Ideas for Saving Energy & Advancing Alternatives
Progress Report: California Solar Initiative Working
The California Solar Initiative, the state’s effort to put 3,000 megawatts of solar generated electricity online by 2017, seems to be working.
In 2007, the initiative’s first year, incentives under the program have exceeded the state's total installed solar capacity, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) said in a progress report dated January 25. The program had applications for over 200 megawatts and received over 7,500 applications valued at over $500 million in state allocated incentives.
Commercial solar applications comprised the vast majority of the total megawatts in active applications, the CPUC said.
89% of the applications are for residential installations, but on a Megawatt basis the vast majority are for commercial applications from businesses, governmental, and nongovernmental organizations.
The stated goal of the California Solar Initiative is to create a solar industry in the state that is unsubsidized by utility ratepayers within 10 years.
Comment
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Comment by Nat Ramon on March 9, 2008 at 6:38pm - Solar thermal is more efficient and is great if you have a pool or you use a lot of water. Thanks for the info!
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Comment by rripken on February 27, 2008 at 4:20pm -
An interesting bit of news about the California Solar Initiative is that it was recently expanded to include non-Photo Voltaic solar technologies. I believe this means that residential Solar Hot Water heaters now qualify if they are replacing/augmenting an electric hot water heater. Solar water heaters can be more efficient at capturing solar energy than PV panels and they don't have the additional inefficiency of inverters or the headache of grid-tie.
This change also qualifies electric generating solar thermal. Things like dish stirling, solar trough, and concentrating solar technologies. These installations can be huge (acres in the desert) and expensive. Hopefully I'll get my residential Solar Hot Water heater covered before the money is gone.
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