California is the nation’s most populous state, which helps make this landmark even more impressive: According to the LA Times, “Wind energy now supplies about 5% of California’s total electricity needs, or enough to power more than 400,000 households.”
That’s big news. California has effectively doubled its wind power capacity since 2002, and is now home to 4,000 MW. The state installed 921 MW last year alone, and is now ranked just behind Iowa and Texas in generating capacity.
I just returned from the Solar Power International (SPI) show, an annual event for the solar industry, and there were a few things I kept hearing over and over.
One was: “It’s simple: People can live better with solar.” The second was: “The price of electricity will rise over the next decade.”
Over the last 40 years, Americans have been fortunate to have largely consistent electric rates. But as utility providers need to replace aging systems and fuel costs rise, experts predict that homeowners will soon need to pay more for electricity.
Should consumers pay more for renewable energy in order to promote a certain technology? That’s an interesting question raised by California regulators on Thursday, when they approved what they acknowledged to be a pricey contract for Abengoa Solar to sell power to Pacific Gas & Electric.
The California Public Utilities Commission voted 4-1 to approve the 25-year contract, which will allow Abengoa to build the 280-megawatt solar farm called Mojave Solar in southern California. The company already has secured construction permits from state and federal regulators, as well as a $1.2 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy to help pay up to 80 percent of the project’s cost.
Householders who are in the process of having solar panels put on their roof have six weeks to complete the job or face seeing the predicted income they generate slashed after the government said it was cutting feed-in tariffs by 50%.
Despite pledging to be “the greenest government ever”, the Tory-led coalition last week shocked the renewables sector by announcing that only installations completed by 12 December would get the full payments they were promised. Hundreds of householders who had signed contracts to have panels fitted have now pulled out and others are expected to follow.
Joining the ranks of 5 countries other than the U.S. that have hit the 1 gigawatt solar milestone (Germany, Italy, Spain, Japan, and the Czech Republic), California has now installed its 1st gigawatt (or 1,000th megawatt) of rooftop solar installed.
To put that into perspective, 1GW of solar can power up to 750,000 homes and is equal to about 2 coal-fired power plants.
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