”

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz still routinely uses the phrase “all of the above” to describe the Energy Department’s approach to energy sources.

People prefer solar and wind because they believe them to be less harmful—not to the global environment, but to the local, Ansolabehere said. People are less motivated by concerns about global warming than they are about local pollution and health risks.

“People think of solar and wind as relatively harmless, coal oil and nuclear as harmful and natural gas as somewhere in between.”

And Americans are more motivated by perceived harm than they are by perceived cost.

But Ansolabehere also found that Americans do not have a good grasp of the true cost of solar and wind, nor are they willing to shoulder that cost. They believe solar and wind are cheaper than nuclear power and oil, which they perceive to be the most expensive sources.


“The average member of the American public has the picture about right,” he said. “People have the relative harms about right. People have the relative costs for traditional fuels about right. They’re way too optimistic about [the cost of] solar and wind, and the caution is that if you inform them, you’re going to get lower support.”

Ansolabehere and Georgetown public policy professor David M. Konisky detail these findings and more in a recent book, “Cheap and Clean: How Americans Think About Energy in the Age of GLobal Warming” published by MIT Press. They discovered that Americans also have strong opinions about the best way to control carbon emissions and how much it should cost:

• Americans Favor EPA Regulation Over Carbon Tax, Cap And Trade
• People Will Pay To Stop Climate Change—But Only $5

Stephen Ansolabehere at the University of Chicago

Follow Jeff McMahon on Facebook, Google Plus, Twitter, or email him here.

Perfect- "Saudi Electricity signs deal for integrated gas/solar plant"

It only makes sense to utilize two assets that the Saudi posses, plenty of sunshine and abundance of natural gas. I think we will be seeing more of these duel energy production plants where the resources are available. When I read the article below it completely makes sense to combine the two>



The planned plant will primarily burn natural gas, but will generate 50 MW of solar energy to increase fuel efficiency. (File photo: Reuters)

By Reem Shamseddine | Reuters, Saudi Arabia/Khobar
Tuesday, 30 December 2014

State-owned utility Saudi Electricity Co signed on Tuesday a contract worth 1 billion riyals ($267 million) to buy generators for the kingdom's first fossil fuel-fired power plant that will also produce solar energy.

The 550-megawatt integrated solar combined cycle (ISCC) plant will primarily burn natural gas, but will generate 50 MW of solar energy to increase fuel efficiency at the planned facility near Tabuk on the Red Sea coast.

SEC did not name the company which will supply generating units to the plant, but an industry source familiar with the matter said the company was General Electric.

ISCC plants reduce emissions of climate-warming carbon by increasing the amount of steam available for driving power generation turbines, without having to burn more gas or oil. SEC said the project, expected to cost a total of 2.5 billion riyals, would be fully operational before the end of 2017.

The company's chief executive Ziyad al-Shiha was also quoted as saying in the statement that a new high voltage direct current facility in Tabuk, expected to cost 4.5 billion riyals, would be commissioned in 2018 to boost electricity transmission in the country's western region and later to Egypt.

I am excited about "Why 2015 Will Be the Year of Solar Energy"

It seems every year for the last few years has just been great strides of advancement for the solar industry. I really believe this year is going to put us over the top of really launching solar as a true valid competitive source of energy with fossil fuels. For me understanding that we were into the billions in installation and yet only effecting 1-5% of the grid really made me sit up and realize the amount of profits and money the fossil fuel industry has. That is a huge amount of political power.

Travis Hoium

VIA http://www.dailyfinance.com/

Lester LefkowitzWhether you realize it or not, solar energy is becoming a more and more important part of our energy future. In 2013, 29 percent of new electricity-generating capacity in the U.S. was solar energy, and so far in 2014, 36 percent of new capacity is solar.

Falling costs and improving technology will drive wider adoption, and 2015 could be a tipping point, bringing the solar industry to new parts of the country.

The Year Solar Caught On in the U.S.

2014 has been the start of consumers and utilities alike understanding the positive impact solar can make. GTM Research expects about 6.5 GW of solar energy to be installed in the U.S. in 2014, enough to power nearly 1.1 million homes. But over half of those installations fall in a relatively small area in California and Arizona, so this isn't a nationwide trend -- yet.

You can see below that 10 states (not including Hawaii, where solar has long been cost-competitive) are now seeing residential solar systems cost-competitive with the grid, and by 2017 the estimated number jumps to 28 states. In 2015, a growing infrastructure from solar installers will bring solar to new states, expanding the industry's reach.

Expansion Plans Kicking into High Gear

The solar industry knows that more states are seeing competitive prices and is expanding quickly to fill the need, especially in the residential market. SolarCity (SCTY) and Vivint Solar (VSLR) install more than half of the residential solar systems installed in the U.S. today, and they both have big expansion plans in 2015.

SolarCity expects to grow from 168,000 customers in September 2014 to over 1 million customers by mid-2018. As the company showed in a recent presentation, its addressable market grows exponentially as it cuts costs. SolarCity's costs today, including sales and general costs, are $2.90 per watt, down 26 percent from just two years ago. If costs continue to fall at anywhere near that rate, the company should be able to keep growing.

Vivint Solar was founded just three years ago, but it's already grown into the second-largest solar installer in the country, with operations in seven states. Next year, it plans to open another 20 new sales and operations offices, growing beyond a high concentration in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York.

States to watch in the residential solar market next year include Nevada, Texas, and Florida, which have only been small players in residential and commercial solar until now but have high solar insolation and relatively high energy costs.

Rooftops Aren't the Only Place Solar Is Popping Up

Residential solar is getting most of the attention in the media, but it's actually large utility-scale projects where the biggest impact is coming. These projects account for over half of all solar installed, and states you'd never imagine are starting to see solar growth.

Minnesota, Colorado, North Carolina, and Oregon have made solar more cost-effective through policy that gives incentives for utilities to adopt solar and policies that make solar energy cost-effective and easy to connect to the grid. Growth in these states won't likely come on rooftops; it'll be ground-mounted small utility-scale projects that gain adoption, because they're lower-cost than residential solar.

And 2015 Is a Tipping Point

It's possible that 2015 will be the first year in which over half of new electricity generation capacity in the U.S. will come from solar. It's also likely that the industry will start to solve its intermittency issue, installing energy storage in a growing percentage of homes that decide to go solar. Both would be big milestones for the industry.

The potential growth for the solar industry isn't measured in billions of dollars, it's measured in trillions, and in 2015 we'll begin to see the industry's leaders take a larger role in our overall energy future and spread their wings across the country. Like it or not, solar energy is coming to a town near you.