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May 20, 2013

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Reid correct about renewable energy

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Nevada is home to tremendous untapped clean energy potential, as Sen. Harry Reid eloquently described in his recent address to the Nevada Legislature. The sensible reforms to the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard that he outlined should be implemented without delay.

Nevada’s Renewable Portfolio Standard should chart a course toward additional solar, geothermal and wind investments while closing loopholes such as credits for an out-of-state hydroelectric project built more than a century ago.

While some sectors of the economy have slumped, renewable energy has provided jobs and tax revenues. The world’s largest solar power tower project is being constructed in Nevada, and the state is a leader in deployment of geothermal energy.

Last summer, Nevada’s first utility-scale wind project went online near Ely; 152 megawatts will generate more than $20 million in tax revenue for White Pine County and the state’s Renewable Energy Fund over the next 20 years.

The renewable energy industry wants to bring more projects and jobs to Nevada, and Reid’s plan could help keep this important economic sector thriving for years to come. The Legislature should lead the way.

The author is the executive director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, an industry trade association that represents renewable energy companies in the West, including Nevada.

Discussion: 29 comments so far…

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  1. Proponents of renewable energy suffer from holier than thou syndrome. A decade ago a British engineer designed a bagless vacuum. He and those that bragged about it said that it would redefine the vacuum industry and make paper bags obsolete and a thing of the past. Guess what? They were wrong. There is a place for renewable energy but not at the exclusion and obsolesence of conventional energy sources. The two should and will coexist. One no better than the other except in the eyes of the beholders. Most of whom have a vested interest, like the British engineer and his fans, to push and promote their own agenda.

    CarmineD

  2. From where I stand, Nevada has done a poor job getting green energy implemented in the state. Next to nothing is being done to educate young people about possible careers in that industry. Very little is being done to promote it, and that may be the way it goes, given the stranglehold and monopoly NV Energy has on our power and its rates.

    Nevada is a state with plenty of sunshine, wind, and geothermal energy, yet it is barely being tapped. Any new technology is expensive, but with time and fine tuning, it will become less expensive. For the sake of our planet, young people, and future, we must get with the program and utilize renewable energy.

    Blessings and Peace,
    Star

  3. Reid the Red being right? What a concept! The guy is a loose cannon and makes the dumbest assertions one can imagine yet, I have to admit, even a stopped clock is right twice a day.

  4. I started driving in the early 1970s when gas was about $.30 a gallon. Today it's nearly 15 times that. In a few decades from now when gas is $60 a gallon people are going to have clean renewable energy attached to their rear ends. I can't imagine too many people pulling into a gas station in paying close to $1500 to fill their pickup trucks full of gas.

  5. Not only do we hand out free gold to big mining companies but Barrick is based in Toronto. Nevadans can't even dig their own holes in the ground.
    The only reason we have to borrow money from China is because there's over 140 million Americans lined up for government assistance. They don't want to pay for it through higher taxes. We want everything but don't want to pay for anything so the Chinese fill the gap.

  6. We rely very heavily on crude because it's relatively cheap compared to the renewables. Crude is cheap because of the financial crisis that hit years ago. In 2008 crude was approaching $150 a barrel. The financial crisis knocked nearly $100 off that price. At $91 a barrel today we are still way off the top set in 2008.

    Had it not been for the financial crisis we would probably be paying between six dollars and eight dollars a gallon for gas today and renewables would be a much more important topic for discussion. Give it a while longer.

  7. @Carmine.....in 2011 54% of the vacuum cleaners sold in the US were bagless [source, Consumer Reports, Industry Association] so your comparison might not be apt.

  8. The attitude expressed by rusty57 (5:19 a.m.), SgtRock (12:30 P,M.), and their ilk is all too common. The gist of their argument is "Why pay to develop the (currently) expensive alternatives when the (currently) cheap traditional sources are so plentiful?"

    I've seen a wide variety of comments about how much more of the cheap traditional fuels remain in the ground: how long until the wells actually go dry. I have heard NO ONE argue that those traditional fuels are unlimited - that the wells will NEVER go dry.

    I haven't seen a reference to "Solyndra" yet. Good. That project just proved that the venture capitalists are correct - it's possible to make a whole bunch of money backing a new idea - but you're going to lose a fair amount in the process. Yes, there WILL be mistakes and poor decisions, but the only people who never make those are people who do no work to begin with. The productive people are those who make mistakes, identify them, learn from them, and move on.

    Is it better to spend money now to develop alternatives? Or is it better to hold off until the very last well goes dry - and then try to find, and pay for, some type of replacement?

  9. There is NO sane discussion of the costs and efficiencies in the solar world WITHOUT mentioning the tactics which China employs - both the DUMPing of goods BELOW their manufactured costs in order to 'Solyndra' us - underprice and eliminate competition!; and also from heavily SUBSIDIZED (essentially by our grandkids who will be paying back the Chinese for the money they lent us from the profits they are making with selling us our power sources.

    But that said, the efficiencies have risen significantly as the planet has moved from a $23/watt cost in 1990 to about $1.18/watt today. Solar PV is competitive with coal. With COAL!

    In the home performance business and the real estate wave in our wake, we find folks want the solar as much as they want the comfort. We'll buy a house and do deep energy retrofits on it, add convenience to the durability and comfy package and dress it up in a solar array. After we demonstrate that it's a net-zero or similarly performing house, folks pay us handsomely BEFORE it's done!

    They pick the color of the 50 year Architectural roof, the granite, Fridge, etc. We buy low and sell high because of the value in satisfying a certain breed of buyer - it ain't the money!

    It's the certainty, the sense of security. It's the carbon toe-print vaporized. The infra-red camera scan that shows uniformity in insulation. The blower door reading showing tightness. The air quality from fresh air. The quiet abides in the abode. Health. Safety and CERTAINTY!

    Real estate numbers indicate that this trend in buyers across the country supports significantly higher pricing and is also confirming longer stays in homes that have been brought up to the net-zero or PassiveHaus standards.

    We find that the solar is the ice cream. They pay for the vegetables for their house, and then they get dessert. It's a good gig, being Santa Claus and delivering EXACTLY what those good kids REALLY WANT!

  10. RenoRobert is right. Finding mistakes is how we progress.

    Like ole Piet Hein said...

    The secret to success
    is simple to express...
    err and err and err again...
    but less and less and less!

    When I can see through the eyes of a would-be client, I got 'em. When I feel their pain and hear their moaning groans, well, I understand how my services will impact their lives.

    They will WAIT in a conversation for the edge to jump into the conversation and tell what wonders you performed for THEM

    And one happy lady will unabashedly shout your name in holy rages at church. And just One happy client tells friends, family, co-workers and neighbors...and the lady in line at the ... and snowballs fall from the sky from just being Santa Claus and helping somebody out of a jam!... Dang, who'da thunk it?? Doin good can be doin well.

  11. One problem we keep running into is the cost of doing business in the solar realm here in the US as opposed to anywhere else in the world.

    For example, a German group we work with sometimes estimates an array for Germany at about HALF what we pay. And almost every single installation in the US costs about twice what the same size array is everywhere else - Australia, Africa, Asia, Europe

    The only exception is what some folks have done in Hawaii.

    It all comes down to paperwork, and in most all cases, the Investor-Owned utilities (IOUs) are leading the charge(!) to stop solar at every possible turn.

    Ya can't blame them, or stop them really.

    They have treated solar like a bad cousin for the last century or so.

    Their typical response to a rise in solar activity is to do what the Chinese have done here - DUMP!! and DUMP!! until solar is too expensive again, and then, after the little solar guys get their day jobs back, the gas co. will raise their rates again.

    This is how they eliminated solar uprisings in the 1800s and 1900s and how they would like to do it again in 2100s. (The Golden Thread is good on this history if ya want to see the pictures and get the hairy details.)

    I would probably do it this way too if my nest were the fossil one. if climate change weren't on our plate. if jobs and housing stock and health and safety and economic prosperity and national security weren't as intertwined as they truly are.

  12. From Home Energy Pros, a reflection that MONEY is not the reason we shift energy forms. We change because one is CLEANER.

    "First, most of our home energy bill goes to electricity. The average electric bill is about three times higher than the average gas bill. Cheap natural gas is displacing coal in some regions. That coal was already relatively cheap, so instead of getting cheaper energy, we are mostly getting cleaner energy.

    Also, the price of natural gas doesn't affect the other costs that determine electricity rates--that is, the costs of building and operating the power plants and transmission lines.

    Utilities may invest some of the savings they may realize from fracking to update the embarrassingly obsolete--and sometimes dangerous--infrastructure."

  13. http://homeenergypros.lbl.gov/profiles/b...

    It's a conversation with Allen Maier, head of Lawrence Berkley Labs Solar unit, among other things.

    The prime places we have found willing to make this investment are of two primary types.

    They either are stranded or altruitic. On Mykonos, a Greek island where gobs of Asian and European tourists flock every summer, the dominant energy source last millenium was wind. Then oil had its way with her.

    Now solar is what they really want and can afford. Sure the place is windy, but the solar photovoltaics -PV-(light into electricity) can handle a well planned hotel replete with laundry facilities.

    We do the solar water heaters to handle a big load, and the split system heat pumps provide all the comfort anybody needs while LED illumination handles the darkness without adding to the A/C load.

    Integrating available resources is how we arrive at the total 'Aristos' - the best we can do!

  14. The energy diet in the US is sourced 5 ways and spent 4 ways.

    Supply (energy forms and their chunk of the action):

    Petroleum 37%
    Natural gas 25%
    Coal 21%
    Renewables 8%
    Nuke 9%

    Demand side where it comes OUT:

    Transportation 28%
    Industry 20%
    Residential and Commercial 11%
    Electricity Production 41%

    In short we're oily and gassy to go and juice out.

    The savings opportunities with smaller transportation units as Sgt Rock pointed out with smaller electric vehicles are one logical direction. so is public transportation done right! Walking may have been a thing of the past in Las Vegas, but you ought to see what it's doing for other parts of the world, thighs, waists, hips, etc.. not mention transportation expense, air quality, community.

    When the advantage of universal solar distribution is balanced against the cost of delivery of electricity by making copper wire, running it from power plant to step it down and step it down and push those electrons through miles of copper lines, well, the sustainable winner is the sun, on the job every morning since I can remember and I am Joah, little brother of Noah. I know where the rainbows get their colors.

  15. Cheap prediction...

    Solar will become 25% supplier in 100 years; petroleum and natural gas will be nearly as strong, but nukes and coal will give way on the supply side.

    Demand will remain steady, but the dynamics will be driven by efficiencies supplanting the waste and maintaining market equilibrium by reduced demand in transportation and industry primarily, and to a lesser extent some reduced residential and commercial consumption through upgraded performance standards.

  16. How's that for an 'Allen Greenspan' style prediction based on assessment of the way things are??

  17. "@Carmine.....in 2011 54% of the vacuum cleaners sold in the US were bagless [source, Consumer Reports, Industry Association] so your comparison might not be apt." Pat Hayes

    Proves my point. Paper bagged vacuums are still made and sold in huge numbers. Look at the November 2012 edition of Consumer Reports which is the yearly version that rates and ranks vacuums. Note that CR divides the tests and ratings among both bagged and bagless vacuums equally. If you follow CR for vacuums, it's commentary warns that people with health issues related to breathing should avoid bagless vacuums due to the nasty dirt they spew into the air when dumping the dirt bins.
    ;-) That's a fail safe mechanism to guarantee paper bagged vacuums in the industry.

    CarmineD

  18. For Commenter Joe Lamy: Please consider writing coursework/curriculum for young people to promote green energy careers. These young people are our country's future, and the sooner we get them engaged and thinking about applying the technologies of solar, wind, geothermal, natural gas, and other green energy venues, the more savings we all will realize in lowering the costs of "mining" green energy, manufacturing the soft and hard ware for it, and having energy efficient devices in our homes, businesses, and infrastructure. Every school in our country should be pushing green power generation and create "the green power generation"!

    Retooling Americans is nothing new. Racing to the moon led to our country changing the educational system to create more scientists and engineers, and look at today and all the inventions we have had in the last 60 years! That alone, should be argument enough why we MUST invest, retool Americans, and prepare for the future.

    History tells us, that with every great invention, plenty of mistakes were made along the way. As the sayings goes, "You have to break a few eggs to make an omlet." The smart thing to do is LEARN from those mistakes, and cease from making that same mistake over and over again (a definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results).

    The space race is a fine example to justify expense. Just think about it.

    Blessings and Peace,
    Star

  19. Thanks Star for the vote of confidence that education works, that progress comes from understanding and best is yet to come. i always love your perspective and twinkling aspirational aura.

    I am collaborating in the development of curricula and training through a consortium of CCs and CAPs to define the Energy Efficiency Worker job description in terms of skills and job requirements. We are aiming at a range of introductory hourly wages from about $18.50 for a journeyman weatherization worker to $50.00/hr for a journeyman energy auditor and $65/hr for project managers.

    In both our East coast and West coast areas we are finding the thriving market ripe and the burgeoning supply of trained and available employees, certified by Building Performance Institute and buttressed with the recent blessing from ANSI indicating the stamp of approval for the reliability of building science as it has been forged in the last few years.

    What's kinda funny is the change in American energy attitudes. Back in the 70s, home energy concerns were centered on 'poor people'. Now we are all poor! Community Action Agencies were the bastion of weatherization lore. Now everyone wants to do it right!

    Having worked in the energy field and the training field for most of my 50 working years, I have been tapped and now I choose to volunteer the contribution of my perspective to this simple effort to pass on the Art and Science of Comfort: a scope of work and a book of Joetry - Energy Auditors HeartBook, available this Summer.

  20. Energy jobs and energy careers are easy to sell when little Johnny comes home from school one day and says, "Mom, we gotta get a energy audit. I wanta be there for it too. They can see THROUGH the walls and tell how many sweaters we got on! They got this big fan thing that sucks on the house so we can find the leaks when the winds not blowing, and then FIX this leaky ole house up. we can save so much money plus the planet, Mom. Can we/ It's science, technology, engineering and math. i want to do good momma. Can we get a energy audit? Please?

  21. Rus, the PV units we like don't lose their efficiency for at least 50 years.

    Want to see what good looks like?

    http://www.silicon-energy.com/

  22. American solar panels are the best we have found in ongoing research.

    The 10% light transmission lets the designers include all kinds of mood light control...

    but the engineers and bean counters go nuts about the durability, longevity and efficiency, reliability and warranty.

  23. Cheap is fine if ya want to support slave labor under totalitarian regimes.

    The difference is not just the 80%-after-15 years junk versus the quality product that is leading the market.

  24. The President's nominee for Energy Secretary is an "all the above" proponent. Including fracking. As a physicist and politician, Earnest Moniz is a very strong candidate for the job and likely to get the nod from both sides of the aisle.

    http://news.yahoo.com/energy-nominee-fav...

    CarmineD

  25. @Star

    Hello Ms. Mistriel.

    Here is a great resource for starters...

    http://www.need.org/curriculum-guides

    The games are good blends; the activities cross curricular boundaries so there's art in social studies and language in science and over-learning crossing all kinds of connectors.

    More later, but utilities invest heavily in this arena. Check online even for out-of-area freebies.

    More later.

  26. "And he may approve that dirty oil pipeline from
    Canada." Teamster

    He will finally after 4 years of rolling over for the Hollywood green power celebrities.

    Why? Not because we need the oil. You said that yourself on many occasions here when you supported the President's lame decision to nix the pipeline. J-O-B-S! 16,000 direct hires with more downstream.

    Alberta tar sands are the third largest oil reserve in the world. Canada is one of the America's best and most loyal allies. The partnership is a win win.

    CarmineD

  27. Teamster: You know well that former Energy Secretary Chu who never owned and used a POV was bent on letting gas prices rise to $8 a gallon just like Europe. And he and his lackies, with President's Obama's blessing, declared war on coal. That's not all the above. Fortuntely "fracking" fracked him [Chu] and natural gas prices dipped precipitously and the US is now the Saudi Arabia of that energy resource. Not to mention more US J-O-B-S!

    CarmineD

  28. "A 'teamster' against building a pipeline? Back to the rubber room!" Rusty57

    Obviously Teamster's blind loyalty to the President trumps his loyalty to his union brotherhood. Every major labor union in the US has, was, and is for the Keystone Pipeline. Not this Teamster. James Riddle Hoffa is rolling over in his grave, wherever he may be, and that's hard for 37 year old dust to do.

    CarmineD

  29. But then let's remember it was the two good Democrat Kennedy brothers that put Hoffa in jail and the evil Republican President Nixon who pardoned Hoffa and got him out.

    CarmineD

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