Government Giving The Go Ahead On Stimulus Money For Renewables

nytimes.com:

The Treasury and the Energy Department today unveiled long-awaited new rules under which the government will pay up to 30 percent of the cost of renewable energy projects.

Read the whole story: nytimes.com

Comments

[research]

01:55 PM on 07/12/2009

Yeah! Rooftop solar is the CHEAPEST Electricity YOU CAN BUY!

3 cent per KWH large commercial roofs, about 4 cents per KWH for a mostly install it your self system. About 6 cents per KWH for an installed system BEFORE incentives.

1.85 per peak watt! retail!
http://www.atensolar.com/14.html
http://www.ecobusinesslinks.com/solar_panels.htm

Yes, I know solar used to be 10$ per peak watt, many sites still quote this old figure.

Solar has dropped 4x in retail price this year!

Really. YOU can buy solar panels for 2$ or less per Peak Watt!

See my profile for more details and links.

[katooom]

07:53 PM on 07/11/2009

Great deal, nothing like paying $5/watt for solar when you can buy it for $0.10/kwh from the grid!

Yeah, this makes a lot of sense. NOT!

[research]

02:13 PM on 07/12/2009

You are confusing watts and Watt Hours.

2$ per peak watt solar results in 3 cent per KWH electricity over 30 years.

"Government officials said that although there is no cap for the money, they expected to give out $3 billion in grants. UPDATE: The Energy Department estimated that the renewable energy projects would have annual production of more than 13 million megawatt-hours of electricity, or enough renewable energy to supply over half a million homes."

3B$ should provide 1.5GW peak solar, about 400MW average.

About 100 MWH over 30 years, NOT JUST 13 MWH!.

[Garybot]

01:09 AM on 07/11/2009

"Everyone except the hopeless crackpots on the Right wants to go green" ????

......and the rest of the world. The "deniers" are finally speaking up. Even if they weren't, there is no money to throw away on a hoax.


http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124597505076157449.html

[lightningbolt]

04:37 PM on 07/10/2009

Excellent news. The stimulus money should be spent as fast as possible on renewable energy.

[RichZ]

02:19 PM on 07/10/2009

Alternative energy- lIke Alternative medicine, you can through as much money as you like at it, we still need something that actually works, not just a groovy ideology.

[sheila]

12:43 PM on 07/10/2009

One more way Big Energy gets all the handouts and the american people (and our public lands) get SCREWED.

the built environment is the only suitable place for solar energy production, and there is more than enough rooftop space to power 100% of the US, says DOE. so why are we giving CHEVRON (yes, Chevron), a huge cash incentive to slaughter OUR wilderness, increase global warming (yep, look up SF6 and the EPA if you don't believe me), and then hijack us with extremely high prices? are we insane? is it Stockholm Syndrome - where we must re-enslave ourselves to Chevron when we have the choice to OWN AND GENERATE OUR OWN POWER?

what is needed is a robust loan program, generous tax treatment and FEED IN TARIFFS so that those of us who produce more clean, reliable, non-lethal power than we produce get PAID for it. How do we have plenty of money to cut billions in checks to Big Energy but not to pay a 10 cent premium for peak power generated by us? isn't this OUR MONEY?

[mcmchugh99]

12:27 PM on 07/10/2009

This has been my main question all along with cap and trade, the stimulus bill and everything else that's going on. How is the government going to get money to all these cleaner and greener industries we all say that we want? Everyone except the hopeless crackpots on the Right wants to go green, especially because our old manufacturing economy hasn't been doing well these last 30 years, so obviously we need to transition into something newer and more advanced.

How are we going to do that? How is all this money from cap and trade actually going to be used to stimulate the economy, help Joe Average, create green jobs and make the transition to the green economy?

Will there be a Green Bank or some similar organization to make all thos investments? When I heard of that, I knew it was such a good idea that Congress would almost certainly take it out of the legislation immediately, since it might actually be something that worked for the public good instead of a few special interests.

We can't be having any of that in Washington.

[atlanta1962]

05:38 PM on 07/10/2009

I know........ lets form another Govt agency with a few thousand Govt workers to
sit around all day and waste money then in 20 or 30 years we can get serious about
making ourselves indepentent from foreign oil

[chocolatecity]

12:03 PM on 07/10/2009

30 percent funding is a great way to get the T. Boone Pickens and the like off the sidelines and in the game. Michigan and Ohio already have a manufacturing infrastructure, so let's put some folks back to work.

[jacobomorales]

11:41 AM on 07/10/2009

Indeed great news, but it should have been done sooner.

[drkazmd65]

11:28 AM on 07/10/2009

How about I get a 1/3 subsidy on the cost of installing solar panels on the roof of my house - upfront?

Then I can cover the rest out of pocket,..... financed (at least in part) by selling the excess power back into my grid?

All I need is $3-4K to cover the start-up. I'll handle the rest.

But,.. alas,.. I am not a big corporation. So no dice?

[leduck]

11:19 AM on 07/10/2009

hurray...., we're saved
obama will avert the worse effects of PEAK OIL
the Mad Max future has been vanquished
yippeee

now i can sleep

[Kassandra]

10:58 AM on 07/10/2009

Can I have some solar panels on my roof. I could power my whole block with 'em.

Jimmy Carter subsidized solar in the 70's. "Course he was a visionary.

[albanianmomforobama]

10:19 AM on 07/10/2009

This is a GREAT NEWS.