Arizona’s ‘Solar Industry Killer’ Bill Dropped (Updated Feb 25 5PM)

Why should solar advocates continue to support investment in the state? Unless something changes in the rules committee soon, I’m reconsidering attending the solar summit at the end of March due to this backward decision.

Arizona does it again?
They disregard Daylight Savings Time
Fall short on acknowledging MLK’s holiday
And now they redefine “renewable” to fit their selfish thoughts without any consideration for the potential economic gains their state can capitalize on.Not to mention the Solar companies that have already put money into the state.
Shame on you Republican controlled House Government Comittee, you set avery bad example for the younger generation who will have to try to understand your mis-guided logic. You must sleep well at night. Stop taking the Ambien.

Arizona Deniers 1, Arizona 0.

Don’t you just love “C” students running the world! These politicians apparently weigh the “cost” of everything and the “value” of nothing, such as the unique benefits of their states sunny potential to produce clean power.

Good luck paying for the “cost” of that nuclear power!

I like the concept of PV and wind having to meet market forces and not just being installed to get credits, grants, subsidies or green points. They have to grow up sometime. If PV can’t make it in sunny AZ without these, then there is no reason to have it.
We have wind in the 70s which died when subsidies were dropped.  Maybe history will repeat.
.

What do you expect from a state that produced John Mc Cain?  Clean and Renewable Energy from Nuclear? Give people a break.  I was told that the Arizona State GOP Party offered, and is willing to underwrite the Insurance Policies for the New Plants .! That is great news!  Is this true? Its good to see a party like the GOP back it’s talk with action! . Please also make it known that this means Arizona is also welcoming all the Radioactive Waste Product storage and disposal,  from our Nations Existing Reactors! That’s mighty nice of you fellows. I didn’t know you were so accommodating to your fellow patriots!  I suggest that you talk to Vermont’s Energy Commission where they are closing down the Indian Point Reactor that has been leaking Radioactive Tritium into the environment for Years. Why don’t you just contact Senator Sanders and see if he will donate the plant to be used as a monument to your State Controlling Party as a reward for your Forward Thinking Renewable Energy Policies!  Perhaps you can make arrangements to have the decommissioned plant shipped to Phoenix or Mesa to be put on display for your state legislature.  Since your Lobbyist funded, with no limits, and the GOP party says is so safe, You wont have a thing to worry about.

So sorry about the stop of solar progress for Az.

Other Republican legislatures are sure to try the same thing.

Actually the vote was not on party lines. One Republican (and co-sponsor of the bill) voted against the bill.

Sorry for the Az solar industry, that had been off to a nice start.

Unfortunately other Republican legislatures will try this also.

Is it true that the National Republican Party has agreed to underwrite the hazard insurance on all the nuclear plants in the USA?  This is great news, if its true?  They have enough lobbyist funding to support it with no problem!

It’s an interest display of bi-partisan pass the hot potato since even the Washington Democrats, led by Obama himself, is pushing nukes. Obama pledged about $8 billion in loan guarantees for reactor construction in GA and was quoted this week saying ,“In the near term, as we transition to cleaner energy sources, we’ll have to make tough decisions about opening new offshore areas for oil and gas development. We’ll need to make continued investments in advanced biofuels and clean coal technologies, even as we build greater capacity in renewables like wind and solar, and we’ll have to build a new generation of safe, clean nuclear power plants in America.,”

These politics would be the reason I left the fine state of Arizona after graduating university.  It is the virtual surface of the sun, and they make it hard for solar deployments?????  REALLY

What is truly shocking about this is Arizona probably ges as much or more intense sunlight throughout the entire year than 85% of all the states in the U.S.

(sung to the tune of new york new york) If solar can’t make there, it can’t make it anywhere, new clear, new clear!

The only thing that the REPUBLICAN PARTY IS PATRIOTIC TO IS THEIR OWN WALLETS! Certainly not the environment, Jobs or America’s future.

Could be worse.  West Virginia plans to meet it’s Alternative and Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard of 25% with sources including: “coal technology, coal bed methane, natural gas, fuel produced by a coal gasification or liquefaction facility, synthetic gas, integrated gasification combined cycle technologies, waste coal, tire-derived fuel, pumped storage hydroelectric projects, and recycled energy.” 

http://www.legis.state.wv.us/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=hb103 ENR.htm&yr=2009&sesstype=1X&i=103

My favorite: Tire Derived Fuel.  Nothing obscene about calling that alternative energy.

Last paragraph aside, the general tone of the article seems to assume the bill has already passed, which is quite far from the truth.  See http://www.schoolhouserock.tv/Bill.html , esp. the portion where the bill is likely to “die in (Rules) committee”.

What a poor excuse of a country. Amerika… land of what???

Lord, where to begin… the incoherence in U.S. energy policy is, not to put too fine a point on it, just a sight to behold.

Republicans sure don’t know what the heck they want,..And BUSH!  Geezzzm,,The W was the worst president in my life time of 50 years..And sadly their own party knew it! They were just to busy banking billions on the backs of working poor people while singing “Trust us we know whats best for yall” and Dicky,..Cheny you better never run for office in the USA!! Thief! and lier….May God have mercy on your soul.

I’m baffled by the comments here.  Nuclear is the only technology that can fulfill base load power generation requirements - and it releases no carbon.  Solar and wind produce power about 30% of the time.  And in nearby New Mexico, most of the wind power comes at night, which is when power is needed the least on the grid. 

A nuclear plant can produce power 90-100% of the time - and the outages are scheduled.  You cannot schedule wind and the sun.

I don’t understand why they should be punitive to solar, but to consider nuclear as a “carbon neutral energy resource” is a no brainer.

It is comical that the bulk of the comments are full of political trashing - yet are equally politically driven in their own right.  Unintentional irony.  Good stuff.

It must always be noted that nuclear derived energy is a massive global warming provider, asside from the impossible waste storage problem and leakage problems.  Current solar is the only way. Git-er-done with the sun!

Silicon is the dominant solar material, the 2nd largest percentage of the earth crust abundance. Rare earths are not used in solar. Rare earths are not required for electric cars.
You should have a defeatist attitude for creating manufacturing jobs in the US, green or otherwise.
Progressive: 1 a : of, relating to, or characterized by progress b : making use of or interested in new ideas, findings, or opportunities
Why are you against progress?

I don’t understand all the fuss; as long as it’s carbon-free energy, it doesn’t matter whether it’s “renewable” or not. Why isn’t anyone suggesting that Arizona, in addition to switching to a more sensible definition of clean energy, also increase the mandated fraction to, say, 30%? I don’t think Arizona will get any new nuclear or hydro plants in the near future.

Anyway, Arizona is still next to Southern California, where utilities have been struggling meet the state’s RES. Solar plants won’t have any problem finding customers, if they can deliver at a semi-reasonable price.

While I agree that solar energy is important to invest in further and in the end will be a valuable energy resource, Robert is mistaken when he says that rare earth metals are not used in solar or needed in electric cars.  Silicon, while plentiful, is currently very energy intensive to purify.  Most solar cells relay solely on this element, but thin film needs indium right now to work efficiently (as do all LCD screens).  Indium is a huge problem, because it is not mined directly, but only as a byproduct of zinc mining.  The only places where it’s found pure are on the bottom of the ocean near volcanic activity.

But that’s not to say that this will remain the case.  Most major solar companies and even some broader technology companies are trying to find better ways to make solar cells.  IBM has had recent success making cells that only use highly available materials: http://cleantechnica.com/2010/02/14/ibm-sets-new-solar-cell-efficiency-world-record

But you could frame this debate about any current technology.  The advances in fuel cells that the Bloom Box show could be a game changer just as the new low fuel use nuclear that Bill Gates is backing could. 

We just have to work with what we have now that’s better than fossil fuels and work toward the advancements that will eventually beat them.

Solar proponents need to get their hands OUT of their neighbors’ wallets to support their religion.

If one believes in solar PV, buy it for your own house. And do it WITHOUT stealing tax money from your neighbors or sweetheat SREC or other high dollar power purchase agreements with your utility. Everything is available, it’s there for you at the push of an interwebitube button.

Spend the $100,000 or more of YOUR OWN MONEY to get off the grid and feel the smug self-satisfaction that only green moral superiority can bring. And spend the $20,000 every few years to buy new batteries (don’t forget to recycle!). And make sure you replace your certified lead-solder free inverters before they fail from thermal cycling.

And leave the rest of us alone.

The damage is already done - way to go Lesko.  20 years of hard work undone in days. I can guarantee your opponent will win next election. Lesko the queen of solar mean!

Debbie Lesko can wear a dunce hat and go around in Phoenix as the person who is more stupid than Sarah Palin. .. Affirmed by Regan Jr. ( Ronald’s son)

Sooner or later Solar power—the wimpyest, most worthless energy source in the history of civilization—will be forced to compete honestly with nuclear power.  When that happens, the Solar industry will collapse (yet again). 

Perhaps far in the future, there will be another generation of technically incompetant citizens who will again get suckered into wasting billions of dollars on a next generation of useless, impractical solar gadgets.

Meanwhile, the sooner we can kill off the current generation of solar idiocy, the sooner we can build a reliable energy infrastucture.

R Sweeney sounds like a goofball.    Do you even realize that you’re currently subsidizing oil, gas and electricity?    Every single form of energy has been subsidized to an extent and coal for example was almost entirely subsidized for periods of time.    What you’re arguing is basically that since solar is one of the newest technologies, they have to go out and run a 400M race from the starting line while coal and nuclear were subsidized halfway or more to the endpoint.  That’s just ignorant.

Solar is only going to become more cost-effective as utility rates rise, one day, it won’t need subsidies at all which will be a great thing for a much cleaner and abundant form of energy.

Ok they dropped it!!  Good job Arizona! Arizona not supporting solar is as dumb as Iceland abandining geothermal or Texas dropping wind.

“Spend the $100,000 or more of YOUR OWN MONEY to get off the grid and feel the smug self-satisfaction that only green moral superiority can bring. And spend the $20,000 every few years to buy new batteries (don’t forget to recycle!). And make sure you replace your certified lead-solder free inverters before they fail from thermal cycling.”

Even without subsidies, you’re looking at $20-$50 for a solar system.  Also not sure where you got the $20k for batteries from(out of your rear end?)    By sending power to the utility, you completely take away the need for batteries.    As far as inverter’s go, the top ones have a 10 year materials warranty, so no worries there.

No need to panic, go solar, one way or another you’ll have to.    Give it 10-15 years and solar will be a necessity, not a choice.    It’ll be fun to see folks like you kicking and screaming all the way there though.  I’m sure there were plenty of folks who fought against television, microwaves and the internet as well.  Good luck with living in the past!

“Free maket ...”  “No subsidies..”  What a joke.  The American Oil Aristocracy has been in bed with Middle East terrorist supporters for decades!  Every time you squeze the nozzel at the gas pumps, some of the money feeds a madrasa that is training the next classe of attackers.  And some of the money goes to the Bushes and other right-wingers, hence their eagerness to destroy renewable energy initiatives to keep their (oil) cash cows flowing.  Enron alone (one now defunct part of the oil aristocracy) contributed $485 million dollars to political campaigns for a single candidate: George W Bush.  Read a little truth from the National Corruption Index:

Profile Result
Abdul-Rahman Salim al-Ateeqi
Last Updated: May 01, 2008
Abdul-Rahman Salim al-Ateeqi is Personal Advisor to the Amir of Kuwait, and formerly that nation’s Ambassador to the United States as well as to the United Nations.

He’s also Chairman of a global conglomerate holding critical US Defense contracts, though founded by one of those on a seized list of Al Qaeda’s top money providers. Al-Ateeqi is the Chairman of Investcorp, a $10 billion multinational started by Ahmad Turki Yamani, one of the 20 financiers’ names on the Al Qaeda “Golden Chain” document, seized in a 2002 Bosnian anti-terror raid.

Another Investcorp founder and director, Abdullah Bakhsh, fronted $25 million to bailout George W Bush’s failing oil companies (founded with the Bin Laden family) in the ‘80s, along with Saudi Royals’ banker Khalid bin Mahfouz, an even more notable Al Qaeda “Golden Chain” luminary.

Wake up, America.

Nuclear is renewable, in the sense that exhausted nuclear pellets and rods make excellent heavy-metal armor-penetrating ammunition.  Of course, it’s still radioactive so it poses a slight problem:  radioactive waste spread over an entire battlefield with a half-life of 50,000 years.  Nevertheless, spent uranium ammunition is very popular with the US military.

Among the solar firms located in AZ, Suntech is Chinese, I believe, but why begrudge them the presence?  It’s the world’s biggest solar manufacturer so a little reverse technology transfer might be in the works. 

As for “clean coal”—an oxymoron—and natural gas’ purity, gimme a break.  Solar is by no means the be-all and end-all, but it certainly has a role to play in high-intensity sunlight regions like AZ.  Remember, however, just because it’s made here doesn’t mean it’s used here.  I live in Tucson and have yet to see more than an occasional building equipped for solar, even just a hot-water heater.  The local promotion of solar is so weak one wonders if perhaps our city and Pima County council members have their heads in the sand, of which we also have plenty.

Here’s my counter perspective to this article:

“Big Solar: The Green Lobby Flexes its Muscles in Arizona”

http://www.statebrief.com/briefblog/2010/03/03/big-solar-the-green-lobby-flexes-its-muscles-in-arizona/

It’s a shame that we are still prolonging the inevitable.  We need to push further than our current limitations into a more efficient tomorrow.  Or, we will be playing catch up which is always twice as hard.  At least if you can’t effectively use solar power, install a radiant barrier to lower your cooling cost.  I bought mine from http://www.insulationstop.com