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Arizona's largest utility company wants to put solar panels on customer rooftops in a proposal that resembles a proposal made earlier this year by former Energy Secretary Steven Chu, who suggested utilities avoid a predicted "death spiral" by getting into the rooftop solar installation business.
APS will spend an estimated 57-70 million placing solar panels on 3,000 Arizona rooftops, enough to generate 20 MW and meet Arizona's renewable energy mandate. Participating homeowners will receive 30 a month off their energy bills over 20 years, a total of 7,200 each.
My colleague Steven Kannelos has the scoop on the APS announcement. I contacted APS to inquire about its resemblance to Steven Chu's suggestion.
"This is not a radical model," Chu said in a February appearance at the University of Chicago, "this is the old telephone system model, where the telephone companies owned the phone, they rented you the phone for so long, they maintained it."
Nor is it radical for APS, spokesman Jenna Shaver told me.
"APS has a long track record of providing utility-owned distributed energy to customers, starting with our innovative Community Power Project in 2008," she said.
In the Community Power Project, APS maintains 125 utility-owned panels on 125 customer rooftops. "The purpose of the project is to measure system impacts and to better understand the total customer experience of distributed generation," she said.
And in 2010, APS began installing panels at schools. It operates utility-owned solar at 59 schools in 24 school districts.
Critics have called the APS proposal a Trojan horse in the utility's battle with solar-power competitors.
The rooftop program would cost roughly the same as a traditional solar farm, APS spokeswoman Jenna Shaver told me, but will produce electricity less efficiently. At solar farms panels can be built to track the sun, but on rooftops they'll be stationary.
"We prefer the rooftop solar program because it is an innovative concept that continues Arizona's solar leadership, makes rooftop solar available to customers who would not otherwise be able to afford it, and provides our customers with a simple, easy option for installing solar," Shaver said.
The Arizona Corporation Commission has mandated that regulated utilities generate 15 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2015. APS needs 20 MW to reach its goal, and has two proposals before regulators: the rooftop program and a more traditional solar farm.
APS's parent company, Pinnacle West, was recently ranked first among investor owned utilities in "incremental energy efficiency," a metric that measures recent gains in efficiency, but 13th in sales of renewable energy. According to Ceres, 5.35 percent of Pinnacle West's electricity sales came from renewables, a total of about 1.5 million Megawatt hours.
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jeffmcmahon/2014/08/09/arizona-public-service-finds-prime-real-estate-for-solar-your-roof/
The working principle behind the technical structure of solar panels is the production of electricity by using only certain light wavelengths with the help of photo-voltaic cells. Sun exposure and low or moderate temperature are the only requirements for the panels to work. Though they are usually manufactured by many businesses in the field, a home solar panel are also a choice, and many home owners choose to do their own alternative power sources. The kits available on the market as well as the many guides that provide technical details provide the most comprehensive assistance for one who simply wants to cut the electricity bill.
First of all, if the energy produced by a solar system covers around 80% of a the needs in a household, and you did install a very good model, then you will get all your money back through the savings you make from the electricity bill monthly. We could talk about free solar panels in term of a "re-funding" that the system works on your budget. The real return on investment when you create solar power is obvious within maximum two years in case of a very sophisticated and ultra modern solar system, or up to five years if you've purchased an average one. One great resource for making your own solar power is Homemade Energy by Bill Ford. You can read about it here Home Made Energy Review
In time, the savings you make by the use of renewable energy resources are huge so that you get to recover your investment and save a lot afterwards. This means that once the return on investment is no longer valid, your gain comes from the periodical savings that you make every month. The maintenance of the home solar panels is virtually nil unless you install some more sensitive devices such as a sun tracker. Keep in mind the fact that a good assessment of the situation is necessary before making the decision to add something further to the system.
Home solar panels should work well both in summertime and in winter, with the mention that you may have to modify the inclination angle of the panels, though this is not a rule. The changes summer-winter should be specified in terms of technical features in the very installation instructions you receive on purchasing the home solar panels. Moreover, a professional installation team should be able to give all the guidance you may need.
Renewable Energy Resources
Professor Jeremy Firestone also presented comments on the IRP to the Public Service Commission Tuesday night. His comments are brief and very much to the point:
It is imperative that the IRP recognize the fundamental way in which the law of the state of Delaware has changed in the past year. Delmarva's IRP needs to be written in acknowledgement that the existing, planned load of its 2006 IRP is the load of the past; it is not the load of the future.
First, Delmarva must craft an IRP that is consistent with new section 1020(b) of Title 26, which requires that in preparing the IRP, Delmarva:
1. Shall first consider demand response and demand-side management strategies.
2. Shall preferentially obtain electricity through demand response, demand-side management, weatherization, and cost-effective renewable energy resources before
considering traditional fossil fuel-based electric supplies.
Second, Delmarva must write an IRP that accounts to the extent possible scientific studies that estimate environmental externalities. Importantly, the National Academy of Science recently released a review of health externalities of fossil fuel generation. It found that on average, US coal plants cause health externalities equivalent to 3.2 cents/kWh and the dirtiest coal plants, 12 cents/kWh. These costs have to be added to the cost that Delmarva can procure these energy sources. It does not stop there however; Delmarva must also account for the environmental externalities such as direct wildlife impacts of the air emissions associated with fossil fuels and the discharge of cooling water, not to mention climate change. As it also must account for these on a life-cycle basis, it must account for mountain-top mining of coal as well.
In light of these developments, the reference case should not be status quo ante-one that assumes a 20% RPS by 2019, which is where Delmarva already effectively will be given the land and offshore wind contracts it has signed. Rather, the reference case, should conservatively assume that Delmarva has contracts for 30% renewable by 2020. Delmarva could still analyze the existing, outdated case, but it should be viewed as a step back, not a reference.
In addition, the IRP should include scenarios with aggressive renewable targets such as 40% and 50%.
Delmarva should run variations on these, including a price based on additional purchases from BWW at the BWW-Delmarva price. All scenarios should use 2012 as the start date for national carbon price. They should base natural gas on NYMEX. They should also run with PTC and separately assuming the ITC is extended to 2016 for offshore wind.
A sensitivity analysis also could be run with a slightly lower "effective price" effect (that is, the differential between the wind price and local nodel price) which would show how selecting out-of-state land-based wind rather than offshore wind would affect ratepayer bills.
But Delmarva also must be cognizant that it is now much more difficult to site a land-based wind project in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia given the endangered Indiana Bat and the recent case out of Maryland, Animal Welfare Institute v. Beech Ridge Energy.
Finally, the IRP must account for the new realities. Delmarva must provide a No MAPP scenario as the reference rather than assuming MAPP and only somewhat reluctantly undertaking an analysis of a delayed MAPP. Delmarva must also account for New Jersey
efforts to require a new cooling water tower for the Nuclear plant at Oyster Creek, including what it might mean for the Salem Nuclear Power Plant.
"References"
National Academy of Science, Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use, Committee on Health, Environmental, and Other External Costs and Benefits of Energy Production and Consumption; National Research Council, ISBN: 0-309-14641-0, 466 pages, 6 x 9, (2009)
Animal Welfare Institute v. Beech Ridge Energy, LLC, RWT 09cv1519 (D. MD Dec. 8, 2009)
The News Journal reports that Delmarva wants nothing to do with any source of new power in Delaware:
Delmarva Power's president said today the company won't negotiate with a wind power company or a natural gas company unless compelled by a court of law.The Public Service Commission, acting under the authority of 26 Del. C. SS 1007(d), opened Docket 06-241 on July 25, 2006. A request for proposal (RFP) was developed, and three companies (NRG, Bluewater Wind and DPL sister company Conectiv) came forward with proposals for new power generation in Delaware. After many hours of hearings, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on consultants and thousands of pages of proposals, analyses and comments, Delmarva want to take its football and go home?
Surely such a drastic decision would not be taken lightly:
After taking a day to digest the report, Gary Stockbridge, Delmarva president, said that even if the commission votes to accept the conclusions of the report, Delmarva will refuse to negotiate. Delmarva believes accepting any of the bids would cause ratepayers to have to pay much more for years to come, he said.Let's be clear about a couple of points: First, the State of Delaware isn't presenting Delmarva with a take-it-or-leave-it deal. The RFP process calls for Delmarva to begin negotiations based on the findings of the PSC, OMB, Controller General and DNREC. If DPL has concerns it needs addressed, they can be put on the table in the negotiating process. But Delmarva doesn't even want to talk about it.
Second, Gary Stockbridge may cite the interests of ratepayers in refusing to negotiate, but he doesn't represent the public; he is accountable to DPL's parent company Pepco Holdings and its shareholders. The elected officials and agencies of state government are responsible for representing the public interest. It is sheer sophistry for Mr. Stockbridge to conflate Delmarva's interests with those of its customers, a point I discussed in a letter to the PSC sent just yesterday:
On this point, it is important to distinguish between Delmarva's risks and those of its customers, who are now exposed to considerable risk of fuel price increases. It is understandable that Delmarva's management would be concerned about the financial obligations imposed by a long term contract.
...
While a long term supply contract creates a risk for the company, purchasing power every three years is not without risk. Specifically, three year purchases of power leaves Delmarva's customers more exposed to the risk of future price increases-which is precisely the risk that the RFP is intended to ameliorate. Mr. Stockbridge says he would rather work something out than go to court:
Stockbridge said he hopes it doesn't come to that. Even if the commission votes to order negotiations, the company will have other tools short of litigation, including working with the Legislature, Stockbridge said.I have a hard time imagining that he'll get very far by thumbing his nose at the General Assembly, the Public Service Commission and the thousands of citizens who have taken an intense interest in Delaware's energy future.
Update: The News Journal has more on Delmarva's intransigence:
The company has long argued the state's energy needs can be fulfilled through a combination of conservation, competitive buying on the open market and new transmission lines. Under the staff proposal, Delmarva could be forced to buy more electricity than it can sell, the company argued.The amount of electricity produced and sold in Delaware are numbers that can be negotiated. Delmarva's argument on this point is unconvincing.
A factor that the "News Journal" missed, but was reported here on Wednesday, is that Bluewater Wind announced a twenty year deal with the Delaware Municipal Energy Corporation:
The agreement between DEMEC and Bluewater Wind is for the offshore wind energy generator to supply electricity, associated capacity, and related environmental attributes (also called Renewable Energy Credits) to DEMEC for 20 years. The contract is the first in the nation to provide for the purchase and delivery of energy from an offshore wind park and is valued between 200 million and 300 million over the life of the contract.In other words, DEMEC has already taken a sizable chunk of capacity off of Delmarva's hands. They seem to think, despite Delmarva's arguments, that a long term contract for energy is a valuable asset.
With record ethanol production and the lowest gas prices in years, 2014 was a banner year for the renewable fuel industry. This is good news for the farmers, small business owners, and workers who rely upon this growing sector for their livelihoods. As the new Congress gets to work, it's important for them to know that:
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In 2014, biofuels production reached 14.4 billion gallons -- a record -- in the United States. As biofuels production soared, U.S. gas prices fell to their lowest levels since 2008 and 2009.
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The renewable fuel industry now supports more than 852,000 jobs and 184.5 billion in economic output across the country. This means that more jobs than ever are supported by renewable fuels -- especially in America's rural economies. These are homegrown American jobs that can't be outsourced.
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In 2014, three new commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol facilities came online in America's Heartland. They will produce the world's cleanest motor fuel from agricultural waste like corncobs.
All of this progress has been made possible by the Renewable Fuel Standard. At a time of crisis and instability around the globe, we have achieved unprecedented levels of energy independence.
With so much on the line, the United States can't afford to turn its back on renewable fuels. Congress, the President, and the EPA should keep the progress going and support a strong Renewable Fuel Standard.
A team comprised of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, Soitec, CEA-Leti and the Helmholtz Center, Berlin has just unveiled the world's most efficient solar cell! Boasting an efficiency of 44.7%, the cell breaks the record set by Sharp just three months ago by 0.3%. The four-junction photovoltaic cell is not only dramatically more efficient than the theoretical 33.7% efficiency limit of conventional silicon-based solar PV, but it puts the team well on the road to reaching their goal of 50% efficiency by 2015.
Read the rest of German-French Team Unveils World's Most Efficient Solar Cell!
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Credit: amosrenewableenergy.blogspot.com
The first Renewable Energy Investment Promotion Meet Expo (RE-INVEST), scheduled to be organised in New Delhi from February 15-17, 2015, seems to be pressing the right buttons. The event has managed to trigger a sense of excitement and optimism in the government and the corporate sector alike.
The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is trying hard to instil confidence in the minds of the investors by creating an enabling environment to accomplish the target of 1 lakh MW of solar energy and 60,000 MW of wind energy over the next five years.
The revised target of installing renewable energy projects in the country has put both the RE industry and the government on their toes. The MNRE, Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency(IREDA), CII, FICCI and the industry leaders have risen up to the task.
In wake of RE-INVEST the government has asked the private players, PSUs and government organisations to pledge their support by committing to set up renewable energy projects. This initiative has been well received by the RE industry, and it is believed that a commitment of more than 1 lakh MW of renewable energy projects have already been signed by various companies and organisations.
It is believed that more and more commitments are expected to come as the event gets closer. It is estimated that the cumulative RE project commitment is likely to be more than the envisaged capacity.
Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Energynext/~3/Au2PmPiQS10/
The post RE industry upbeat about RE-INVEST appeared first on Renewable Electron.
