For weeks now we’ve seen the Solyndra bankruptcy being used as a political punching bag. Now the overblown hype around one solar company is putting real industry growth and viable projects at risk. Enough is enough.

Last last week, SolarCity was informed that the DOE would not be able to move forward on its conditional loan guarantee for Project SolarStrong – a shining example of American military leadership on clean energy. The project sought to install solar panels on 160,000 military housing units across as many as 124 bases and 33 states, making it the country’s largest residential solar project by a long shot. In addition to generating secure homegrown power, SolarStrong would create sorely needed jobs in military communities across the country. The project is about as low-risk as it gets. It combines proven technology, a trusted solar developer, and strong private capital to deliver reliable returns to a highly credit-worthy customer. And yet SolarStrong has become a collateral damage in the DC political game. (See SolarCity’s appeal to Congress here). The military isn’t backing down from its support for renewables, and neither should federal or state policymakers. » Read the rest of this entry «

With all kinds of new data out there demonstrating U.S. solar growth (here, here and here), we wanted to offer our insights into how these successes are playing out in one of our key campaign states: Pennsylvania.

Over the past couple years, Pennsylvania has become a real solar powerplayer.  Having developed over 100 MW of solar PV, PA is a leader in terms of installed solar and the jobs it creates.  In fact, last year’s Solar Jobs Census ranked the state second in the nation behind California for number of solar jobs.  We eagerly await the 2011 results.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Good news.  The Arizona Supreme Court recently upheld the legality of Arizona’s Renewable Energy Standard and Tariff.  An activist group had filed serial legal challenges over the years, and this may finally put the issue to rest.  Read about it here.

Note that this decision–and the ACC’s actions–are supported by the overwhelming majority of Arizona’s residents.  A recent poll (pdf), among many others, showed that 87% of Arizona voters think the state should choose renewable energy sources like solar and wind over more coal, and 78% would pay at least $5 a month to make that happen.

(H/T Rose Law Group for the title)

This morning Paula Mints from Navigant Consulting shared her insights on the latest global solar PV market trends with us – a timely webinar topic given the highly publicized fallout from those very global market dynamics. Paula put a firm kibosh on assertions that the aforementioned Solyndra failure heralds the end of solar: “We have started something in this industry, and it will move forward.” Given the magnitude of what we’re undertaking, that path forward won’t be without its challenges. It’s the nature of revolutionizing the global power industry.  » Read the rest of this entry «

Our friends at the Solar Foundation released a sneak peek at the results of their 2011 National Solar Jobs Census. It comes as no surprise to any of us working in solar that this fast growing industry continues to brighten the American economy . . .

The census data shows that 100,237 Americans are now working in the U.S. solar industry. That’s more than U.S. coal mining. That’s more than U.S. steel and iron production. That’s wayyyyyy more than U.S. crude oil and natural gas pipeline transportation. That’s real. » Read the rest of this entry «

The solar company Solyndra recently filed for bankruptcy, which media reports have depicted as the end of solar power in the U.S.  This is like saying there is no future for the internet because Netscape went out of business.

The molar-grinding irony of it all is that Solyndra was the victim of a big success – the price of solar power has fallen rapidly, making more expensive technologies like theirs uncompetitive, but more importantly making solar power a real player in the U.S. energy economy. » Read the rest of this entry «

Who says solar is too expensive?  In fact, in many places it is cheaper than the fossil fueled alternative.  How do we know?  Well, one place to start is to look at actual contracts for projects.

Attached here (Excel file)  is a chart of California Renewable Portfolio Standard contracts downloaded (and modified to show just solar contracts) from the CPUC website, here.

As of June 2011, California investor-owned utilities have signed and submitted for approval from the regulators 8,631 MW of contracts with solar companies. The exact contract price is kept confidential.  However, we do know whether the contract is above or below the Market Price Referent, or MPR.  The  ‘market price referent‘ is an annual calculation of the anticipated 20-year levelized cost of energy of a new combined-cycle gas turbine in California, and serves as a proxy for the cost of building new non-renewable power. » Read the rest of this entry «

Labor Day marks the time that we collectively pack away the white shoes, put aside political rhetoric and thank American workers for their social and economic contributions to the country.

So while the debate over green jobs rages on (catch up on some of the back and forth here), we’d like to stand back and do what the occasion really calls for: thank the 100,000+ U.S. solar workers for their considerable efforts to build a clean energy economy. And in case you’re not privy to what those contributions entail: » Read the rest of this entry «