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Last week’s Solar Exchange East was hosted in the heart of the Southeast U.S.A. – North Carolina. The state’s own Governor Bev Purdue is fond of saying “Green is Gold” in regards to her stance on renewable energy sources in the state. And the event, taking place at North Carolina State University in the capitol of Raleigh, focused entirely on all aspects of how much it takes to make green turn to gold.
During the conference, speaker after speaker quoted the “Top 10 States” in areas of renewables, solar installed, solar capacity, policy, project size and much more.
While it is easy to fall into the “who is winning the race” discussion to no end, perhaps what was most important about the rankings is how those states got there and what it means for them now.
Specifically, Dan Rosen, Account Executive for Siemens Financial Services, points out that when looking at the debate around state and local tax benefits and state and local utility incentives regarding renewable energy projects, one can determine how successful they will be fairly easily. When analyzing a state’s approach to supporting solar with tax benefits and incentives, you need to only look at four criteria:
- They are simple to understand
- They are clear
- The benefits and incentives are reliable and predictable
- What the state offers is sufficient
While states vary widely on what benefits and incentives are offered to would-be solar projects, web sites such as the DSIRE site, can help you navigate them somewhat easily.
Unfortunately, as Mr. Rosen acknowledges, many states and their businesses are wary of moving the solar industry along with these types of investments. But, he claims that, “State governments don’t have to support [the industry] forever. If you look at a state like California, today we can build a solar project there without ANY state incentives.”
Investments Come in Many Forms
Of course, it is not as simple as finding money to build, buy and install solar panels. Wade Fulghum, North Carolina State University Research Triangle Cleantech Cluster, explains that “Solar needs a smart grid to scale” to the masses. In other words if you don’t have a way to bring the power generated by solar panels onto the grid, then a very small number of people will benefit from that power.
When you consider what the U.S. is trying to achieve, they want a “new” grid system that does not take away from what we have, but simply adds to it. In other words, we would still have large power stations around our country and simply add smaller, more local power sources. But, in order to do that, your system must be able to:
- manage intermittent power sources
- allow for unique interconnection requirements
- have back-up capacity (e.g., battery and fast back up from the grid)
- manage distributed power of large and small scale (e.g., solar farms versus solar panels on roofs); and this would require new metering technology
In conclusion, “We are in a spot where we have to maintain our current grid but invest in a new[er] smarter grid,” explains David Pacyna, Siemens Energy.
Absolutely Nothing is Free in the Energy Industry
“There is no free market in power generation,” Ivan Urlaub, N.C. Sustainable Energy Association, reminds us. “It is all regulated.” Regulation even goes so far as to tell utility companies who and how they may sell to customers.
With that in mind, the industry is often looking to government and agencies to take their cue on how to proceed into the renewable energy business.
For instance, as older coal plants are taken offline due to age there is uncertainty as to whether they will be replaced by renewables or more coal plants. Will federal, state and local government weigh in those decisions? What about the agencies who regulate many parts of power generation? And consumers, will they have a vote as well? And, lastly, will the rise in costs for fossil and nuclear and the expected 3%/annual cost decrease in solar energy be a determinant?
The answer to all of these questions is yes. It’s the when, where and how much that no one at the conference was quite able to answer.
Why Do Other Countries Seem to Do It Better than the U.S.?
Editor's note: Sheila Oliva is an employee of Siemens. Siemens is a sponsor of The Energy Collective.
Whenever new technology begins to be adopted on a broad basis, there is a tendency to look around and try to learn from others who are also adopting it. Solar energy is no different. Throughout the conference many successful countries and solar projects were highlighted. But, two countries, in particular, stood out to me.
Germany, as you may know, has the most PV installation of any country in the world. However, I don’t think many people, even Germans, think of the country as an overly sunny place. Be that as it may, the Germans made a political decision and followed it up with simple, clear, reliable and sufficient policy to support the growth of PV projects. Amy Heinemann, North Carolina Solar Center, says, “Germany shows that policy is important.”
Then there is always China, which forever brings up compare and contrast debates. But, Pacyna sees it as comparing apples to oranges. “The Chinese are ‘all in’ on renewables and smart grid. But, they are in a better place, because they have a clean sheet of paper,” he explains. “Our system is old and works well for us, so we have the challenge of integrating the new with the old.”
In the U.S. at least, it seems Governor Purdue’s motto, “Green is Gold,” may take a bit of effort to realize. For the foreseeable future, anyway, there will need to be a lot more green to turn the sun into gold.
