Solar Shaky as US Policy Fails and China Backs Futures

Although global demand for solar power is still growing — about 8% more solar panels will be installed this year compared with 2010 — bankruptcies, plummeting stock prices and crushing debt loads are calling into question the viability of the solar energy industry that since the 1970s has been counted on to advance the world into a new energy age.

Only a handful of manufacturers are now profitable in the face of too much capacity, which has contributed to a plunge in prices as government subsidies have been curbed. Prices for solar panels started 2011 near $1.60 per watt, but a buildup of inventory forced manufacturers into a fire sale toward the end of the second quarter that has pushed prices to near $1 per watt now.

'The prices that we're seeing today are likely not covering manufacturing costs in many cases,' says Ralph Romero.

With at least seven solar-panel manufacturers filing for bankruptcy or insolvency in the last several months and six of the ten largest publicly traded companies making solar components reporting losses in the third quarter, public-market investors are punishing the solar sector, sending shares down nearly 57% this year.

Winners are expected to emerge eventually, the question is how much more carnage there will be before that happens. 'The fact of the matter is, nobody really knows which solar companies will be pushed out of business or be forced to merge,' writes industry analyst Rodolfo Avalos. ' Nobody knows how long it will take for the solar industry to improve even when the foretasted solar global demand for the next 5-10 years is quite promising.'"

German company Solar Millennium on Wednesday filed for insolvency, putting in doubt the future of its 2,250-megawatt pipeline of power plants in the United States. The bankruptcy filing is the just the latest in a series of solar company failures. Besides the controversial collapse of Silicon Valley solar panel maker Solyndra, Stirling Energy Systems went belly up in September along with SpectraWatt and Evergreen. This week, BP pulled the plug on its four-decade-old solar division.

But all is not doom and gloom. Warren Buffett last week bought a $2 billion photovoltaic power plant in California being built by First Solar and on Monday Google and leveraged buyout giant KKR agreed to acquire four solar power plants under construction by Recurrent Energy.

America Beyond Capitalism: System Transformation is the Goal

New Models and New Vision bring CONFLICT.What is our goal in American Democracy?

That Which Once Was

Every day I wonder why people don't get it.

Watch That Which Once Was on PBS. See more from FutureStates.

Introducing 25e: The First Performance Based Tax Credit

Introducting 25E: The First Performance Based Tax Credit for Homes from Efficiency First on Vimeo
As the HomeSTAR legislation evolves into standards for software and quality assurance, we need to support the effort to keep scientific and predictive methods at the core of the building-performance work.

25e = a tax credit incentive for performance based energy efficiency improvements from 20%-50% ($2000-$5000) based upon on a software energy modeling of the improvements made, calibrated by past energy bills.

The work-scope is set and the home-owner and the contractor work together to complete the work. The process is monitored via a percentage of the jobs being audited by third party analysis, and photos before and after.

This program is standardized across all 50 states, and therefore needs no local approval from the state, county or municipal level. Both RESNET and BPI standards will qualify for this energy audit tax credit.

They project that 1,000,000 homes can be retrofitted in the USA between 2012-2016, with an average energy savings of 25% and cost of $2500 per home, costing the US Treasury about $2-Billion, while creating about 19,000 net jobs.

The incentives to create market penetration, combined with education, and codes and standards that lock in better practices to guarantee savings, taken together create jobs and new markets.

Whole Home Retrofits - are different than 25c tax credit which applies to single appliance or single item purchases (Windows or HVAC).

This kind of program increases efficiency which benefits the environment, gives the USA energy security, promotes individualist self-reliance.

National Resource Development Center - NRDC
GoldSTAR pathway of HomeSTAR - performance based incentive (tax credit)
Acronym Alert: Quality Control/Quality Assurance = QC/QA
The Alliance to Save Energy - conglomerate of organizations

For More information see Efficiency First - Americas Home Performance Workforce

New Home Weatherization Standards from NREL

Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades: a conversation with NREL’s Dr. Richard Knaub

by Jane Pulaski Workforce Guidelines for Home Energy Upgrades
Known as standard work specifications, or SWS, the simple, written descriptions explain how to perform specific tasks safely, efficiently, and of the highest quality.  Standard work specifications, when correctly used by the workforce, help eliminate inefficiencies and waste, nurture continued improvement, and assure the consumer of a quality product or service.  And now, thanks to the work of NREL and DOE, guidelines for the energy efficiency workforce using SWS are almost ready for prime time.

Knaub, a Project Leader in Weatherization & Workforce Development, at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, has been actively participating in the Weatherization training and standards development both at the state and national levels for the last several years.  NREL has been leading the development of the Guidelines (no small task).  In fact, according to Knaub, some 300 stakeholders have been involved in the process.  Technicians, trainers, home performance contractors, labor, healthy homes professionals, building scientists and other experts in the building trades and retrofit industry have been at the table for this project.
Because it’s such a big deal (and voluminous–620 pages), I wanted to know more—how this got started in the first place, and when we might see the final product.  Richard was kind enough to answer some questions about SMS for us. Here’s that conversation:

How to define SUSTAINABLITY

When people talk about "Sustainability" they often have very different concepts in mind. This is what I mean by SUSTAINABLE Architecture. The Living Bridges of Megalaya, in India, span rivers in monsoon season and live 500 years. They take many lifetimes to complete, but easily outlast all other brides, in this land that some years gets 25m of rain.Now that is sustainable.

MIT Entrepreneur moves business to China!

Listen to this report from PRI's Here and Now

About an foreign student and entrepreneur at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston Power founder, Dr. Christina Lampe-Onnerud, who developed a new form of Lithium Ion Battery for automobiles that actually works, and decided to move her new 'gleaming' factory and jobs to China! She really is focused upon the money she wanted from the U.S. Department of Energy, then in the same breath claims she is saving the Earth. She will not personally move to China, but Christina is very excited to be at the table, and sell out for just $125-Million.