Energy storage industry wants tax credits enjoyed by wind, solar

They may not get it this year, but boosters of energy storage technologies want their sector to get the same tax credits that the federal government extends to the wind and solar industries. "It would be a good economic investment for us as a government and as a nation to invest in advancing these technologies," said Matt Roberts, executive director for the industry's trade group, the Energy Storage Association. Under a bill introduced by Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., qualifying energy storage technologies such as batteries, thermal energy storage and regenerative fuel cells would get a 30 percent investment tax credit. The Heinrich bill essentially runs parallel with the 30 percent tax credit that wind and solar receive from the federal government and, like the wind and solar credits, eventually would taper off. Reps. Michael M. Honda, D-Calif., and Tom Reed, R-N.Y., have introduced a similar but more complicated bill in the House of Representatives. The prospect of a tax credit created some buzz at the Energy Storage North America conference held earlier this month in San Diego. "Storage is too expensive," said Keith Martin, an attorney at the Washington, D.C., law firm of Chadbourne & Parke, one of the panelists at the conference. "If the government can help with the cost-sharing, it will then get more people into the market." Under current rules, energy storage can receive a federal tax credit only if it is paired with wind and solar electricity production, most often seen when a storage component is matched with a rooftop solar system. The proposed legislation would establish tax credits for standalone storage systems. Extending the tax credit "would encourage deployment of storage throughout our electric power sector," said Janice Lin, executive director of the California Energy Storage Alliance, an advocacy group. "The consequences of that are dramatic for ratepayers." But in addition to the political hurdles the legislation would have to clear on Capitol Hill, there are other questions. Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-10-energy-storage-industry-tax-credits.html#jCp

Preventing Falls in the Solar Industry

How We Turn Solar Energy Into Electricity

China starts construction of largest solar power plant

The plant in Qinghai province will have an installed capacity of 200 megawatts, and be capable of supplying electricity to 1 million households. "Its designed heat storage is 15 hours, thus, it can guarantee stable, continual power generation," according to Qinghai Solar-Thermal Power Group board chair Wu Longyi.

China has started construction of its largest solar power plant spread over 6,301 acres in the Gobi desert that can supply electricity to 1 million households in the country's northwest. The plant in Qinghai province will have an installed capacity of 200 megawatts, and be capable of supplying electricity to 1 million households. "Its designed heat storage is 15 hours, thus, it can guarantee stable, continual power generation," according to Qinghai Solar-Thermal Power Group board chair Wu Longyi. Once operational, the plant will slash standard coal use by 4.26 million tonnes every year, reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide by 896,000 tonnes and 8,080 tonnes, respectively, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Using heliostats to focus sunlight onto a central tower for power generation, the solar power tower system boasts higher efficiency and better energy storage than the more commonly used trough system. Located 2,870 meters above sea level on the Qinghai- Tibetan Plateau, Golmud has particularly favorable conditions for the developing new energy industry, said Wu Tianxiao deputy secretary of Communist Party of China in Golmud. The plant will also be China's first large-scale solar power plant under commercial operation, said Yu Mingzhen, vice director of Qinghai development and reform commission, heralding the project a landmark in China's solar energy development.

http://www.moneycontrol.com/news/world-news/china-starts-constructionlargest-solar-power-plant_2092401.html

Utilities fight rise in home solar power

WASHINGTON — Three years ago, the nation’s top utility executives gathered at a Colorado resort to hear warnings about a grave new threat to operators of America’s electric grid: not superstorms or cyberattacks, but rooftop solar panels.
If demand for residential solar continued to soar, traditional utilities could soon face serious problems, from declining retail sales and a loss of customers to ‘‘potential obsolescence,’’ according to a presentation prepared for the group. ‘‘Industry must prepare an action plan to address the challenges,’’ it said.

The warning, delivered to a private meeting of the utility industry’s main trade association, became a call to arms for electricity providers in nearly every corner of the nation.
Three years later, the industry and its fossil-fuel supporters are waging a determined campaign to stop a home-solar insurgency that is rattling the boardrooms of the country’s government-regulated electric monopolies.
The campaign’s first phase — an industry push for state laws raising prices for solar customers — failed spectacularly in legislatures around the country, due in part to surprisingly strong support for solar energy from conservatives and evangelicals in ‘‘red states.’’
More recently, the battle has shifted to public utility commissions, where industry backers have mounted a more successful push for fee hikes that could put solar panels out of reach for many potential customers.
In a closely watched case last month, an Arizona utility voted to impose a monthly surcharge of about $50 for net metering, a common practice that gives solar customers credit for the surplus electricity they provide to the electric grid. Net metering makes home solar affordable by sharply lowering electric bills to offset the $10,000 to $30,000 cost of rooftop panels.

A Wisconsin utilities commission approved a similar surcharge for solar users last year, and a New Mexico regulator also is considering raising fees. In some states, industry officials have enlisted the help of minority groups in arguing that solar panels hurt low-income people by driving up electricity rates for everyone else.
‘‘The utilities are fighting tooth and nail,’’ said Scott Peterson, director of the Checks and Balances Project, a Virginia nonprofit group that investigates lobbyists’ ties to regulatory agencies. Peterson, who has tracked the industry’s two-year legislative fight, said the pivot to public utility commissions moves the battle to friendlier terrain for utilities.
The commissions, usually made up of political appointees, ‘‘have enormous power, and no one really watches them,’’ Peterson said.
Industry officials say they support their customers’ right to generate electricity on their own property, but they say rooftop solar’s new popularity is creating a cost imbalance.
While homeowners with solar panels usually see dramatic reductions in their electric bills, they still rely on the grid for electricity at night and on cloudy days. The utility collects less revenue, even though the infrastructure costs — from expensive power plants to transmission lines and maintenance crews — remain the same.
Ultimately, someone pays those costs, said David K. Owens, an executive vice president for Edison Electric Institute, the trade association that represents the nation’s investor-owned utilities.
‘‘It’s not about profits; it’s about protecting customers,’’ Owens said. ‘‘There are unreasonable cost shifts that do occur [with solar]. There is a grid that everyone relies on, and you have to pay for that grid and pay for that infrastructure.’’
Whether home-solar systems add significant costs to electric grids is the subject of intense debate. A Louisiana study last month concluded that solar roofs had resulted in cost shifts of more than $2 million that must be borne by Louisiana customers who lack solar panels. That study was disputed by clean-energy groups that pointed to extensive ties between the report’s authors and the fossil-fuel lobby.
Other studies commissioned by state regulators in Nevada and Mississippi found that costs can be outweighed by benefits. For one thing, researchers found, the excess energy generated by solar panels helps reduce the strain on electric grids on summer days when demand soars and utilities are forced to buy additional power at high rates.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/2015/03/14/utilities-sensing-threat-put-squeeze-booming-solar-roof-industry/jryoppmhl8QSdsCb2HcaWK/story.html

So much heat is being expended over solar power

Last week I discussed an article that appeared in the UK’s Telegraph with the sensational title “Oil industry [is] on borrowed time as switch to gas and solar accelerates”.

This week, I will discuss the other part of the article related to solar power where it asserted that the “breathtaking advances in solar power as scientists crack the secrets” is a threat to the oil industry and oil demand.

There is definitely plenty of evidence to show the inroads made by solar energy on global energy supplies. And especially since the beginning of this century, advances in solar technology and the development of its engineering systems have gone a long way to make the increased use of solar energy desirable and more practical.

But this is driven more by government policies as a way to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions and improve energy security by reducing their reliance on imported oil and gas. To encourage investors in this direction, governments almost always have to subsidise solar energy projects and undertake to connect the electricity produced that way to the grid.

The trend is supported by the relatively high prices of oil in the last 10 years, and the subsidies from governments on behalf of tax payers, especially in Germany, Italy, China, US, Japan and India.

But the subsidies are becoming contentious, especially as they rise with more plants coming on stream or planned. For this reason, the UK government, with 5,000MW of installed solar capacity, plans to remove subsidies in April 2015, two years earlier than previously promised. This is despite the objection of investing companies who stand to lose a lot if subsidies are removed, even with the guaranteed purchase of their production and the certainty of a minimum electricity tariff over 15 years, as reported in the Guardian.

But solar power, as good as it is, suffers from certain flows such as its intermittency and unreliability as it depends on daylight hours, which in Europe is not more than 25 per cent of the day. Therefore it has to be backed up by installing conventional power stations or large and very expensive sets of batteries to provide power round-the-clock.

Solar power requires large areas of land, which is not a problem in the desert but could well be in Europe. The area required for solar panels, batteries and roads and access for cleaning and maintenance could run into thousands of square kilometres.

Because of the low efficiency of solar power installation of not more 15 per cent, large-scale plants may create environmental damage over large areas of land as they reflect or turn into heat the rest of the sun’s energy. We really do not understand a lot about these issues yet due to the relative newness of such systems.

India’s plans for a large solar station costing $4 billion are now stalled by environmental objectors who are afraid that it may affect the local climate and prevent migratory birds from visiting the region. Given all the pros and cons of solar power, is it really eroding or becoming a threat to oil demand?

BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy tells us that global solar energy production and consumption in 2000 was 0.2 million tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) and in 2012 jumped to 21 mtoe after growth picked up since 2008. Therefore, according to the same source, solar energy consumption in 2012 is only 0.17 per cent of the total energy consumption of 12,476.6 mtoe, while oil’s share is 33 per cent and its consumption is 4,170.5 mtoe in 2012.

The International Energy Agency forecasts solar electricity generation in 2035 to be between 680 terawatt hours (TWh) and 1,389 TWh depending on the policies that may or may not evolve. This is to be compared with a total electricity generation of between 39,853 and 32,295 TWh respectively giving a share for solar electricity of not more than 4 per cent at best.

The evolution of solar energy is welcome to compliment other energy sources including oil, and solve a number of logistical problems in some areas as well. Especially so in our region, as in a barren desert space, many of its environmental risks can be avoided.

But the progress of solar energy should not be used to mislead the public into thinking that the oil era is about to be over. I conclude that the oil industry is not on borrowed time despite the growth of other energy sources including solar.

http://gulfnews.com/business/opinion/so-much-heat-is-being-expended-over-solar-power-1.1378636

Texas law lets developers ban solar panels while subdivisions are growing

Eric Schirmer thought the time was right to add solar panels to his Plano home to cut electricity costs and help the environment.
The price of solar panels has dropped in recent years and an array on his south-facing rear roof would take full advantage of the ability to generate electricity from sunlight.
But when Schirmer submitted an application to his homeowner association, his request was denied — despite a Texas law that bans HOAs from restricting the use of solar power.
That’s because homes in his subdivision, the Trails of Glenwood, are still being built. And the law allows builders to restrict solar-energy devices while a housing development is under construction.
Solar advocates call this a legal loophole that creates unnecessary obstacles for homeowners who want to go green. But builders say it’s an exception that protects investments in new housing.
Developers object to the solar devices for aesthetic reasons, said Scott Norman, executive director of the Texas Association of Builders, which has 10,000 members.
“Their goal is to sell lots in a subdivision,” he said, adding that anything that impedes that goal isn’t good for business or the neighborhood.
And, he points out, the ban lasts only until the neighborhood is built out and the builder relinquishes control of the HOA board to residents.
In this hot market, that might not take long, Norman said.
But green-energy advocates say solar panels are no more unsightly than air-conditioning units and cite studies showing that solar energy increases the value of a home.
A 2011 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research found that solar panels can add 3 to 4 percent to the value of a home.
“As long as they’re installed safely, following codes, people just have to get used to them,” said Larry Howe, one of the founders Plano Solar Advocates, which coordinates group purchases of solar equipment for homeowners.
Last year, 20 Plano homes were equipped with solar panels through the “Solarize Plano” program.
Schirmer wanted to participate in this year’s program. Now he may have to wait two to three years until his neighborhood is built out.
At a time of growing concern about pollution and the depletion of natural resources, he finds it strange that “there are still major hurdles to jump over to help the environment in Texas.”
Schirmer isn’t the only homeowner blocked in an attempt to go solar.
Fort Worth resident Richard “Buzz” Smith has two electric cars, an electric lawn mower and a passion for clean energy.
Wanting to take the next step in reducing his carbon footprint, he said he was assured that he could install solar panels on his new home in the Lakes of River Trails West development.
But his application was rejected by the HOA board. A notation at the top of the association’s guidelines for solar-energy devices states: “Only approve after last lot sold.”
In Forney, Stan Conord said he also gave notice that he intended to put solar panels on the home he bought in the Trails of Chestnut Meadows.
He submitted all the necessary forms, paid the $470 fee for a solar permit from the city, and has paperwork showing his system met electrical and structural requirements.
But three months after installing a rooftop array, he was told to remove it because he failed to get permission from his HOA and the developer opted to ban the devices during the development period.
Today, Conord’s solar panels sit in a storage unit, gathering dust.
None of the builders or management companies contacted for this article would comment.
Despite the problems facing homeowners, solar energy is making headway.
The North Central Texas Council of Governments is spearheading an initiative to encourage cities to craft more solar-friendly regulations.
So far, more than 20 area cities are participating in the “Solar Ready II” project that is being underwritten by a $90,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Energy.
Norman acknowledges that solar energy is becoming mainstream. “More and more builders are offering solar as an option,” he said. “That’s the growing trend.”
Advocates point out that the law gives developers the option to prohibit or allow solar arrays.
Homeowners thwarted in their attempts to go solar should enlist the support of their neighbors, advised Dave Power, deputy director of Public Citizen Texas, a consumer-advocacy group.
“If the neighborhood developer has a lot of really irritated homeowners, it’s going to make it difficult to sell additional lots,” he said.
And be persistent, he said. “Go to the meetings. Challenge the rules. Ask for a better reason than because.”

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/community-news/plano/headlines/20140816-texas-law-lets-developers-ban-solar-panels-while-subdivisions-are-growing.ece