Status of Governor Hydrogen Hummer's Brazillion Solar Roofs: Solar demand falls by 78%

NNadir

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Wed May-09-07 05:29 PM
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Status of Governor Hydrogen Hummer's Brazillion Solar Roofs: Solar demand falls by 78%

SACRAMENTO � California homeowners are rejecting new rebates for solar power equipment, saying the state has made installing the rooftop panels far more costly than expected.

As a result, Public Utilities Commission reports show a decline of 78% in rebate requests in the first three months of this year, compared with last year, and the solar installation industry says it is threatened with collapse across much of California.

At issue is a requirement the state added Jan. 1 for getting a rebate under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Million Solar Roofs program. Applicants must first sign up for costly pricing plans offered by utilities that charge more for their electricity during hours of peak demand.

Alfred Cellier had plans to install a $17,000 solar system at his Rancho Palos Verdes home until he penciled out the cost of the new state requirements and decided against it...

From the LA times:

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-solar8may08,0,3494064.story?page=1&track=ntothtml

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Deja Q

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Wed May-09-07 05:38 PM
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1. It's all about money.

Either blind greed, or conscious greed, it will do harm to EVERYBODY in the end.

It's simple:

Blind greed kills us all.

Conscious greed kills all the good people; leaving only what could be argued as the most devolved sort of humanity. After all, nobody's perfect and social engineering can be a real pain.

Either way, it makes no difference. All this is mere hypothetical hyperbole.

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youngdem

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Wed May-09-07 05:41 PM
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2. A typical Republican poison pill....act like you are for something while you act to kill it

It's how they behave because open advocacy of their positions would be suicide.

Too bad Americans (even Californians) are too stupid to see it.

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NV Whino

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Wed May-09-07 05:56 PM
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3. I just tried to get a client on solar

Edited on Wed May-09-07 06:02 PM by NV Whino

They were really up for it, but the PUC has changed the rules. It is now damn near impossible to install solar. Real smart move.

My guess is, PG&E saw that they were going to be losing lots of money and put the kybosh on it. They couldn't kill it totally. There are just enough people that meet the requirements that they can say, "Oh look, we so support solar power. But we can't help it if 90% of the people don't meet the requirements."

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yourout

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Wed May-09-07 05:57 PM
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4. WTF....you want people to put in solar so what do you do?

Raise their electric rates if they do..........only in America.

The two lobbys I hate the most are big Pharma and big Energy.

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NNadir

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Wed May-09-07 06:22 PM
Response to Reply #4

5. "Big Energy" is not threatened by solar.

Edited on Wed May-09-07 06:24 PM by NNadir

It would be cool if they felt so, but they don't.

All of the world's new solar PV energy production this year won't be able to match a single natural gas plant.

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phantom power

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Wed May-09-07 06:34 PM
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6. Strange. Time-of-use plans should be a big win for anybody with solar.

I'm on a time-of-use plan, where my on-peak electricity costs four times as much as off-peak. Even with no PV, and working at home, that's a significant savings for me since 80% of my usage is off-peak. If I had a PV installation that further minimized my grid usage during peak, it would be even more of a win.

If this is really a problem for a PV owner, they must have raised the peak rates by some truly enormous amount.

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NNadir

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Wed May-09-07 08:37 PM
Response to Reply #6

7. Well whatever the problem is, I'm sure Governor Hydrogen Hummer will work it out.

Let's not get impatient. It's not like there's a sense of urgency or anything like that.

Things take time.

We have lots of time, right?

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