Honda today began operation of a next generation solar hydrogen station prototype at the Los Angeles Center of Honda R&D Americas, Inc., intended for ultimate use as a home refueling appliance capable of an overnight refill of fuel cell electric vehicles.
via Dream-car.tv » Blog Archive » Honda Begins Operation of New Solar Hydrogen Station.
In Florida, we have occasional flashes of futuristic well-being even though our default position tends to be doing things the same way and hoping for a better outcome.
In Central Florida, for instance, both commuter and high-speed rail proposals are gaining support in unexpected places because of their potential to create jobs. This recession-driven economic boost nudges forward, somewhat unexpectedly, goals of sustainable energy systems.
# The $1.2 billion SunRail that would stop at 17 stations, linking DeLand in Volusia County to downtown Orlando and Winter Park to Poinciana in Osceola County, is expected to create 6,700 jobs from its five years of construction— if the Legislature gives it the high sign.
In years to come, you could be looking at the humble electrical socket on your wall in a whole new light.
Singapore is setting up an experimental base for a future islandwide ‘smart’ energy grid which potentially will be able to incorporate power not just from mainstream power stations but also from new alternative energy sources.
With electric cars looking like becoming viable, one little scenario might involve car owners selling unused electrical power back into the national power grid while being also able to tap into the grid to recharge their batteries as needed.
But the possibilities as to what can be fed into the grid to diversify its sources will be limited only by the imagination and feasible technology. Potential sources could involve biodiesel, solar photo-voltaic cells or any feasible future technology.
via A*Star flips a switch on smart energy – September 25, 2009.
Passive solar design is one of the simplest ways to improve your home’s value and save electricity at the same time.
Passive solar design is a smart way of using the natural heat and light from the sun in your home. This is usually done by using various building materials and concepts to efficiently heat and cool your home. The advantage of using passive solar design is that it is rather easy to use, it needs minimal maintenance, its reduces your energy consumption, while increasing your home’s market value.
How your home was built and what is what built from play a big part in determining its passive solar potential. Ideally it should be built either on a sun-facing slope or on flat land. And if you live in a residential area, any trees surrounding your home should be deciduous to let through sunlight in winter, but shade your home in summer.
via Passive Solar Design – A Good Start To Using Alternative Energy At Home | solarhydrogencycle.com.
As the Senate considers cap-and-trade legislation to fight global warming, a House subcommittee convened a hearing to learn about the smart grid, which aims to increase efficiency and reduce pollution and greenhouse gases. The project appeared to have bipartisan support. “Those of us who don’t believe that global warming is caused by carbon dioxide are still very concerned about pollution,” said Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif.
Energy company representatives and federal agencies agreed that the nation should move toward a smart grid. Speakers suggested how to promote its development, though most of the time was used simply to inform delegates about the system.
Panelists before the House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Energy and Environment agreed that a smart grid is expected to improve efficiency by keeping demand constant. It would let energy flow in both directions, so consumers with solar panels or wind turbines could sell power back to the utility companies, perhaps at peak hours.
The Recovery Act applied $11 billion to the project, which is in its initial phase, except in California, which has taken the lead.
South Plainfield-based Petra Solar Inc. is the first business to be awarded funding under the state’s new Clean Energy Manufacturing Fund.
The fund, specifically designed to support companies looking to site or materially expand a renewable energy or energy-efficient product manufacturing facility in New Jersey, is designed to attempt to bolster the state’s role in establishing a green economy by ensuring companies have the financial resources they need to sustain, grow and prosper while addressing the goals of the state’s energy master plan.
Petra Solar received a total of $3.3 million through the fund to support the purchase of equipment and machinery and the planning and design process. This project will result in a total public and private investment of more than $7.6 million and the company expects to create 164 new jobs over the next two years.
Founded in 2006, Petra Solar designs, develops and manufactures electric power and power management products focused on the solar energy and smart grid markets. The company’s flagship product is the SunWave, which is described as a utility grade AC solar module that enhances the reliability of electric distribution systems by combining distributed solar generation with Smart Grid technology.
New solar power generation may double next year, recovering from low capacity utilization caused by the global financial crisis, as China and the U.S. increase demand for clean energy, a fund manager said.
Asian ventures led by Suntech Power Holdings Co., Trina Solar Ltd. and Canadian Solar Inc. may benefit as 10 gigawatts of electricity produced from the sun is added in 2010, from an estimated 6 gigawatts this year, said Thiemo Lang, portfolio manager at the 230 million euros ($324 million) SAM Smart Energy Fund.
“The market may not grow in capacity this year because of the negative effects of the financial crisis,” Lang said in an interview by telephone from Zurich. “Next year looks much better because we see two new regions in U.S. and China.”
New investments in clean energy may surge to $450 billion in 2012 from $150 billion in 2007 as the U.S. and Europe step up efforts to reduce emissions, Nomura Securities said. China may boost solar capacity to 10 gigawatts by 2020, enough to supply about 10 million U.S. homes, from 1.8 gigawatts now, according to the Chinese Renewable Energy Industries Association.
Suntech, the world’s largest maker of solar-power modules, and Trina Solar are among Asian companies that may gain as lower production costs give them “distinctive” advantages over manufacturers in Europe and the U.S., Lang said. Both are based in Jiangsu province in eastern China.
via Solar Power Generation Capacity May Double in 2010 (Correct) – Bloomberg.com.
A smart, digital electric power system could bring vast energy-efficiency gains and a new wave of entrepreneurship—if Washington gets the regulations right.
By Mariah Blake
In the fall of 2002, Peter L. Corsell, a twenty-four-year-old former CIA analyst, decided to try his hand at the energy business. At the time, he knew nothing about the industry, apart from a few stories he had read in the Wall Street Journal. But he had a vague sense that renewable energy was going to be the next big thing. So he buried himself in research, reading books (he says he began with “the equivalent of Electricity for Dummies”) and tracking down old acquaintances who he thought might know something—anything—about the business.
Ten months later, Corsell surfaced with an idea. Typically, putting up rooftop solar panels also means installing a tangle of wires, inverters, batteries, and other gadgets. Instead, Corsell envisioned a “plug and play” system that would combine these elements into a single unit that was quick and easy to install. With this in mind, he took out a second mortgage on his Northwest D.C. condo, and began pressing friends and family to invest in his venture. “Pretty much everyone who ever had the misfortune of knowing me, I hit up for money,” Corsell recalls. Eventually, he cobbled together $1.6 million, and launched the company under the bland moniker Equinox Energy Solutions.
Early on, the venture ran into some stumbling blocks: the initial prototype, which was the size of a large refrigerator and cost $30,000 to build, had to be scrapped after tests revealed users were at risk of electrocution. (It has since come to be known as “Frankenbox.”) But Corsell pushed on. In September 2004, a friend suggested he talk to Karl Lewis, a fortysomething veteran of the information technology business. The two men met at a grungy Dupont Circle sandwich shop, where they spent four hours hashing out technical plans on paper placemats. As they did, a vision began to take shape.
After the meeting, the men teamed up and began hiring engineers and software programmers; twenty of them worked elbow to elbow in a single, un-air-conditioned office. Part of the crew eventually spilled into Lewis’s garage to hammer out a second prototype, which resembled a clunky black filing cabinet. Unlike the device Corsell originally envisioned, it had the brain of a computer, which meant it could juggle weather forecasts and electricity rates and decide automatically whether to store excess power from the solar panels in the batteries or sell it back to the grid.
The product finally hit the market in the spring of 2005. Only a few hundred were sold, but General Electric found the technology so promising that it offered to buy Equinox Energy for an undisclosed sum. Corsell declined, partly because it was beginning to dawn on him and Lewis that their creation had applications far beyond integrating solar panels. “We began asking ourselves, what would happen if we linked thousands of these things together,” says Lewis, who is now the company’s chief strategy officer. “What if, instead of firing up a new power plant every time energy demand surged, we could tap into an intelligent network, and hundreds of solar panels would automatically start feeding energy into the grid, or thousands of thermostats turned themselves down by a couple degrees?” With this in mind, he and Corsell rechristened the company GridPoint, and in the summer of 2006 began working on a trio of software applications to connect every piece of the electrical system, from the power plants and transmission lines to hot-water heaters and clothes dryers, into a vibrant energy ecosystem. They soon realized they were part of a burgeoning movement to build what is known as the smart grid.
Much of what’s charging the Smart Grid investment discussion these days centers on software and devices that convey graphic information to consumers on their energy usage. Like jamming your foot on the accelerator of a new Fusion Hybrid from Ford and watching the green vine on its digital dashboard wilt and shed leaves, the visual feedback on smart meters from running your air conditioner during peak hours can lead to educated behavior modification.
Lovely Rita, meter maid
But the Smart Grid is more than just gee-whiz technology. While Itron (Nasdaq: ITRI), General Electric (NYSE: GE), and even Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) are giving consumers the tools to make better energy choices, just like the Fusion’s digital display, there are other equally promising areas not getting the same attention as the meter maids.
To a certain extent, that’s the nature of this emerging industry trend. Where solar, ethanol, or similar alt-energy platforms require substantial investments to build out the industry, the Smart Grid allows start-ups to develop software tools and networking devices to collect and organize the data on consumption to become the 10-baggers of the next decade.
Besides, investing in Google means you’re also investing in its search-engine prowess. Buying GE also buys you a piece of its lighting, technology, finance, and health-care businesses. These might not be bad plays, but we’re looking for Smart Grid investments.
I have one word for those who believe that public organizations can’t operate efficiently, and that green energy has to cost more: SMUD.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District SMUD is setting the green standard for utilities to operate both green and efficiently. Residents of the California capitol pay much less for energy than their neighbors, get nearly 20 percent of their power from renewable resources, and receive among the best service in the state. Not bad for a municipally-owned outfit.
SMUD also is one of the first utilities to make solar power available for purchase to all its customers through its Solar Shares program. The utility provides incentives for customers to install residential solar, and works with developers to create “Solar Smart” homes that have integrated solar and several energy efficient features.
SMUD has been generating wind power since 1994, and operates some of the largest turbines in the nation. The utility is among the most aggressive utilities in embracing smart grid technology and renewable energy. SMUD will soon be rolling out smart meters to nearly half of its 1.4 million customers, and these meters will enable customers to save energy by programming thermostats remotely and by shutting off appliances online. SMUD has contracted with Silver Spring Networks to put the smart grid technology in place, with completion of the roll out scheduled for March 2011.
via Sacramento Does Clean Power Right | Green Business | Reuters.
A plan proposed by Southern California Edison (SCE) for the largest U.S. installation of advanced solar panels on otherwise unused large commercial rooftops across Southern California has been approved by the California Public Utilities Commission.
During the next five years SCE will install, own and operate 250 MW of solar generating capacity. The utility also will conduct competitive solicitations offering long-term power contracts to independent solar power providers who will install an additional 250 MW, bringing to 500 MW the total generating capacity of the project — the largest photovoltaic program ever undertaken.
“This innovative solar rooftop project is part of Edison International’s 25-year commitment to developing cleaner renewable and alternative energy sources for our customers,” said Theodore F. Craver, Jr., Edison International chairman and CEO. “The program will create hundreds of neighborhood solar power plants, strengthen local grid reliability and produce hundreds of new green jobs to bolster Southern California’s economic recovery.”
During the fall of 2008, SCE completed the first of what eventually will be about 150 sites making up this program, a 600,000-square-foot Fontana, Calif. distribution warehouse roof. The rooftop now holds 33,700 advanced thin-film solar panels with a generating capacity of 2.4 megawatts of direct current power, known as DC power — the largest single rooftop solar photovoltaic array in the nation. SCE already has begun construction of its second installation atop a 458,000-square-foot industrial building in Chino, Calif. First Solar of Tempe, Ariz. was the winning bidder to supply panels for these first two installations.
Based on this regulatory approval, competitive solicitations will take place for the remaining roof leases and equipment needed for the 250 megawatts of facilities SCE will install and operate. A limited number of ground mounted installations also will be considered as part of SCE’s solar program. Competitive solicitations also will take place for 250 megawatts of long-term power contracts SCE will offer independent power providers who construct similar solar installations.
Potential Benefits
SCE sees numerous benefits to customers, the region and the state from its massive solar project. The program will provide a new generation source to areas where customer demand is rising. The solar modules can be connected directly and quickly to the nearest neighborhood circuit while major new renewable energy transmission lines are being built. Additionally, the output of solar panels generally matches peak customer demand — lower in the morning and evening, higher in the afternoon. Also, the project will allow SCE grid engineers to study the electrical effects of a high penetration of photovoltaic on distribution circuits. The information gained will be shared with the industry.
SCE anticipates its solar power project will create as many as 800 new green jobs in Southern California in the solar industry. The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, one of SCE’s project partners, is supporting the project through the expansion of its solar installation apprentice training program.
via California Regulators Approve SCE Proposal to Create Nation’s Largest Solar Panel Installation
An array of 213 solar panels will soon provide electricity to homes served by Duke Energy’s McAlpine Creek substation in south Charlotte – all part of an effort to implement new smart grid technology.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040414/DUKEENERGYLOGO)
The substation’s new solar panels will provide approximately 50 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power five homes when the panels are operating. Electricity from these panels can be sent directly into the distribution lines serving the McAlpine Creek test area or used to charge a 500-kilowatt storage battery planned for installation at the substation in the weeks ahead.
The solar panels and battery will be used in conjunction with residential energy management systems to determine how Duke Energy can create a “virtual power plant” by combining renewable sources, storage technology and energy efficiency to meet customer needs.
For more than a year in the McAlpine area, Duke Energy has been installing new smart meters at 8,100 customer homes and new digital communications technology on utility poles and power lines. When fully implemented, the new technology will improve reliability, reduce outage duration, and provide customers with usage data and the ability to customize their energy usage.
via Duke Energy :: Duke Energy Tests Solar Panels and New Smart Grid Technology in Charlotte.
By - Cleantechnica
Could the next war be powered by potatoes? The U.S. military is exploring bio-batteries and fuel cells as part of its overall commitment to transformational energy, particularly portable power.
To help kick-start the effort, the Department of Defense is soliciting bids for cutting edge bio-battery and fuel cell development through its Small Business Innovation Research grant program. That could mean just about anything for a fuel source, from sugar to potatoes, vodka or beer. Stay tuned for more: the deadline for submitting SBIR proposals is June 17.
U.S. Military Transforming Its Energy Strategy From solar installations at army bases to high efficiency LED lighting systems for the Navy, the U.S. military has been hopscotching over the civilian world when it comes to investing in sustainability. It is fully committed to a long term transformational energy strategy. Alternative energy is just one piece of the puzzle. Another piece is the development of high-efficiency, lightweight portable power systems that will replace conventional batteries.
The U.S. Military Needs New BatteriesAs the Defense Reduction Threat Agency describes it, the logistical footprint of portable power is in lockstep with the U.S. military’s carbon bootprint. Conventional batteries are unsustainable from both points of view. They’re an operational dead end for the dismounted soldier of the future, who is increasingly reliant on power-hungry communications and surveillance equipment in addition to armor and weaponry. Transporting heavy batteries to and around the field is just the beginning of the problem for DRTA, which states that the “acquisition, storage, distribution, and disposal of over a hundred different battery types poses an enormous logistical challenge.”
By James Kanter
An artist’s rendering of the Solar Impulse, an aircraft powered entirely by the sun. A test flight is planned for later this year.
A prototype of the Solar Impulse, an aircraft powered entirely by the sun, is expected to be unveiled on June 26 at an airfield near Zurich in Switzerland.
One of the plane’s most noteworthy features is a giant wingspan measuring 63 meters (about 207 feet), or roughly that of a large commercial passenger aircraft. That design is aimed in large part at maximizing surface area in order to make it possible to attach 11,628 solar cells.
The plane will carry four 100 kilogram lithium batteries each powering a propeller engine. But the overall weight of the plane is 1,600 kilograms (3,527 pounds), or about that of a car.
By Qi Hui
The standby power consumption of such LCD TVs adopting the new light perception and frequency conversion technology can be decreased below 0.1W; the wear rate of a washing machine with the function of “stop as soon as cleaning is over” can be reduced about 25 percent than that of common washing machines, and can save 30 percent water and electricity respectively; the multi-door frequency conversion refrigerator adopting the advanced dual refrigerating cycle system can realize refrigeration directly through a refrigerating evaporators or a freezing evaporator, effectively reducing the power consumption and realizing super energy conservation…
In the household appliance zone in various supermarkets and shopping mall, we can see these energy-conservation household appliances with various types. Nowadays, people’s living standard is increasingly improved, and household appliances have been the necessities in people’s daily life. As people have experienced such energy crises as “switch off to restrict electricity use”, “gas oil shortage” and “soaring petroleum gas price”, energy conservation and environmental protection has become people’s first demand on the function of household appliances.
In August 2004, National Development and Reform Commission and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of P.R.C. issued Regulation on Energy Efficiency Mark Management to conduct unified energy efficiency mark system on such energy consumption products with a large energy consumption potential and wide use. Starting from March 1st, 2005, the government began to implement compulsive energy efficiency mark system on such two products as refrigerators and air conditioners. In September 2006, the second batch product content about energy efficiency mark implementation was issued, where the electric washing machine and unitary air conditioners are listed. Starting from June 1st, 2008, the new energy conservation standards on such five-type house appliances as gas water heaters, electrical storage water heaters, induction cookers, multi-connected air conditioning (heat pump) units and frequency conversion air conditioners had been implemented successively.
However, the fundamental key to solve the energy conservation issue of household appliances is to innovate and make breakthrough on the energy conservation technology of household appliances. With the extruding problem of product homogeneity and increasingly fierce market competition, many household appliance manufacturers realized that only to establish the core competitiveness based on the investment and development of new technologies and new products, can they find the market breakthrough and realize enterprises’ sustainable development. Consumers realize that to purchase such energy conservation household appliances with new technologies cannot only generate economic benefit, but also nurture a healthy and environment-friendly living style.
In order to put household appliance energy conservation into place, manufacturers invest more energy and scientific research on developing such products with energy conservation, power saving and low consumption, and turn their eyes on the new technology application to improve energy conservation effect. Through technology innovation, they can find a new market on the layer a little higher than the current market, innovate in the market-demanded products, culture and create such a potential future market, and increasingly develop such forward-looking products with high-tech content. For the moment, the energy conservation products have made new breakthroughs in various fields of the household appliance industry. In terms of air conditioners, such a type with direct current and frequency conversion is becoming the mainstream in the market step by step; in terms of refrigerators, consumers do not only require frequency conversion, their requirements on the compressor efficiency has also been enhanced rapidly; in terms of washing machines, with the performance of energy conservation and water saving, rolling washing machines have caught higher and higher market shares; in terms of water heaters, some products with new technologies, such as solar water heaters and heat pump water heaters, are being favored by consumers increasingly.
Through persistent technological innovation, various large household appliance manufacturers developed novel products with higher energy efficiency continuously. It has not only made profits for these manufacturers, but also helped consumers save energy expenditure and reduce the energy consumption of the household appliances. The hot selling of energy conservation household appliances has created a new development space and injected new vigor into household appliance industry after the over-10-year rapid development of the industry.
India may be gearing to turn itself into the global leader in solar power generation, a sign that major developing nations could become renewable energy hubs to rival Germany and the United States.
Dubbed the National Solar Mission, the Indian plan outlines a target for 20,000 megawatts of solar capacity by 2020, according to a draft copy obtained by Greenpeace and posted to the Web.
“This would be the most ambitious solar plan that any country has laid out so far,” said Siddharth Pathak, a climate and energy campaigner for Greenpeace India.
India would generate 100,000 megawatts of solar power by 2030 and 200,000 megawatts by mid-century under the plan.
The plan acknowledges the high cost of solar compared to other sources of energy, and coal in particular. But it says costs could be driven down to between 4 and 5 rupees per kilowatt hour by the period 2017-2020, making solar cost competitive with fossil fuels.
There would be one million rooftop systems with an average capacity of 3 kilowatts by 2020 to cut the use of diesel for daytime power while generation parks could be built in the “exclusion” zones around nuclear plants, where people are not allowed to live but solar facilities could be safely installed.
Key to the project would be building up local manufacturing capacity. The plan envisages training 100,000 specialists by 2020. It also foresees the need for processing facilities for raw materials, factories and technology parks for making components and equipment and generation parks to produce electricity.
Part of: CC9: Climate conference 
(Foto: Bo Mathisen/Hafslund)
SARPSBORG, Norway – Robert F. Kenney, Jr. riveted the crowd at the CC9 when he spoke about the United States’ revolutionary new energy development plan for the new buzz phrase for electricity transmission – the smart grid – which will allow for the replacement of aged lines to carry power from alternative and renewable energy sources. Annicken Vargel, 05/06-2009 – Translated by Charles Digges
Kennedy – nephew of former American President John F. Kennedy and an environmental lawyer with the US National Resources Defence Council – said that President Barack Obama’s plan is to built up and modernise the aged US electrical grid, and that this alone will lead to a dramatic emissions reductions.
“We spend $700 million a year shopping for oil, for the most part from countries that don’t share our values,1” said Kennedy, who is also president of the Waterkeeper Alliance.
New electricity network
To meet the rising need for electricity in the United States over the next 30 years, 500 new coal-fired plants must be built. With a new electricity grid – the so called “smart grid touted by the Obama administration – the country can instead concentrates on solar and wind energy.
“North Dakota has enough wind to supply us with energy, but they don’t have the possibility to couple themselves up to the national electricity grid to export it,” he said.
Wind energy in North Dakota
North Dakota, a northern plains state, has a strong desire to produce wind energy, but the opportunities exploit the potential are small.
“They have so much wind they could supply the entire US even if every household has an electric car. We want to create a national energy market that rewards energy efficiency and fines ineffectiveness so that those who produce an overabundance can sell it themselves on the network,” said Kennedy.
Why does a bus stop need to be solar powered, you ask? To power its LED lighting, intercom system and even a wireless router – at least, that’s how it is with these swanky new bus stops being installed in San Fransisco. The stop you see up above is the first of the 1,100 wavy-topped, solar-powered bus stops the city wants to roll out by 2013.
For anyone who relies on public transportation, that dedicated, low power lighting sounds great during a late night commute. For everyone else, a city-wide blanket of Wi-Fi is just awesome. The stops also give whatever energy they don’t use back to the grid, and are built using mostly recycled materials. Check out more of them in the gallery down below.
via San Francisco’s solar powered bus stops spread Wi-Fi all over
WASHINGTON – President Obama today announced over $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the United States. The funding announced today represents a substantial down payment that will help the solar and geothermal industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come. Today’s announcement supports the Obama Administration’s strategy to increase American economic competiveness, while supporting jobs and moving toward a clean energy economy.
“We have a choice. We can remain the world’s leading importer of oil, or we can become the world’s leading exporter of clean energy,” said President Obama. “We can hand over the jobs of the future to our competitors, or we can confront what they have already recognized as the great opportunity of our time: the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That’s the nation I want America to be.”
“We have an ambitious agenda to put millions of people to work by investing in clean energy technology like solar and geothermal energy,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said. “These technologies represent two pieces of a broad energy portfolio that will help us aggressively fight climate change and renew our position as a global leader in clean energy jobs.”
Via President Obama Announces Over $467 Million in Recovery…
A solar power system for a 2,100-square-foot house costs about $25,500, by some estimates. Solar proponents say lowering homeowners’ out-of-pocket costs to around $10,000 ?could trigger a boom in for the solar industry in Texas.
Ten years ago few would have predicted Texas would be the top wind energy producing state in the country and among the top producers in the world.
But a 1999 law setting renewable energy goals for the state’s electric industry paved the way for millions of dollars in investments, thousands of jobs and thousands of turbines spinning in West Texas.
Now solar advocates say the right legislation could do the wind industry’s success one better.
One approach, incentives to install solar panels on homes and businesses, could be the catalyst for a homegrown industry of system installers and panel manufacturers, they say. Those manufacturers also could benefit from close proximity to an existing link in the solar supply chain — the single largest manufacturer of high quality polysilicon used in semiconductor chips and solar panels, which is located in Pasadena on the Houston Ship Channel.
“Really you want to develop a sustainable industry that does not require incentives,” said Steve Chadima, vice president of internal affairs for SunTech Power, a Chinese solar panel manufacturer that is eyeing Texas as a possible plant site. “You don’t want to live on the dole forever. But you need to jump-start the industry for it to develop along all the sectors.”
As legislative deadlines approached late Tuesday, advocates were closely watching a bill that would give out $500 million in rebates over the next five years to businesses and homeowners who install solar panels. Money for the rebates would be raised through monthly fees on electric bills—about 20 cents for residential customers, $2 for small businesses and $20 for industries.
The law would also require retail electric companies to buy a customer’s surplus electricity at a fair market price or credit the customer’s bill and provide incentives for commercial-scale solar installations.
The bill’s fate was uncertain, and its supporters in the legislature and the solar industry fear that if it doesn’t pass the Legislature this year, other states that offer incentives will get a leg up on Texas in developing new solar business.
An installed residential solar system for a 2,100-square-foot home costs about $25,500, according to Houston-based Standard Renewable Energy. Existing federal incentives would knock about $7,650 off the price. In Austin, residents can get another $13,500 in incentives, in Dallas about $7,900, but Houston offers no such advantages.
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