I joined the Navy in 1996 to learn about nuclear power.
After the Navy I went on to work at XYZ Power Plant in my
home town. A few years later I got married, moved to 123 and found a job
operating hydroelectric power plants. I'm a skilled power plant operator. I
watch numbers, listen to my equipment and try to keep things working.
Despite my conventional experience my passion is solar power
- photovoltaics specifically. I've watched the solar industry grow from a 1 GW
per year market in 2004 to a 32 GW market in 2012. That growth wasn't driven by
US policy - it was driven by European and Chinese policy. I know the US can do
better.
The problem with solar policy in the US is that state and
federal governments are blindly supporting the technology with money instead of
engineering. If you are in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, France,
Italy, China or Australia you can buy a PV system for X. The same system in the
US will cost you 2X. The difference in costs between the US and the rest of the
world is policy engineering.
Better Policy looks like...
1. The US needs to fix the ITC. This will save the
government billions and encourage healthy competition within the industry. I
personally think we should start phasing the ITC out in steps ASAP but we could
also put into place price caps on the ITC benefit. Either way should work. Note
that the ITC for wind already has a price cap so you could use that as a
reference if you decide to go that way.
2. The states need to curtail the use of variegated support
policies and, within reason, harmonize their support. Louisiana and Florida for
example hand out support money based on a budget - once that budget is
exhausted (day 1) the industry goes into hibernation until the next budget.
That's not good engineering. We need policies engineered to work all year long.
3. FERC needs to issue an order mandating that all US
utilities set a Value of Electricity Tariff (VET) for solar backfeed. This will
establish a price benchmark that can be used to build contracts between
utilities and individuals and/or businesses installing PV. We need this price
benchmark. If you have a value based price benchmark it makes policy
engineering a whole lot easier.
4. Focus first on the states that matter. States with high
electricity prices, congested networks and plentiful sunshine in that order.
5. The All of the Above rhetoric doesn't work. Focus on the
best of the above. As far as renewables go there's wind and solar and that's
it.
6. Halt the duties on Chinese solar products. They are
counterproductive.
7. Most of all. Don't throw money at the problem. Reduce the
problem. Can we make the product tax free? That's better than offering a tax
credit on a taxed product. Can we minimize/eliminate registration fees? Where
can we reduce hassle? What do we need to grease to make things easier. Use
carrots and sticks, bribes and bricks to get everybody on board.
I know I've used a lot of jargon here but I hope some of
this gets through.
Respectfully,
Photomofo
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