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San Francisco – pay a little more for 100% renewable energy?

San Francisco’s 100% renewable energy plan, Smart Planet,  By Tyler Falk | September 20, 2012, San Francisco is one step closer to offering residents the option to switch to 100 percent renewable energy  after the city’s Board of Supervisors voted 8-3 in favor of the program that would lead to significant cuts in carbon emissions.

CleanPowerSF , a $19.5 million program run by Shell Energy North America, will automatically opt-in half of San Francisco residents and then give them the option to opt-out. It’s a roundabout way of giving people choice, but the five-year program will need 90,000 of 375,000 residents to make the switch to make the program worthwhile.

If the city is successful at getting residents to buy into the program (and stick with it) CleanPowerSF could do more than previous efforts to reduce carbon emissions. According to the city, it would see a cut 10 times greater than the amount the city has already cut.

The program will also provide competition to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which currently operates utilities in San Francisco. The city is able to do this because of a 2002 state law that allows municipalities to choose their electricity provider. A community-choice aggregation system, as it’s called, is also available in Marion, County California.

But choice and carbon emissions reductions will come at a price. Residents who stay in the program will see their utility bill rise by $9 a month while the commercial increase will be about $18 a month. If customers decide that’s too much then San Francisco could owe Shell as much as $15 million. If residents are willing to pay more for green power, the city will profit and use the money to build city-owned renewable energy facilities.

It’s a risk the city seems willing to take….. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/san-franciscos-100-renewable-energy-plan/658

September 21, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA | 1 Comment

Solar power use – the top 20 USA commercial users

USA’s Top 20 Commercial Solar Power Users http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=3379 by Energy Matters, 12 Sept 12, U.S. commercial solar installations could power more than 390,000 American homes according to a new report from the Solar Energy Industry Association (SEIA) and the Vote Solar Initiative.

The top 20 corporate solar users’ installations alone combined generate an estimated $47.3 million worth of electricity each year; enough to power 46,500 average American homes.

Those who made the top 20 list, in order of on-site capacity are: Walmart, Costco, Kohl’s Department Stores, IKEA, Macy’s, McGraw-Hill, Johnson & Johnson, Staples, Inc., Campbell’s Soup, Walgreens, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Toys ‘R’ Us, General Motors, FedEx, White Rose Foods, Dow Jones, Snyder’s of Hanover, ProLogis, Hartz Mountain Industries and Crayola.

The report states the above companies have installed more than 1.2 million solar panels, which would cover more than 544 acres of rooftops. This is an important point – while large ground mount solar farms certainly have their place; our towns and cities offer a massive and under-utilised rooftop real estate resource. The area of suitable roof space available in Australia is said to be enough to provideall of the nation’s electricity needs.

The SEIA/Vote Solar Initiative report also says just two companies, Walmart and Costco, have more installed solar PV capacity than all of that deployed in the state of Florida, commonly known as the Sunshine State. Furthermore, the top 10 companies (by capacity) have deployed more solar energy than most electric utilities in the USA.

As of the middle of this year, businesses, non-profits  and governments across the United States have deployed more than 2.3 gigawatts of commercial solar power systems and during the first half of 2012 one non-residential PV system came online every 72 minutes.

While installing solar panels can help a company’s green credentials, it also makes good business sense in another very important way; slashing operational expenses and buffering against continually increasing electricity costs.
The full Top Commercial Solar Customers in the U.S. report can be viewed here.

September 13, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA | Leave a comment

Three Renewable Energy Bills Pass in California, Community Solar Bill Fails  http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/24049  SustainableBusiness.com News, 6 Sept 12,  California’s Community Shared Solar Bill (SB 843) died in an Assembly committee because of pressure from the utilities, says Senator Wolk (D-Davis), who sponsored it. The bill passed the Senate. The legislation would have enabled community renewable energy systems, which would give all residents access to solar even as renters or if they lived in houses that have to much shade, for example.

Customers would have received credit on their utility bills for their portion of clean power generated by a given solar project, much as if those systems were located on site.

It was expected to create 12,000 local jobs, and $7.5 billion in economic activity by expanding access to the state’s renewable energy market, says Vote Solar, which analyzed the plan.

Utility PG&E, for example, lobbied against the bill because it would “burden” customers who didn’t opt in to the program, they say in editorial.

The bill is being re-drafted to address concerns and will be introduced again next year.

Three Bills Head to Governor’s Desk

Three other renewable energy-related bills are close to being adopted, however. They await Governor Brown’s signature.

One bill would expand solar hot water heaters to community pools, another would cap permitting fees for solar systems and a third enables aggregate net metering by farmers, schools and other customers with multiple meters.

Assembly Bill 2249 extends solar hot water heater incentives to commercial pools by amending the Solar Water Heating and Efficiency Act of 2007. It encourages municipalities, schools and nonprofits to use solar hot water heating by extending incentives to commercial pools.

Senate Bill 1222 caps permitting fees charged by counties and cities for solar installations, a key barrier to deploying more systems.

For residential solar PV, fees can’t exceed $500 plus $15 per kilowatt (kW) for systems bigger than 15 kW. For commercial systems, it’s capped at $1000 plus $7 per kW between 51-250 kW, and an additional $5 per kW for each kilowatt above 250 kW.

SB 594, also sponsored by Wolk, allows customers that have multiple electricity meters, such as farmers and schools, to participate in the state’s net energy metering program.

September 7, 2012 Posted by Christina Macpherson | renewable, USA | Leave a comment