Welcome to the Electrek Green Energy Brief. Put together by our Electrek authors, the Energy Brief is a daily technical, financial, and political review of important green energy news.
Sun Tax doubled on Spanish islands – If I build a thing to take advantage of the environment and I gain economic benefit from it, does the state deserve a piece? Yes – society has a hand in the creation of the stability that allows so much to exist in our civilized reality. The question is though – is it appropriate to tax this subset of the broader electric industry when we know clearly that the broader electric industry is not paying its fair share of externalities? What price ought it be? Coal/oil extraction leases are at amazingly low prices per kWh – article shows a tax of $0.04/kWh). Additionally, as we know, solar is a growing industry – states support growth industries.
Costa Rica goes renewable for 98% in 2016 – I’ll write about the details and further pans on this soon, but thought it was impressive enough t give it top billing. Yes, Costa Rica is a small country blessed with hydroelectric dams – however – their lessons learned with advanced energy sources are starting to seep out to the rest of the world. Looking forward to telling the world 100% renewable for Costa Rica in 2017.
Bloomberg sees solar power becoming cheapest global source in less than 10 years – We know, on this website, that in the sunnier climates of the world solar is already the cheapest. This report thinks that for the whole of the planet – when all locations, sunny or not – the average price of solar will be lowest. The nay sayers are leaving the building.
The top 5 solar power policy trends of 2016 – As solar penetration is increasing, we’re starting to see the electricity utilities get more aggressive at using “political jujitsu” to manipulate the legal system. Many laws – such as Nevada cancelling long term net metering agreements – attacked consumers with the false logic that solar powers users were stealing from non-solar users. The utility stacked Arizona public utilities commission agreed – the people of Florida did not. Expect 2017 to be a battle ground yet again – with the victories of 2016 as guidance.
Solar Panels now so cheap, manufacturers probably selling at a loss – I personally have seen the price of solar panels fall from $.55/W to $.35/W starting in about June of 2016 through today. That’s a 36% fall in price for the formerly most expensive component of a solar panel. The Chinese believe in Swanson’s Law and see this as a sound investment still – so don’t expect it to stop just yet.
Russian malware found on laptop of Vermont power company – The details are still fuzzy (and as I read about it this morning it seems a lot less interesting), so I’ll stay away from international intrigue just yet. However, let us be honest to ourselves and recognize that with digitization (making the grid smarter) we are going to open the machine to broader systemic risks. We need to be smarter than how we let our desktop computers be abused.
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[Editor’s note: We’re trying a new morning green energy briefing which should deliver every day by 9am ET. Please comment below]
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India Investing $1.8B on Lines to Transmit Solar Power – The whole world is racing to upgrade their infrastructure to take advantage of cheap, fuel free and clean solar power at peak times. The US, Germany and China have recently made headlines about lacking infrastructure – India watched, listened and hopefully is acting soon enough.
A good job if you can get it: America’s solar workforce is heating up – a 14% jump in jobs in the solar industry. 250,000 direct employees – 700,000 indirect employees. And the industry is going to keep on going. 50% outside, 50% sales/engineers/office/etc.
[Editor’s note: We’re trying a new morning green energy briefing which should deliver every day at 9am ET. Please comment below]
Americans strongly believe in their responsibilities toward climate change and pollution – Two-thirds of registered voters (66%) say the U.S. should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, regardless of what other countries do. Nearly eight out of ten registered voters (78%) support taxing global warming pollution, regulating it, or using both approaches, while only one in ten opposes these approaches. Two in three registered voters (66%) support requiring fossil fuel companies to pay a carbon tax and using the money to reduce other taxes (such as income tax) by an equal amount. If Congress passes a fossil fuel tax, the most popular uses of the revenue are developing clean energy (solar, wind), improving America’s infrastructure, assisting workers in the coal industry who may lose their jobs as a result of the tax, and paying down the national debt.
[Editor’s note: We’re trying a new morning green energy briefing which should deliver every day at 9am ET. Please comment below]
Solar power now has a better “Energy Returned on Energy Invested” than oil – The amount of energy you spend (running trucks, processing, transporting, etc) to make and use energy matters. Solar Power makes at least 15 times more energy than it takes to produce it – and its getting better.