Posted on 04/12/2011 3:17:44 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law Tuesday a mandate that 33% of electricity in California must come from renewable sources by 2020.
Executives at solar, wind and other clean energy companies said the new regulations could help California reclaim its green leadership position after losing ground to states such as Texas and Iowa.
"This is tremendous," said Mike Hall, chief executive of Borrego Solar. "A legislative solution provides a lot more clarity and firepower for regulators and proponents."
Brown, along with U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, signed the bill while helping dedicate a new solar panel manufacturing plant in Milpitas. The facility will produce 75 megawatts a year of panels from SunPower Corp. and is expected to create 100 jobs.
The new law, known as a renewable portfolio standard, is the most aggressive of any state. Several attempts to introduce a federal version have stalled in a divided and preoccupied Congress.
California had previously required investor-owned utilities such as Southern California Edison, Pacific Gas & Electric and San Diego Gas & Electric to generate 20% of their electricity from clean sources by 2010, with a three-year grace period.
...
Energy activists hope the mandate will lead to even more ambitious requirements. "California can power itself entirely on clean energy resources," said Bernadette Del Chiaro, clean energy advocate with Environment California. "Mandating that the state generate a third of its electricity from renewable energy is a big down payment toward that ultimate goal." ..
...
The new mandate also requires utilities to draw some of their power from small local projects based near customers - known as distributed generation. Often situated on rooftops and parking lots, such installations don't require the long transmission lines necessary for sprawling wind and solar plants in the deserts and mountains.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
welcome to a brave controlled world
Oh, how I wish my state were in a “green leadership position” /sarc
Invest in solar? well, it’ll be around for a few billion years more if we’re lucky.. fossil fuels are yucky, yaknow.
—
First Solar & Renewables Industry Plead to Save DoE Loan Program
First SolarFirst Solar has joined forces with 33 other clean power companies including rivals like SunPower and Nanosolar to appeal against the Republican proposal to axe the funding for the Department of Energy’s loan-guarantee program. The proposal was included in a budget bill passed in early February and was a shock to many in the renewables community as it could potentially derail the high growth in solar and wind energy adoption.
First Solar is engaged in the manufacturing and sale of solar modules with an advanced thin film semiconductor technology and competes with other international solar industry players like Suntech Power and Yingli Green Energy. We have a price estimate of $155 for First Solar’s stock, which is just slightly above the stock’s current market price.
One more nail to keep that lid shut!
Pray for America
I have heard the left proclaim that benefits of distributed power generation. The claims are nonsense. Without huge subsidies and mandates, distributed generation is an absolute bust. More green lies and political corruption.
Why can’t the state just buy everybody solar roof panels? They’re probably only $40K per home. We could use wind power during the day.
Think gerbils on a treadmill. These people have lost their ever loving minds. I certainly hope when they want to buy power from any neighboring state they tell them to turn their windmills on.
Wasn’t there a story recently about one of these solar panel factories launched with such fanfare going bust because they couldn’t compete?
Why not use methane gas generated by Mexicans?
Translation: "Since our business model can't possibly compete with conventional power producers, we need politicians to subsidize our products to the detriment of all involved."
As a Californian all I can say is that Brown is a bigger azzhole than I ever could have imagined. That noise you hear in CA is not from wind farms, it is the sound of factory doors closing as businesses continue to exit CA.
The only saving grace for me is that I live in a desert area where an irrigation district was set up many years ago to supply water to farmers, and in the process ended up supplying electricity as well. So far, the state has only gone after the private stockholder owned utilities.
Not even close to an exaggeration. Thelma & Louise was always meant to be programming for Hillary's Army - to go right off the cliff even when they are totally stopped. And California is stuffed to the gills with millions of these rancid soul-dead creatures. Zombies are not a joke in California - they're the norm.
And you thought rolling brown/black outs were bad. California is turning into North Korea with windmills.
Not to mention most electricity bills will triple by 2012.
Have you bought a horse, yet?
You know I was just joking, right?
Good news for the dolts buying a Nissan Leaf
or Chevy Volt.
The president, on a two-day visit to Northern California, toured the fabrication plant Solyndra is building in Fremont with the assistance of a $535 million loan it received under the federal recovery act. The federal loan has created 3,000 construction jobs and is projected to add 1,000 more permanent jobs.
Right on schedule....
Shortly after the president’s visit, the company announced in June that weak demand in capital markets, high costs and “a prodigious cash burn,” as GreenEnergyReporter.com put it, forced withdrawal of plans for an initial public stock offering. In July, its CEO was replaced. The company found itself “struggling to justify the early hype by bringing down costs from $3 per watt to $2 per watt by 2013,”
It just gets better...just 5 months later
Despite a $535 million loan guarantee from the federal government, Solyndra, a maker of solar panels in the southeast San Francisco Bay Area city of Fremont, will close one of its manufacturing plants, lay off 40 permanent and 150 contract workers, delay expansion plans of a new plant largely financed with the government-guaranteed loan and scale back production capacity more than 50 percent.
But, truth be told, Solyndra is more of a testament to taxpayers’ hard-earned money pledged to guarantee 73 percent of the cost of building its new facility. Closure of its older plant, located nearby, is a testament to the reality that, even if massively underwritten by taxpayers, renewable energy operations aren’t certain to find a profitable niche in the open market.
Windmills dont run on wind, they run on government subsidies.
Solar panels are not powered by sunlight, they are powered by taxpayers.
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