Green Jobs for America

You know, as opposed to the Fake Economy that is now falling down around us like a house of cards.

Found in my email box today, from the Working Families Party:

… The reason investors poured so much money into real estate speculation and opaque financial instruments is the lack of investment opportunities elsewhere. In the long run, the only way we can have a vibrant economy without financial bubbles and crises is if the government takes the lead in creating major new opportunities for investment. In the 19th century that meant railroads and canals, in the 1930s it meant the public works programs of the New Deal, in the 1950s it meant the federal highway system. Today it means a crash program to respond to the challenge of climate change with massive public and private investment in green jobs and alternative energy. Without a commitment to to rebuilding the real economy, this bailout is just addressing the symptoms and not the underlying disease.

This line of thinking about where our economic future lies has been expressed by voices ranging from Thomas Friedman to Lester Brown to the AFL-CIO. Perhaps it’s simple-minded of me to say so, but I’d like to see our financial system based on products that actually exist, and see people get paid for working instead of for getting fired (after destroying other people’s lives and livelihoods). Is that too much to ask?

Solar One has a great summary of the day’s events, as does the NY Times. Both focus on what for me was perhaps the most meaningful topic raised: the possibility of creating Solar Empowerment Zones in New York City. These would be “designed to scale up solar capacity in the city at an exponential, rather than incremental rate”, by expediting the permit process, assessing the local grid’s capability to have power flow in both directions rather than just one, and encouraging neighbors to plan solar projects together to take advantage of bulk pricing. Members of the panel seemed to agree that the outer boroughs represent great untapped solar potential, with thousands of square feet of flat open roof space on apartments and industrial buildings. I began to envision Flatbush as a Solar Empowerment Zone, with photovoltaic panels springing up on roofs throughout the neighborhood. I can see it! Can you?

If you are onboard with Al Gore’s challenge, let Obama, McCain, and your elected officials know by signing the MoveOn petition here. Let’s do this!!

…our dangerous over-reliance on carbon-based fuels is at the core of all three of these challenges — the economic, environmental and national security crises,” Mr. Gore said. “We’re borrowing money from China to buy oil from the Persian Gulf to burn it in ways that destroy the planet. Every bit of that has to change.”

He also points out that the more oil we use the higher the price goes, while the more solar we use the lower the price goes. The goal of our neighborhood solar forums is to inform homeowners interested in solar about the new tax credits and higher net metering limits just passed in New York, and encourage networking so they can share best practices and potentially approach installers as a group to negotiate costs. Stay tuned, we will definitely be doing more of this neighborhood-oriented energy education.

Come to the…

Neighborhood Solar Forum
for single family homes

sponsored by Sustainable Flatbush

July 16th @ 8pm
Ditmas Workspace
535 East 17th Street (corner of Ditmas)

http://www.ditmasworkspace.com/

Peter Landy will speak about his experience converting his house to solar power.

Chris Neidl of Solar One will speak about current legislation and initiatives to make residential solar power affordable.

RSVP requested (but not required) to anne@sustainableflatbush.org
Special Thanks to Liena Zagare and Ditmas Workspace

*Spread the word to friends and neighbors!

**The next Solar Forum will focus on multi-family apartment buildings, including co-ops.

Solar Energy
This week the State legislature approved new tax incentives to encourage the installation of more solar electric (photovoltaic) panels in New York. This is great news, but the lack of opportunity for net metering (selling excess power back to the grid) remains been one of the biggest impediments to the growth of solar in New York State. Under current laws, home solar systems have limited net metering abilities and commercial installations have NONE. This is a huge lost opportunity to ease strain on our electrical grid and prevent power outages during the summer, since the peak demand for power (particularly in NYC) occurs at the time when solar panels are at their most effective: in the middle of the day. What can you do?
Send a message to Albany to loosen restrictions on net metering!

• UPDATE from Vote Solar: New York is on a roll. The state also just passed legislation to update its net metering standard, from a claustrophobic 10 kW cap for solar installations, limited to residential only, up to a gold-standard 2 MW, open to all customer classes. This significantly opens the market for large scale solar in New York, and is a critical step towards building a major solar market in the Empire State.

Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Under the RGGI, New York will make dirty power plants clean up their act by requiring them to cut carbon dioxide emissions and pay a price for any remaining pollution. Polluter Pays… what a concept!
Tell the Department of Environmental Conservation that you support the RGGI

Bigger Better Bottle Bill
A favorite at Sustainable Flatbush (see here and here), this bill passed the State Assembly on June 11th, and must now pass the Republican-controlled Senate. The bill would add 5-cent deposits to non-carbonated beverages such as bottled water, iced tea, and sports drinks, whose market share was nonexistent when our current bottle bill was enacted in 1982. According to NYPIRG, “nearly 3 billion non-carbonated beverage bottles and cans end up in the trash or polluting our state’s rivers, beaches, and neighborhoods each year because they don’t have a deposit”… so the bill’s potential to reduce litter and increase recycling is huge. I don’t have a link to email your Senator, but will update the post if I find one.

Okay, this one is federal, but also very important:
Green Jobs Act and “Green Block Grant” Program
Activist Van Jones (if you don’t know him yet, check him out!) has this to say about the legislation:

A fully funded Green Jobs Act will distribute $125 million per year to identify needed skills, develop training programs, and train workers for jobs in a range of green industries. That’s enough money to train 30,000 people in green trades – every year. It targets a broad range of populations for eligibility, but it has a special focus on creating “green pathways out of poverty.” In other words, this Act can connect the people who MOST need work – to the work that MOST needs to get done.

A fully funded Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grant Program will distribute $2 billion per year to cities and local governments for energy conservation, energy audits, fuel conservation programs, and the use of renewable energy. These “Green” block grants could create tens of thousands of green-collar jobs – accessible to low-income city residents who most need opportunities and careers.

Urge your Congressperson and Senators to support these programs!

Now go have a beer!

• Mike Adams considers himself a citizen of the earth. He currently splits his time between working with Community Energy to spread the word about wind power and electric choice, working on an two organic farms, Sun One Solar Farm in Bethlehem, CT and Regeneration CSA in High Falls, NY, and teaching math. He feels the true beginnings of sustainability will come when it becomes discussed that large decreases in consumption are essential. He has lived in NYC since the blackout of 2003.

Mike can also answer questions about renewable energy options for NYC residents, including how to change your home electricity bill to “green power”. Feel free to post questions or comments at the end of this report, and be sure to visit NY Wind’s website.

Solar Panels on roof of MTA Stillwell Ave Station (photo by tigre)

NYC Solar Summit, June 21, 2007 at the Museum of Natural History.

About two weeks ago a group of solar installers, policy makers, academics and others interested in the solar industry and how NYC will develop its own solar resource congregated on the day with the most sun to discuss NYC’s solar situation. Many thanks to Bronx Community College and the Center for Sustainable Energy for bringing together this event.

Tria Case, Executive Director of BCC CSE started the day off with words of inspiration, a sense of urgency, and her vision for what NYC can achieve with the right minds, policy and money flow all working together. NYC uses a lot of power; we have experienced blackouts last year and already this year during the very hot days. More will come. We need to generate more power here in the city. Gas is our preferred method of generation right now, but prices will continue to rise and diversity is essential.

Currently NYC uses about 6000-8000 mwh of instantaneous demand. We have less than 2 mw of solar installed. Current Con Ed regulations will allow that to grow to 8 mw — pardon my opinion here, but whoop-di-do. Anthony Pereira of AltPower feels that we could grow to 300 mw installed within a decade. The most interesting (to me) panel of the day was the one with Anthony, Con Ed rep Rebecca Craft, and Colin Murchie from Sun Edison. Sun Edison uses the concept of finding a good solar site, approaching the owner about rental of the roof, and installing their own panels, owning the system themselves. The owner of the property simply lets the roof be used and collects a rent. Goldman-Sachs is a large investor in Sun Edison projects. [From speaking with Colin later I learned that the companies Sun Edison collaborates with are able to sign long-term power contracts, locking in their electricity rates for 10-20 years. Given the widely held theory that electricity rates will at least double within that period, such a contract is no small benefit. -AP]

Con Ed’s statement is that the grid is old and cannot handle the distributed loads that large solar installs would place on the grid. Many call for an independent review of the grid to determine what can be added, where, and what needs to be done to allow more solar to be installed. Without that review, we are at the mercy of Con Ed’s limitations.

Another topic of discussion was the rebates and incentives that are very much driving the solar industry. This is quite interesting. A general rule of thumb is that a job costs up to $10/ watt complete. A 5 kw system would be about $50,000. Rebates and incentives can cover about ½ of this. But there is a limit to each rebate and to the total pot. Installing solar is basically a trade job — you need to go and do an estimate, write a proposal, install and collect money. You need a roofer, electrician, a trained solar person and grunt labor. There are costs that can be eliminated if the idea is that we are in an energy crisis and solar has to be installed quickly and in large amounts. I had a personal discussion that day with Jeff Peterson of NYSERDA in which he told me that the goal of the rebates is not to bring large amounts of solar to the grid but to invigorate the industry and help get many companies started on the path of solar installs and maintenance. I think that that is important but I also think that we need to bring large amounts of solar to the grid and there is nothing that really encourages very large projects — not in NY State right now. We must also realize that this rebate money is coming from somewhere — that is, from everyone who pays an electric bill.

The third session was a bit slower, after a great lunch which we were treated to at a restaurant across 77th that I cannot remember the name of. We ended the day with a presentation about PlaNYC 2030 from Rohit Aggarwala, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Long Term Planning and Sustainability. Here we heard about how NYC will have another 1 million people by 2030, everyone will live within 10 minutes of a park, brownfields will be clean, subway lines will be added, air quality will improve, and more. The goals are set, and steps have begun to be taken, but it takes a lot of steps to walk to California. If this is a true priority of the administration, the possibilities are vast and chance of success, barring peak oil actually happening, are reasonable. I am less than optimistic about seeing some of the visions come to fruition, but I have been advised to be patient, for a lot can get done in this city when all the pieces come together.

Overall the day was great. The weather was superb — this was pre-late June heat wave. The assembling of great minds was incredible. I believe connections were made, relationships developed, and ideas grew as lunchtime discussions provided opportunities for dialogue.

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I would be happy to answer any specific questions anyone has about the conference, or discuss renewable energy in general. I have started a website, www.nywind.com, with the goal of educating people about wind power and the options that we as electric customers have in choosing our electric supply.

Mike Adams

mike@nywind.com
www.nywind.com
How is your electric generated? Choose wind.