California Governor Schwarzenegger's "1 Million Solar Roofs" plan re-born as California Solar Initiative
As reported by Etopia News's Solar World on September 10, 2005, in an article entitled "Requiem for '1 million solar roofs' plan, crescendo for "California Electric Sunshine Initiative," California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to encourage the more-widespread deployment of equipment capable of generating electricity from sunshine didn't make it out of the California Legislature, but plans were already afoot to implement its stated goal of having 3,000 MW of distributed solar-generated electric capacity in place at homes and businesses by 2017 through the actions of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).
On January 12, 2006, the CPUC announced the California Solar Initiative, an incentive program designed to mainstream the adoption of solar technologies through the expenditure of $2.9 billion in incentives to commercial and residential utility customers.
an interview with CPUC spokesperson Valerie Beck
Etopia News's
Solar World spoke this afternoon with Valerie Beck, Program and Project Supervisor in the Energy Division of the California Public Utilities Commission about the California Solar Initiative (CSI).
You can listen to that conversation with Valerie Beck at the CPUC, in its entirety, by clicking
here.
how much can you save under the CSI?
As calculated during this interview, a typical 2-3 kilowatt photovoltaic solar electricity-generating residential unit will cost the homeowner about $15,000. Calculating the CSI incentive at $2.80 per watt, or $2,800 per kilowatt, would yield an incentive payment of about $8,400. Coupled with the $2,000 federal incentive mentioned by Ms. Beck, a homeowner could get around $10,000 in subsidies for his or her $15,000 unit, getting back around two-thirds of the initial outlay.
He or she would then be a position to generate his or her own electricity in a non-polluting and distributed way. Under a "net metering" plan, the homeowner can feed all the solar electricity not consumed on the premises into the electric grid, thereby effectively running the electric meter backward.
During the night, or on cloudy days, the household can use electricity from the grid. On sunny days, and especially on blazing hot summer afternoons when the ambient temperature soars into the 90s and 100s due in part to global warming caused by the excessive and profligate burning of fossil fuels, and the photovoltaic systems reach peak efficiency, solar electricity-generating households will be able to make a significant contribution to powering the air-conditioning units used by millions to maintain themselves in a personal environment conducive to the continuation of human life, rather than contributing to its demise through the generation of greenhouse gases by the burning of limited and polluting fossil fuels often shipped great distances from locations characterized by political instability and/or reduced levels of civil and human rights under petroauthoritarian regimes empowered and emboldened due to the continuing dependence of so many on finite and dwindling supplies of oil under the control of these "petro-pirates."
"Home-brewing" your own electricity under the California Solar Initiative incentives plan lets you opt-out of that scenario, and save money while you do it.
Stirling engine technology may be included under CSI
According to Ms. Beck, "A CPUC decision earlier this year directed Energy Division to explore whether and how non-PV technologies could participate in the CSI. A May 2006 staff report recommended that solar thermal technologies, including the
Dish Stirling, be eligible to apply for incentives. The CPUC expects to issue a proposed decision on this and other issues this summer."
