MORE NEWS, 4-20 (CUTTING EDGE SOLAR F-I-T; WIND BIZ STILL BUZZING; VOLT GETS SUPPORT)

CUTTING EDGE SOLAR F-I-T
Gainesville at the forefront of the future of energy
Kevin Spear, April 19, 2009 (Orlando Sentinel)

"The future of energy as dreamed about by ardent environmentalists would bring a mini-electric plant to every garage or every rooftop…[It may already] be happening in Gainesville…[Gainesville Regional Utilities is offering nearly three times more than it charges] to residential and business customers who make electricity with solar panels and feed it into the utility's power grid.

"The approach is one of many ways to encourage solar energy in the Sunshine State…Gainesville's plan, the first of its kind in the nation, is drawing attention like few other energy initiatives…Within days of starting the program in March, GRU had to turn away applicants….[T]wice as many solar panels are installed on [Gainesville] homes and businesses as are now used in the rest of Florida…"

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"The initiative is attracting not just the green-minded, stirred by former Vice President Gore's campaign to raise awareness about the perils of greenhouse-gas emissions. Also coming on board are those repelled by Gore the Democrat, even though his Oscar-winning activism has helped focus the nation on emissions from power plants that burn coal…

"Resigned to federal limits, utilities such as GRU are scrambling to implement greener, cleaner ways to produce electricity…GRU rejected the pricey option of buying power from a pair of nuclear reactors that another utility, Progress Energy Florida, hopes to start up in Levy County…

"The Gainesville City Commission opted instead for an approach popular in Germany but largely unknown in the United States…[The "feed-in tariff" pays participants] for feeding electricity into a utility's grid…Customers producing electricity will be paid 32 cents per kilowatt-hour of electricity…GRU charges 12½ cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity used by residential customers…[O]ffering a premium rate for solar energy means the utility will have to hike what it charges…GRU's nearly 90,000 residential customers will see an average of 78 cents extra tacked onto monthly bills."

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"But the utility isn't measuring the worth of its new program strictly by the price of power…[City leaders and GRU officials] want to bolster a solar industry that provides local jobs…[and] stop spending so much on coal and natural gas imported from other states…[and] position…for upcoming limits on greenhouse-gas emissions…

"The utility's 32-cent rate will decline steadily over the years, with the expectation that solar costs will continue to drop…[T]he program is still widely regarded as an important experiment to keep track of…"


WIND BIZ STILL BUZZING
Wind power reports brisk business despite recession
Katherine Harmon, April 17, 2009 (Scientific American)

"The breezes of good fortune have been blowing through the wind power business according to the American Wind Energy Association's (AWEA) annual report…

"Despite a slowing economy and a precipitous drop in oil prices last year, the industry reports a 70 percent jump in jobs (to 85,000 employees)…as well as a doubling of demand for small wind turbines (those that can power up to 100 kilowatts – the size used for homes and small buildings)."

Wind is becoming a bigger part of many states' power generation. (click to enlarge)

"A total of 8,545 megawatts of wind power came on line last year, but the estimates for this year are… (due in part to tougher credit) …5,000 new megawatts.

"The industry organization still expects to report fairly robust numbers for the first quarter of 2009, says Kathy Belyeu, AWEA's manager of industry information. But, she cautions that the numbers might be misleading because many of the projects were simply held over from 2008… "


VOLT GETS SUPPORT
Electric-Car Fans Rally Around the Volt
Leora Broydo Vestel, April 17, 2009 (NY Times)

"Electric car supporters are rising to defend General Motors’ development of the Chevy Volt after the Obama Administration’s automotive task force proclaimed that the car was probably too expensive to be commercially successful in the near future…

"G.M. is hoping to launch the Volt in late 2010 with a price tag of about $40,000…"

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"Advocacy groups argue the task force’s assessment is shortsighted and worry that the Volt project may land in the scrap heap as G.M. rolls toward bankruptcy. Financial aid for such projects has been put on hold as G.M. and Chrysler struggle to come up with business plans that regulators will embrace…

"Electric car proponents at The California Cars Initiative believe the task force was unduly influenced by “plug-in skeptics” at the Boston Consulting Group, which is under government contract to provide input on the prospects for G.M. and Chrysler…"


Yeah, and a decade after that, people will begin to forget what gas-powered vehicles were. (click to enlarge)

"The group pointed to a B.C.G. report titled, The Comeback of the Electric Car? How Real, How Soon, and What Must Happen Next, which concludes the costs of creating an automotive market dominated by electric and hybrid cars are prohibitively high for the foreseeable future – as high as $49 billion for Europe alone (along with another $21 billion for battery-charging infrastructure)…

"Still, the word from on high is that the Volt will make it to the finish line…"