Wind Energy Hung Up in the Queue

Originally published for Sun and Wind Energy Magazine:

By Lisa Cohn and Reid Smith

An overabundance of renewable energy should be good news in the US. However, in many renewable-rich areas, the clean energy cannot be integrated into the grid – due to long transmission queues. The solution will likely come from many fronts.

In many ways, the Southwest Power Pool in Arkansas, which manages transmission in parts of Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico, finds itself in an enviable position: It has more than enough renewable energy for its own needs. In fact, it has enough to transmit it to other parts of the country – if only that were possible. “We have about 48,000 MW of wind and a little bit of solar in the queue, with an annual peak load of 43,000 MW of wind resources. Just looking at the numbers it is easy to see that the supply could far exceed the demand”, says Les Dillahunty, Vice President of regulatory policy at the Southwest Power Pool. However, without transmission, the clean power will go unused. “Wind has developed in these remote areas and we don’t have sufficient transmission to move it to areas where it’s needed. We don’t have a national energy policy, so where is this power going to go?”, asks Dillahunty.

An overabundance of renewable energy should be good news in the US. However, in many renewable- rich areas, the clean energy cannot be integrated into the transmission grid – due to long transmission queues and no avenues for moving power between regions. Nearly 270,000 MW of wind projects are hung up in transmission queues in the US, according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), Washington, D.C.

“The problem is government underinvestment in transmission infrastructure for the past 25 years”, says Ray Wuslich, partner at the law firm Winston & Strawn in Washington D.C. With the US focus on fighting climate change and bringing cleaner forms of energy online, solving transmission challenges should be a top priority for the US government, industry members say. “Wind developers will say transmission capacity is the main constraint”, says Dwain Rogers, Deputy Commissioner for renewable energy at the Texas General Land Office in Austin, Texas.

A chicken-and-egg situation

With Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) across the country mandating utilities to bring more renewable energy online, transmission constraints become even more pressing. In most areas of the country, there are not enough transmission lines to bring power from rural areas – where the resources are most abundant –into populated areas.

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Solar Pool Heating in the USA: Luxury with a Clear Conscience

Originally Published in Sun and Wind Energy Magazine:

By Lisa Cohn and Reid Smith

The U.S. solar pool market – the biggest in the world – has grown 7 to 8 percent per year over the past four years, driven by high energy prices, growth in new housing, and increased awareness about climate change.

Solar pool heating accounts for the largest number of installations in the U.S. and has grown at an average annual rate of 8 % for the past four years,” says the Solar Energy Industry Association’s (SEIA) 2007 US Solar Industry Year in Review.

“Unlike other solar technologies, the pool heating market thrives with virtually no incentives. Altogether, the U.S. solar industry has shipped over 100 million square feet of non-glazed solar collectors for pool heating in the past 10 years.” The sunny states of California and Florida comprise two-thirds of the market, where consumers like to swim year-round, explains Kimia Mizany, director of business development for Solar Depot, based in Petaluma California.

Even with the size of the existing market, there’s much potential for growth. “Fifty percent of in-ground pools in the U.S. are heated; that’s a huge market,” analyses Dave Sizelove, president of Aquatherm Industries, Lakewood, New Jersey, one of the largest manufacturers of solar pool systems.

However, in spite of growth in the industry over the past four years, some areas of the country have seen a dip in sales recently due to the economic downturn. “Right now, with our economic slow down and problems in the housing market we suspect that new pool sales are not robust,” says Sue Kateley, executive director of the California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA), Rio Vista, California. Because consumers generally purchase solar systems along with new pools (which most often accompany a new home), a dip in new pool sales equates to fewer solar pool sales, she explains. “But it will come back because so many Californians enjoy swimming and family time in their own backyards. Solar pool heating is a natural complement for those who would enjoy a warmer pool and a longer swimming season,” she adds.

In spite of that setback, new awareness on the part of consumers is increasing the market in parts of the country not usually known for solar pool heating. “There are increased markets in Ohio, Michigan, Texas, and New York,” says Freeman Ford, president and CEO of Fafco Inc., Chico, California.

New incentives are on the way

Other areas are seeing an uptake in sales in response to new incentives. For example, in

Florida, homeowners receive an automatic US$ 100 rebate for installing solar pool heating systems, according to Bruce Kershner, executive director of the Florida Solar Energy Industry Association (FLASEIA), Longwood, Florida.

In Oregon – which offers state tax credits of up to US$ 1,500 after installation is complete – sales are booming, says Brent Gunderson, president of Gen-Con Inc., Portland, Oregon. Many utilities offer additional incentives – up to US$ 1,000, according to Solar Oregon, a non-profit solar education center in Portland, Oregon. “Our sales are off the charts,” stresses Gunderson, “They have gone up since the state introduced new solar incentives.”

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Price parity for US solar: Is the goal within sight?

Originally Published for Renewable Energy World Magazine:

By Elisa Wood

Rising fossil fuel costs and a dramatic up tick in solar installations may at last help the US solar industry achieve its goal of price parity with grid power. Elisa Wood reports on state and federal efforts.

From his corporate headquarters in Maryland, Jigar Shah hears a lot these days about a US$1.8 billion transmission line being planned to push coal-fired generation to his state from West Virginia, 460 km away. As founder of SunEdison, a major US solar services and installation company, Shah thinks about the project differently than others might. ‘If it is not a subsidy to the coal industry, than what is it?’ asks Shah. And, he further posits, what might the price of solar look like if it were to receive such a boon? Or what if distributed resources could meet the state’s energy need without the investment required in transmission?

Shah’s musings strike to the heart of an issue that continues to beguile the US solar industry – price or ‘grid’ parity – the ability to accurately compare how solar energy prices stack up against grid power and to use that information to create a level playing field. Solar advocates argue that it is difficult to pinpoint because the true cost of grid power is masked. The more established fuels for electricity generation enjoy the benefits of a system built largely to meet their needs. Subsidies are so entrenched – like the transmission line – that they are not perceived as a hand-out to the status quo.

But now, several analysts say price equality may not be far off. US shipments of photovoltaic panels jumped more than 50% between 2005 and 2006, according to an October 2007 report by the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Such rapid-fire growth is expected to continue, driving down panel costs as production expands. The Solar America Initiative, a programme of the US Department of Energy (DoE), has set a goal of bringing solar to grid parity by 2015 – reducing photovoltaic energy for residential consumers from a benchmark 2005 price of 23 cents–32 cents/kWh to 8 cents - 10 cents/kWh. With the industry expected to emerge from its silicon shortage in two years, analysts say the DoE’s goals look plausible. Morgan Stanley analysts recently reported that solar prices could drop by half in five years. And in a joint paper, the Worldwatch Institute and the Prometheus Institute say a fast drop in costs will make solar a mainstream power option in just a few years.

The deregulation miscalculation

It is not falling prices, alone, that will help solar achieve parity. The true cost of fossil fuel needs to be revealed, say solar advocates. And help is coming, in part, as a result of a miscalculation made when several states liberalized their markets several years ago.

At the time, lawmakers struck deals with utilities to freeze rates in return for various concessions. The thinking was that by the time the rate caps were lifted, deregulation would have worked its magic and customers would have a wide choice of low-cost power products. What the deregulation crafters could not foresee was that a series of hurricanes would cripple the US Gulf Coast in 2005, spiking already rising gas prices.

In a confluence of events unfortunate for the consumer, this was about the same time that price caps began to come off in several states. Utility rates skyrocketed – in some cases to record highs, in such states as Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Illinois and Rhode Island.

The result was the US’ largest hike in electricity rates in 25 years, according to the EIA. While prices rose in all parts of the country, the biggest increases occurred in 14 eastern states, and the main cause ‘was the lifting of retail electricity price caps,’ according to the federal agency. Many consumers blamed deregulation, spurring some states to rollback elements of restructuring.

To read this full article and others go to http://www.realenergywriters.com and click on Elisa Wood