Notably the bill, which now must pass the committee before being brought to a vote in the House and then the Senate, will:
Update the electric utility requirements for solar photovoltaic energy generation in Pennsylvania;
Require that electric utility companies purchase solar energy from in-state resources.
How did the issue develop?
The ultimate mandate of the AEPS Act was to require 10% of Pennsylvania’s retail electricity to be generated by ‘alternative’ means (e.g. waste coal, demand-side management, and integrated gasification combined cycle coal technology) and 8% by renewable means (e.g. photovoltaic energy, solar-thermal energy, wind, low-impact hydro, and geothermal) by the year 2020.
Due to the developing nature of solar photovoltaic technologies the AEPS set aside a solar ‘carve-out’ of half a percent (0.5%) of retail electricity by 2020. However, to protect the utility companies and ratepayers in the event that the solar photovoltaic industry did not develop quickly enough, the original requirements (set in 2004) were designed to be less than a tenth of one percent (<0.1%) of retail electricity until 2015 with the expectation that the solar photovoltaic industry in Pennsylvania would not mature until 2015.
In the beginning of 2009, the $2,000 cap was removed from the 30% Federal Tax Credit and a 30% Federal Grant in leiu of the tax credit was introduced for commercial properties. Also, in May 2009 the State of Pennsylvania made $100 million investment in the Pennsylvania solar industry in the form of the Pennsylvania Sunshine Rebate Program.
What is going on now?
As a result, the solar photovoltaic industry in Pennsylvania had matured by the end of 2010. Thousands of solar photovoltaic jobs were created in Pennsylvania during 2009 and 2010. All of this activity also resulted in an overshoot of the conservative incremental increases in the solar photovoltaic requirement for utility companies by a factor of 3-4 times! Enough solar photovoltaic systems were installed in the 2010 to meet utility requirement until 2015. Unfortunately, this sent Pennsylvania Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs) prices to less than $50 in 2011 (from a regular trading price of $300 in 2010).
This hit system owners and solar photovoltaic businesses especially hard. System owners who purchased systems in good faith with an expectation of a 4-7 year payback (based on SREC prices of $150-$300), were left with solar photovoltaic systems that are still operating but not generating the expected revenue (resulting in 8-12 year paybacks). Also as the SREC prices plummeted, the expected payback time of 8-12 years meant that new solar installation jobs disappeared in Pennsylvania. Prospective system owners were unwilling to make the investment (despite continued interest in the prospect), and investors and banks shifted their focus to other states in order to get a better payback while still taking advantage of the 30% Federal Tax Credit incentive.
What are the options?
If passed in the next couple months, PA HB 1580 will help to put a floor under the SREC prices by matching the mandated SREC demand with the current supply. The bill will do this with absolutely no additional cost to taxpayers and a truly negligible impact on utility ratepayers. This bill will help to keep Pennsylvania solar photovoltaic jobs in Pennsylvania. This bill will help system owners (businesses and homeowners with other financial obligations) receive at least some of the expected revenue from their solar investments.
If the bill is not passed in the next couple months, many solar photovoltaic jobs and businesses will leave the state or go out of business. This will leave system owners without adequate access to maintenance services. It will also leave Pennsylvania utility ratepayers vulnerable in 2015-2020 when more installations are required but qualified installation professionals are not available, and/or it will mean that most if not all of those installations will be performed by out-of-state installers.
A recent article in the Washington Post (“Is green good for home resale value?” by Kenneth R Harney) took a look at the tangible value of taking sustainable measures (including solar photovoltaic systems) to improve houses.
The first half of the article is devoted to Earth Advantage studies in Portland, Oregon and Seattle, Washington that evaluated the effects of third-party sustainability certifications (e.g. LEED and Energy Star) on home resale values. According to these studies: “Existing houses [in Portland] with certifications sold for 30 percent more … [and] spent 18 fewer days on the market after listing than noncertified counterparts.” The studies also indicated that “In Portland and Seattle, researchers documented price premiums — 9.6 percent in Seattle, 4.2 percent in Portland — in a statistical analysis with a 95 percent confidence level.”
Also, regarding the impact of installing solar photovoltaic systems on house, the article indicated:
Researchers examined home sales in both metropolitan areas from 2003 to 2010 and found that, on average, installing solar panels costs owners $35,967 in a sample of homes in the $500,000 range. But with federal and state subsidies, the net average cost came down to $20,892. This net expenditure, in turn, yielded an increase in appraised value of $20,194, a 97 percent rate of recovery on the investment.
This means that in addition to energy savings (utility bills that do not need to be paid) and solar renewable energy credit income, the real cost of installing a residential solar photovoltaic systems is virtually zero! Please consider a free site evaluation today.
All startups have a defining David and Goliath moment. For solar entrepreneur Craig Dwyer, it was August 24, 2010.
That was the day Dwyer learned that his photovoltaic installation firm, Mainline Solar, had secured a $4 million assignment to build a solar system for transportation and logistics provider A. Duie Pyle. The deal was… (read more)
Solar thermal uses panels that absorb sunlight to heat a liquid or gas inside of tubes. Some systems directly heat the water that can be used in your home. These systems are very efficient but have no way of preventing water from freezing outside during cold months and offer few ways to prevent heat loss when the water is not being used.
Another type of home solar thermal systems heats a gas or some type of antifreeze in tubes and then puts those tubes into close contact with the water pipes in your home so the heat is transferred from the tubes with the heated gas/liquid to the water pipes. This process is known as Heat Exchange. By heating the water you use in your home with sunlight you are reducing your gas or electricity use.
Larger scale solar thermal systems use the same concept of heating a gas or liquid to create electricity. Some states such as California and Nevada have Solar Thermal Farms where acres of land are used to put rows of parabolic mirrors that reflect and focus sunlight onto long tubes with a gas or liquid in them.
This liquid is heated to incredibly high temperatures. For example in systems that heat oil in the tubes, the oil can reach temperatures up to 750oF. Through heat exchange the hot liquid transfers its heat to water in a chamber.
The water reaches a temperature high enough that it turns to steam (212oF) which is used to power steam engines. A steam engine allows steam to quickly pass through fans that turn and generate electricity. The steam is then sent to a storage unit where it condenses and is put back into the system. Heat storage in solar thermal farms can be very effective so energy can be generated at night even when the sun is not shining. The problem solar thermal farms have is their need for new water due to steam escaping the cooling towers. Farms can require around 800 gallons of water per MWh generated. Since solar thermal farms are most often located in deserts finding a source of water is a challenge.
To address this challenge the use of dry cooling is beginning to show up in solar thermal farms. This new way of cooling the plant can reduce the water use up to 90% but it reduces the efficiency and electricity output (Dry Cooling).
