10 Million Solar Rooftops Proposed By Senator Bernie Sanders, Others

While the Bush administration put a two-year moratorium on solar energy projects on public land last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and colleagues drafted a bill to promote the creation of 10 million new solar rooftops in private homes and businesses over the next ten years.

The bill, co-sponsored by Senators John Kerry (D-MA), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Arlen Specter (R-PA), John Warner (R-VA), and Robert Menendez (D-NJ), provides incentives for solar unit installation, covering about half the average costs.

Read the whole story here.

Comments

[sf94127]

A little off topic but what are y'all paying for solar panels on your rooftops?

With all the gov't rebates it will still cost me $34,000 here in San Francisco.

As I have said before I'm concerned about shading in a few years from fast growing trees on neighboring properties.

[sf94127]

I am signing a contract this week to have solar panels installed on my roof; I live in the city of San Francisco proper so houses are tightly packed. One worry is my neighbors have planted a few fast growing trees that in a few years will shade my rooftop substantially.

There are solar access laws on the books in CA but it is complicated because there are conflicting local ordinances. I have discussed the matter with my city supervisor and the bottom line is he and other politicians are wusses when it comes to solar access rights.

Solar panels have the equivalent benefit of planting 100 trees; yet several trees have priority over solar panels.

We need to get our priorities straight if we are serious about energy independence.

[swift_goat_pet_for_truth]

Keep in mind that the trees help sequester the CO2.

[sf94127]

Maybe you did not read my post: solar panels on a house is the equivalent of several hundred trees when you compute the environmental benefits.

Solar acces is an issue in urban centers where houses are tightly packed. My city (San Francisco) is providing incentives to install solar panels but they back away from the issue of protecting your right to solar access.

And the neighbors: they could care less about my right or your right to solar access.

[GoodGuysandBadGuys]

well finally some legislation that would benefit the people and the environment.

hopefully they propose to pay for this by reducing (preferably eliminating) subsidies for fossil fuels.

[Coyote2]

Folks the stock market is dropping like a stone; what to invest in? A slow down in consumer goods but an increase in basic home improvements: insulation, windows, wood/pellet stoves, heat exchangers; these are areas of growth. If we rid ourselves of this conservative government, liberal programs sponsoring these improvements should lift and divide the br-ea-sts of our sagging economy.

De-centralizing power generation, instead of large power stations and massive transmission lines, power can be generated locally. Each home and business could have a solar array, or a micro-wind generator. Spain has mandated that all new commercial building must have solar integrated into the architecture.

Now we have lots of solar panel manufacturers to invest in but Akeena Solar ($4.48) is a pure play installer with patented quick-install hardware. News that it had licensed it's technology sent shares soaring to $16.80 a few months ago.

Solar technology is rapidly changing. Inverters are a necessary and a silent and sleeping giant. Systems are more efficient when low voltage parallel inverters are used rather than the older high voltage serial setup. The latest for thin film and newest solar tech is the massively parallel inverter. Only two inverter pure plays here with parallel technology: Zantrex ($10) and startup STG-X ($0.20) with product sales just beginning to take off.

Folks, it's time to get some.

[KillTheMessenger]

And of course you don't own any of these company's stocks...

:-)

[Coyote2]

I own only one of them

[research]

Great Start!

there are 100M house rooftops, we should be able to do them all in 10 years, not just 10%,
Probably NanoSolar like, thin film is better for homes, less maintenance, assuming they can make their 1$/average watt (25 cents per peak watt), Concentrator system have reached 40% efficiency, but are overpriced and require mechanical aiming.

The commercial rooftops make sense for the larger "industrial scale" solar projects. It the tech that's ready to go.

See my profile for calculations and link for solar and wind total energy system.

[KillTheMessenger]

NanoSolar is promising a lot but has not delivered, yet. It is not clear that thin film is ultimately better than silicon. I am still waiting for the proof. The $1/average Watt will likely be a boondoggle. That's a factor of twenty cheaper than today's solar prices. I can't see anyone install it on your roof for that price, let alone supply hardware. Solar at $1/Wpeak would already be a highly profitable investment for society.

[research]

http://news.cnet.com/8301-11128_3-9972306-54.html

1GW per year, 100 feet per minute, thin film manufacturing already taking place.

[research]

Rooftop solar cost for thin film and concentrator systems is basically a function of mass production, since the materials costs are low.

I see all new roofs integrating solar.

I don't know if NanoSolar will pan out or not. I hope so. With subsides like oil companies get, I expect rapid progress toward low cost and high efficiency. Even the teams that put up the rooftop solar will develop machines and processes to streamline it. I got new windows in house for less the 4k$ in one day to install. I think rooftop solar could be installed as easily.

I'm pretty sure war crimes for oil, Nukes and coal will NOT work out.

[Coyote2]

NanoSolar is privately held by rich folks like Gates. Watch for IPO as sales take off.

[incontempt]

Put me on the list please!

[leduck]

i prefer solar concentrators

[ccpostman]

This is very good news.

I would rather see the roofs covered with solar panels, than open land covered with the ugly wind monster generators.

A lot of roofs to cover! Houses, garages, apartments, schools, and businesses. I here they are working on panels that look like roof shingles.

Plus, people can sell back the power they don't use to the grid or charge their new electric cars.

Sounds good to me.

[KillTheMessenger]

Selling back the power is a great idea that works well in e.g. Germany. But the utilities were fighting it for a decade over there, too, just like wind energy. It will take some hard core state and federal legislation to achieve that. Let's hope we will get that done soon.

[incontempt]

It would also significantly reduce the distrubution loss and expense of high tension lines and equipment burdens.

[research]

Correct since Rooftop Solar is generated at the same time and location as peak demand, air conditioning, it will be locally consumed.

[KillTheMessenger]

It will reduce distribution losses but it won't reduce demands on the overall grid. Quite the contrary. If we want to make this nation solar powered, we will need a much stronger grid than we have right now. The simple reason is that solar has a capacity factor of about 0.2. The sun shines on average only 20% of the time. Therefor the peak current flowing though the grid from solar installations has to be five times that of the average load. Right now we are probably able to deliver twice the average.

The only way around this problem would be local storage. By 2030-2040 that might actually be technologically feasible.

[mamacat]

Wow! Way to go!
I don't know the details, but something like this could be great, in a lot of different ways.
Reduce our consumption of carbon based fuels.
Reduce the money spent for the importation of oil and gas for power plants.
Reduce the need for new power plants.
Create new, real jobs.

I wonder if Bush will look for a way to stop it before he leaves office.

[RTIII]

All well and good, BUT....

What I'd like is that EVERY new government construction be fully-green AND have full solar utilization, including solar cells / collectors on EVERY square inch of available roof-top.

I'd also like EVERY re-roofing job to include installation of new solar cells / collectors.

The ONLY exemptions should be for buildings on the National Historic Register, or which are on a path to become so, or for constructions that are guaranteed (not just planned) to be temporary in nature. (For example, temporary structures are often constructed during projects like building bridges or dams, etc.)

It's OUR money, these are OUR buildings, WE should have them benefit us as much as is possible. CLEARLY solar technology is ready for the job, the economics are already very positive, and the prices are only coming down.

[sculptor]

Well, certain building are basically useless for solar power of any kind because they lie in a shadow so we have to be a bit flexible about any solar mandates. I think an incentive would be a fine first step. I'd also like to mention that rental properties that don't have a solar system should not be usable for any fedral tax depreciation purposes until a complying system is installed.

[RTIII]

Good points, though I don't like the word flexible in your first sentence. Perhaps simply coming up with a good set of simple, sensible rules. If you provide any room for "flexibility", it won't get implemented, or will often be delayed when it should just get done. I look at it a bit like earthquake preparedness - do it at the earliest possible opportunity and you're WAY better off.

[ibsteve2u]

lolllll...boy, are the American Petroleum Institute and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity ever going to spend money trying to discourage this proposal...

I expect I'll be seeing commercials of semi-naked supermodels perched on oil rigs and coal shovels talking about how non-hazardous oil and coal are, how abundant they are, and how manly they make you...with old Enzyte Bob grinning in the background...

[blueshield]

I reckon any day now we should be seeing "research" out of the denial labs linking increased use of solar energy to global warming.

[KillTheMessenger]

Why stop at 10 million? Why not mandate that EVERY suitable roof has to be covered by solar by 2030? Exemptions can be bought by property owners for increased taxes which will help to pay for the installations on the roofs of owners who want them.

[blueshield]

Why stop at 10 million?

Because it took us a long time to get into this ,and it will take us a long time to get out of it - sez the Prez.

[KillTheMessenger]

Prez sez lezz azz haz brine mezz. :-)

[evekendall]

sez the Prez. Well, the Prez is not going to have any say much longer.

[OneVoiceInACrowd]

And the Bush Admin thinks this is bad because of why?

Tax credits for large gas gazzling SUVs (farm equip) - Good
Solar Energy projects on public land - Bad

[darthdarcy]

Way to go Bernie; great idea hope it gets loads of support...!