State rebates lead more people to go solar
by David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle Staff Writer, July 15, 2008
Source: SFGate.com
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/14/BUNL11OVEF.DTL
California has added enough solar power to its electrical grid this year to light a small town, according to an update released Monday on the state’s solar rebate program. Those rebates, which go to businesses and homeowners who put solar panels on their roofs, have funded enough new installations this year to generate 59.4 megawatts of electricity, about enough to juice up 44,550 homes. All told, that’s more solar power than was installed in all of 2006, according to the update from the California Public Utilities Commission.
The rebates are the heart of the Go Solar California campaign, which is part of California’s larger fight against global warming. Over the campaign’s 10-year span, the state will pump $3.3 billion into financial incentives for Californians who go solar, with the money drawn from utility bills. By the end of that time, the program should fund roughly 3,000 megawatts of new solar generation.
The Go Solar rebates were first offered in January 2007. Since then, the PUC has received 11,653 active applications, for projects capable of generating 251.5 megawatts. If approved, those projects will receive $635 million of incentives. “We’re on track to grow to 3,000 megawatts,” said Molly Tirpak Sterkel, the solar project’s supervisor for the Public Utilities Commission. “I have every reason to be very optimistic about the solar program.”
The PUC handles rebates for existing buildings that add solar power, while a different government agency, the California Energy Commission, handles incentives for new construction. Monday’s update covered only rebates overseen by the PUC. The amount installed through the program this year may not seem like much, since many conventional power plants burning fossil fuels generate 10 times that amount. But if the program continues at its current pace, it will help install 500 megawatts sometime next year, Sterkel said. One megawatt can power 750 homes. “That’s a big deal,” she said. “That’s the point when everybody should wake up and say, ‘We have avoided building one big natural gas power plant.’ ”
Whether the program’s current pace will hold up isn’t certain. The PUC has seen a slowdown in recent months, as well as project cancellations. The commission’s update blames the slowdown on the country’s mortgage crisis as well as the uncertainty surrounding federal incentives for renewable power. The program has not been without controversy. Although the rebates are designed to lower solar prices in the long run by creating a large, competitive solar industry within California, solar remains far more expensive than many other forms of power generation. In addition, a consumer watchdog group on Monday said too many of the rebates have gone to wealthy businesses or affluent homeowners.
“Subsidies should go to the most needy, not the most wealthy,” said Mark Toney, executive director of The Utility Reform Network. Sterkel said the commission is working on a program that would direct some of the rebate money to low-income housing.