Word: solarization
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...here's something all Americans - except maybe Exxon shareholders - should be able to agree on, regardless of where they fall on the green spectrum: more renewable power would be a good thing. Greens support alternative energy, like wind or solar, because it helps de-carbonize our energy supply and reduce pollution. Skeptics support it because with rocketing fossil fuel prices - and the U.S.'s increasing dependence on oil imported from less-than-friendly regimes - renewables can offer homegrown, politically safe price relief. It's a win-win in a world that seems ever more zero...
...expire at the end of the year. Passed as part of the 2005 energy bill, the credits encourage businesses to invest in alternative energy. Utilities that produce wind power earn 2 cents for every kilowatt generated over the first 10 years of a project's operation. For solar energy, tax credits can be worth up to 30% of the cost of a project. These credits are modest - especially compared to the billions of dollars in subsidies lavished on the fossil fuel industry - but they've helped renewable power explode over the last several years, with wind energy growing...
...billion in lost investment, and 119,000 lost job opportunities in the U.S. That's because renewables, while getting cheaper all the time, still cost more than fossil fuels. Subsidies can help bridge the gap as renewable technology improves - but that will happen only if businesses can produce solar or wind power at scale, which will happen only if investors can be assured that the tax credits won't suddenly disappear, says Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. (Hear Resch talk about the renewable tax credits on this week's Greencast...
...potential loss of these credits has already impacted development. Acciona, a large Spanish renewable company that launched a major concentrated solar power plant outside Vegas this year, says similar projects will be impossible in the future without an extension of the tax credit. Abengoa, another Spanish company (European companies have dominated this space, largely because their governments provide significantly more generous subsidies to renewables), is planning to build the world's largest solar plant in Arizona, but the CEO of its solar arm told me recently that the project could fall apart if the credit doesn't come through...
...hybrid, put in better insulation - were far too little, Gore's goal seems far too much. Less than 28% of our power currently comes from carbon-free sources, and the vast majority of that is hydroelectric and nuclear. High-tech renewables account for less than 3%. Wind and solar are growing far faster than fossil fuels such as coal or natural gas, but considering that we don't even know if economical carbon capture and storage will ever be possible, it's hard to see how Gore's target is remotely attainable. This isn't negative thinking, or fiction...