We are currently in the final stretches of a campaign to bring a good chunk of solar to the empire state (feel free to read up on that campaign here). It is a campaign that has everything. We have celebrities and sports stars providing testimonials, letters of support from tens of thousands of New York voters. We have great materials educating folks on how solar works, and there are a number of great piece in the press.
We even to a sign out in the biggest place you can take a sign out — Times Square — showing Albany that New York is ready for solar.
And you know what, it is working. We hear an enormous amount of support from every corner of this state. But there is one last group we have yet to convince. It wouldn’t be a big deal — as momma said, “Can’t please all the people all the time”. However, it is a pretty significant and powerful group: the business council and the utilities.
The thing that gets us riled up, however, is that their opposition — at least the public face of that opposition — is based in myth and half baked data. Oh, and the fact that utilities are making money on this model elsewhere.
Here’s the latest from the opposition:
NJ Outshines NY, Part II
Environmentalists who point to New Jersey as a model for building solar-energy capacity don’t understand that Garden State utilities are required to buy a certain percentage of solar-generated power, which is 15 times the price of other electricity: $640 a megawatt hour, versus the average market price of about $42, said Ken Pokalsky, senior director at the Business Council of New York State. As a result, solar power producers in New Jersey generate 293 megawatts compared to New York’s 53. “If anyone was willing to pay 15 times the price for anything, you’d get a lot of sellers,” Pokalsky said. The council opposes legislation that would require New York utilities to get 3% of their energy from solar power by 2025.
- Crains Insider 6.20.11 http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20110621/INS/110629981
That’s a pretty scary quote. In fact, we at Vote Solar would be ready to oppose such a legislation — IF it were true (notice the *big* if).
But it isn’t. There are two big myth’s packaged in here that Mr. Pokalsky puts forward, wich is the center of the entire argument.
1. This legislation is going to cost New York rate payer’s 15 times the amount of current electricity.
2. These environmentalists don’t understand how New Jersey works.
Let’s devote a little time to each.
On the first item, this bill as proposed will never and could never cost 15 times the amount of current electricity prices. According to SRECtrade in June 2011, during the summer months when solar is creating the most value, an SREC is trading at $640 in New Jersey. This would be like looking at the price of natural gas at peak times and calling that the price of natural gas. Taking more complete data from the NJPU in all of 2010 the weighted average price of an SREC in New Jersey was above $600 in only three months. Care to guess which months those were?
(Hint: the same months where all energy trends higher, july, august and september).
But back to the New York legislation. Third party studies have shown that this legislation would have an average impact to rate payers of less than 0.75% over the life of the program. That is before accounting for any benefits to the grid.
Further, to guard against any unforeseen increases the legislation comes with a rate control mechanism and it really has to be stressed this mechanism was proposed with the support of solar advocates. The mechanism calls for a halt to the program if rates increase, as a result of the solar portion, more than 1.5%. In simple terms — if your electricity bill is $100 a month, *by law*, this legislation could never increase rates by more than $1.50.
We would love to see assurances from utilities that *their* rate increases would be so low.
On point two – we love this. The environmentalists don’t understand. Silly hippies. Eh, maybe they are right. But you know who does understand that solar means serious business and positive cash flow?
Dow, Saatchi&Saatchi, Wal-Mart, Staples, GE, Sunpower, Suntech, SolarCity, the 60 PLUS New York based solar installation businesses. You can view all those here if you don’t believe us.
Sorry, Mr. Pokalsky, those don’t sound like business council opponents to us.
They sound like members.
[...] we have remarked before the effort to make New York a solar powerhouse has been an incredible [...]
[...] we have remarked before the effort to make New York a solar powerhouse has been an incredible [...]
[...] we have remarked before the effort to make New York a solar powerhouse has been an incredible [...]