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"Aided by federal and state tax breaks, solar energy will be cheaper than building new nuclear power plants, according to a North Carolina study released today. Dr. John Blackburn, the emeritus chair of economics and former chancellor of Duke University, said the costs of new nuclear plants continues to rise while electricity generated from solar voltaic panels is only half the cost of 12 years ago. In a study commissioned by the environmental group NC Warn, Dr. Blackburn estimates that the cost of new nuclear plants is now about 16 cents per kilowatt-hour and headed higher while solar energy can be generated with rooftop panels and solar farms in North Carolina for a comparable rate and solar costs are trending down. Solar costs are cut by about one-third because of state and federal tax credits, but Dr. Blackburn said the nuclear industry also benefits by federally backed insurance, loan guarantees and research assistance. "The message is that solar is here and now and not something exotic for the future," Dr. Blackburn said."

Back in September, the City of Houston agreed to buy all the solar power from a proposed NRG $40-million solar plant on a 25-year power purchase agreement, or PPA. The deal called for NRG to foot the bill for the plant, and the city to pay for the power at a rate of 8.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first year. What this meant, in real-world terms, was that NRG would supplant some of the solar output with power from other plants, giving the city an effective rate of 8.2 cents, though the agreement overall calls for Houston to pay 19.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. If built, the 10-megawatt solar plant would have been the biggest in the state, providing up to 1.5 percent of the city's electrical needs at a locked-in price on 90 percent of production - a fixed rate that would have served the city well if Reliant Energy raised its rates due to rising costs of oil, gas or coal. Reliant Energy's generation mix is 39.8 percent, followed by natural gas at 23 percent and coal at 22.5 percent - the former two prices likely to rise as the recession eases and tension over Middle East oil prices and production rises.

Back in September, the City of Houston agreed to buy all the solar power from a proposed NRG $40-million solar plant on a 25-year power purchase agreement, or PPA. The deal called for NRG to foot the bill for the plant, and the city to pay for the power at a rate of 8.2 cents per kilowatt-hour for the first year. What this meant, in real-world terms, was that NRG would supplant some of the solar output with power from other plants, giving the city an effective rate of 8.2 cents, though the agreement overall calls for Houston to pay 19.8 cents per kilowatt-hour. If built, the 10-megawatt solar plant would have been the biggest in the state, providing up to 1.5 percent of the city's electrical needs at a locked-in price on 90 percent of production - a fixed rate that would have served the city well if Reliant Energy raised its rates due to rising costs of oil, gas or coal. Reliant Energy's generation mix is 39.8 percent, followed by natural gas at 23 percent and coal at 22.5 percent - the former two prices likely to rise as the recession eases and tension over Middle East oil prices and production rises.

Germany's next government plans to reduce incentives to generate solar power as early as 2010, the energy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats said. Shares of Bonn-based Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE based in Thalheim fell after Joachim Pfeiffer said that Solar capacity has "massively increased" by about 3000 megawatts this year at the same time as the price of solar-power panels has plummeted. The government is "obliged" to address the matter, Pfeiffer told reporters in Berlin today. "We will review the overall renewable energy law in 2011 but will undertake reductions in solar subsidies taking effect as soon as next year," Pfeiffer said after a meeting of a group negotiating energy policy for the next four years for Merkel's prospective coalition with the Free Democratic Party.

Germany's next government plans to reduce incentives to generate solar power as early as 2010, the energy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats said. Shares of Bonn-based Solarworld AG and Q-Cells SE based in Thalheim fell after Joachim Pfeiffer said that Solar capacity has "massively increased" by about 3000 megawatts this year at the same time as the price of solar-power panels has plummeted. The government is "obliged" to address the matter, Pfeiffer told reporters in Berlin today. "We will review the overall renewable energy law in 2011 but will undertake reductions in solar subsidies taking effect as soon as next year," Pfeiffer said after a meeting of a group negotiating energy policy for the next four years for Merkel's prospective coalition with the Free Democratic Party.

Big Stone II's demise is not a bad sign for wind, it is the opposite. Now is the opportunity to move ahead to the next economy, not to worry about what we lost with a big polluter. Let's give this gift to our future generations - a better future. Take a deep breath and let's take a look at what the next energy economy will look like. We will move to an entirely non-fossil fuel economy based on solar and wind. We will have 89,000 solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar panels, 1.7 million rooftop PV systems to reduce combustion on most of our houses and perhaps solar water as well. We will have 3.8 million wind turbines worldwide taking up a total area smaller than the size of Manhattan. When the wind doesn't blow in South Dakota, it blows in North Dakota, or Nebraska, or the steppes of Russia. Distributed wind is where we should be headed. And hydro-power can "firm" intermittent wind - we have plenty of dams on the Missouri.

Big Stone II's demise is not a bad sign for wind, it is the opposite. Now is the opportunity to move ahead to the next economy, not to worry about what we lost with a big polluter. Let's give this gift to our future generations - a better future. Take a deep breath and let's take a look at what the next energy economy will look like. We will move to an entirely non-fossil fuel economy based on solar and wind. We will have 89,000 solar photovoltaic and concentrated solar panels, 1.7 million rooftop PV systems to reduce combustion on most of our houses and perhaps solar water as well. We will have 3.8 million wind turbines worldwide taking up a total area smaller than the size of Manhattan. When the wind doesn't blow in South Dakota, it blows in North Dakota, or Nebraska, or the steppes of Russia. Distributed wind is where we should be headed. And hydro-power can "firm" intermittent wind - we have plenty of dams on the Missouri.

Think switching to solar energy will make you green? Think again. Many of the newest solar panels are manufactured with a gas that is 17,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide in contributing to global warming. Nitrogen trifluoride, or NF3, is used for cleaning microcircuits during the manufacture of a host of modern electronics, including flat-screen TVs, iPhones, computer chips-and thin-film solar panels, the latest (and cheapest) generation of solar photovoltaics. (Time named the panels one of the best inventions of 2008.) Because industry estimates suggested that only about 2 percent of NF3 ever made it into the atmosphere, the chemical has been marketed as a cleaner alternative to other higher-emitting options. For the past decade, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has actively encouraged its use. NF3 also wasn't deemed dangerous enough to be covered by the Kyoto Protocol, making it an attractive substitute for companies and signatory countries eager to lower their emissions footprints.

Scientists at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have found a way to trap more than nine out of ten photons hitting a solar panel: A new anti-reflective coating for solar panels could not only send mechanisms that adjust the angle of solar panels to the sun into retirement, but also hold the promise to come up with much more efficient solar panels than those available today.

It's a question we've heard a lot lately: "Who will lend me money to finance solar installations?" In fact, a couple of our readers, Reeves and Byron, were kind enough to send comments on the subject: "We've heard there are some articles out there showing that if you get the right kind of financing, your solar installation can be cash flow positive right away. Problem is, I can't find those articles."

Vote to pass a bill that extends energy efficiency tax credits, as well as various individual and business tax credits. Official Title of Legislation: HR 7060: To amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide incentives for energy production and conservation, to extend certain expiring provisions, to provide individual income tax relief, and for other purposes. Highlights: - Extends tax credits for wind facilities until January 1, 2010, and credits for qualified biomass, geothermal or solar, small irrigation power, landfill gas, trash combustion, hydropower, and marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy facilities until October 1, 2011 (Sec. 101, 102). - Extends residential energy efficient property credits for solar electric, solar water heating, and fuel cell property expenditures until December 31, 2016 (Sec. 104). - Extends the residential energy efficient property credit allowable against the alternative minimum tax to the taxable year starting in 2007 (Sec. 104). - Reduces the maximum income tax deduction allowed for domestic production of oil and gas (Sec. 401). - Extends the business research credit through December 31, 2009 (Sec. 221). - Extends tax deductions for college tuition payments through the taxable year ending December 31, 2009 (Sec. 202). - Allows a base credit of $3,000 for plug-in electric motor vehicles, with up to an additional $2,000 for vehicles drawing propulsion energy from a battery of 5 or more kilowatt hours of capacity (Sec. 124). - Encourages bicycle commuting by allowing tax-free reimbursements to cover expenses such as the purchase of a bicycle and maintenance if the bicycle is regularly used to travel between the employee's residence and place of employment (Sec. 126). - Extends the Federal Unemployment Tax Act surtax that employers pay with respect to individuals they employ through 2010 (Sec. 404). - Extends tax credits for solar energy property until January 1, 2017 and credits for fuel cell and microturbine pr

Most climate experts accept that, in order to avoid catastrophic effects of global warming, greenhouse gas emissions (mostly CO2) must be cut by 60-80% by 2050 (though the figure may need to be a 95% cut in the US). The belief that replacing fossil fuels with solar and wind technology can accomplish this reduction tends to overlook several factors: 1. Corporations bombard the world with the message that everyone should consume like Americans do; 2. Corporations tell those in the US that they should ape after the playthings of the rich; 3. Population is growing; 4. Market economics force pathological expansion; and, 5. Solar and wind comprise a minute fraction of current energy. Let's combine these to get an idea of how much solar and wind would need to expand to replace coal, oil, nukes and gas by 2050. First, the US consumes about 25% of the world's energy while having only 5% of the world's population. For the rest of the world to consume at the rate of the US would require global production to increase by a factor of 6.33.

New research from Stanford University ranks wind power as the most promising alternative source of energy. Titled Review of solutions to global warming, air pollution, and energy security, the report from civil and environmental engineering professor Mark Z. Jacobson ranks the world's energy options -- putting wind, concentrated solar and geothermal at the top of the list, and nuclear power and coal with carbon capture and sequestration in a tie for dead last. ... From his findings, Jacobson is able to suggest that the U.S. government invest money and create jobs around the development of wind, solar and geothermal: "There is a lot of talk among politicians that we need a massive jobs program to pull the economy out of the current recession," Jacobson said. "Well, putting people to work building wind turbines, solar plants, geothermal plants, electric vehicles and transmission lines would not only create jobs but would also reduce costs due to health care, crop damage and climate damage from current vehicle and electric power pollution, as well as provide the world with a truly unlimited supply of clean power."

Many of the world's solar energy companies could fail or fall into the arms of stronger rivals as the financial crisis raises borrowing costs and as solar module prices fall. Any such shake-out would in turn precipitate consolidation in the industry, which has for years been attracting heavy investment and government subsidies that have driven supply ahead of demand.

The world's largest solar photovoltaic farm is strangely beautiful. Fields lined with solar panels tilting sunward seem almost like a massive environmental art project-one with an empowering message to the world. We can find ways to run the world predominantly on clean energy if we choose to. It's already beginning. By 2020, Portugal plans to generate over a third of its energy from renewables, with that percentage increasing every year.

President Obama today announced over $467 million from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act to expand and accelerate the development, deployment, and use of geothermal and solar energy throughout the United States. The funding announced today represents a substantial down payment that will help the solar and geothermal industries overcome technical barriers, demonstrate new technologies, and provide support for clean energy jobs for years to come. Today's announcement supports the Obama Administration's strategy to increase American economic competiveness, while supporting jobs and moving toward a clean energy economy. "We have a choice. We can remain the world's leading importer of oil, or we can become the world's leading exporter of clean energy," said President Obama. "We can hand over the jobs of the future to our competitors, or we can confront what they have already recognized as the great opportunity of our time: the nation that leads the world in creating new sources of clean energy will be the nation that leads the 21st century global economy. That's the nation I want America to be."

"I hear that PV really costs about 40 c/kWh, at least that's what so many people who have their 2 cents to add to the energy debate have to say about it. And then all of Chicago cringes, and with them, the Obama administration. I would quit if PV cost 40 c/kWh. After 30 years of working in PV, I would quit. It's true that it's hard to understand what PV costs, since we don't know what dollars per watt means in cents per kWh, and we don't know what it means in different locations. Put simply, there are some locations where PV costs 40 c/kWh; and there are some where it costs a third of that. There is no one price for PV, because sunlight varies, and system costs vary with size and design. Large systems are cheaper than small ones. So some nudnik from the oil or coal industries can stand up and say, PV is 40 c/kWh and not be lying. And I can say it is 13 c/kWh and not be lying, and all without a cent of incentives, not even traditional depreciation."

The tax breaks benefit the wind and solar energy industries and encourage energy-efficiency improvements to existing homes. Other facilities that generate electricity from renewable sources such as biomass, hydropower, landfill gas and ocean currents also qualify for the credit. Facilities will have to be in place by 2012 to be eligible for the credit. Of the $20 billion, more than $13 billion of it is focused on renewable energy projects. This is mostly due to the tough time that these projects have when it comes to finding financing in current market conditions. Homeowners can get a tax credit of up to 30-percent on upgrades for energy-efficient furnaces, hot water boilers and other energy savings improvements.

It's a nice motto and all, but when it comes to harvesting those rays through rooftop solar panels, Florida might as well coat itself in sunblock. Three myths have put Florida in the dark: * Expensive: An average photovoltaic rooftop system on a home costs $20,000 to $30,000. The federal government offers tax credits, though, and Florida offers cash rebates so popular that a backlog of homeowners are waiting for theirs.

Glenda Hoffman has an answer for the thieves, should they choose to return to her home in Desert Hot Springs, California. "I have a shotgun right next to the bed and a .22 under my pillow." Hoffman was the victim of a theft that one industry professional has dubbed "the crime of the future". Another observer has come up with the term "grand theft solar" to describe the spate of recent burglaries in sunny California.

* Opens federal waters beyond 50 miles from shore along the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to oil and gas drilling, ending drilling bans that have been in effect for 26 years. States would have to agree to drilling for areas between 50 and 100 miles from land. * Rolls back $18 billion in tax breaks for the five largest oil companies and requires energy companies to pay billions of dollars in additional royalties from oil taken from the deep water areas of the Gulf of Mexico under questionable leases issued in the late 1990s. * Requires the release of 70 million barrels of oil from the government's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to put more oil on the market and lower gasoline prices. * Makes it a federal crime for oil companies holding federal leases to provide gifts to government employees, a response to a recent sex and drug scandal involving the federal office that oversees the offshore oil royalty program and energy company employees. * Provides tax credits for wind and solar energy industries, the development of cellulosic ethanol and other biofuels, and purchase of plug-in gas-electric hybrid cars. * Requires utilities to generate 15 percent of their electricity from solar, wind or other alternative energy source. * Gives tax breaks for new energy efficiency and conservation programs including the use of improved building codes low-interest loans for energy efficient homes, and for companies that promote their employees use of bicycles for commuting.

If I am travelling down an "irrational" road to renewables, as Richard Phillips implies (Letters, 11 September), then I am not alone. Last year, solar PV generation capacity grew by 70% around the world, wind power by 29% and solar hot water increased by 15%. By 2008, renewables represented more than 50% of total added generation capacity in both the US and Europe, ie more new renewables capacity was installed than new capacity for gas, coal, oil, and nuclear combined; with no emissions, no wastes and no security issues to worry about - and no worries about fuel running out, or increasing in price. It's true the energy available from some renewable sources, like wind, varies over time, but we already have to have backup capacity for other plants (including for nuclear plants), which is also used to deal with the daily energy demand peaks. With variable renewables on the grid, these backup plants have to be used a bit more often, adding a small extra cost and, if they are fossil-fuelled, reducing the amount of emissions saved very slightly. But hydro can also be used as backup, and increasingly, so can other types of non-variable renewable source, including biomass and geothermal energy.

Congress is all but abandoning President Barack Obama's goal of producing fully one-quarter of the nation's electricity from renewable sources - wind, solar and the like - by 2025, though a push for at least some increase is making headway. Both the House and Senate are considering legislation that would establish the first national requirement for electric utilities to generate a certain percentage of their power from renewable energy - from wind turbines and solar cells to biomass and geothermal sources.