Increased awareness through the efforts of State and National organizations, consumer advocacy groups, and mainstream media has brought Renewable Energy information directly to consumers. It is important to keep focus on improving renewable energy generation also.
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In other words there is a deep systemic problem at the heart of the UK’s system for renewable energy support.
Kelly explains that the policy initiative proposed in each distributed-energy bill is simple.
He says he can show a nationwide effort in nearly every state to penalize net-metering customers and deter further renewable energy development.
Add lucrative, but sustainably designed, feed-in-tariffs (FiTs) or long-term power purchase agreements (PPA) to the equation and it’s easy to see why experienced investors, with an eye on the future, have ramped up their solar investments and, by all indications, will continue to do so.
The chief scientist of the UN Environment Programme, Professor Jacqueline McGlade, has accused the government of sending out the wrong message about renewables. It also presents the major renewable policy frameworks in place in a few of the major states in the U.S. and Canada.
“What’s disappointing is when we see countries such as the United Kingdom that have really been in the lead in terms of getting their renewable energy up and going – we see subsidies being withdrawn and the fossil fuel industry being enhanced”.
In the land of tech entrepreneurs, renewable energy is making strong headways, so it’s not surprising to learn that California has been among the top USA states for renewable energy for years, and recently reached a full 25% of its electricity production from these sources.
An added incentive could lie in boosting return by including a renewable-energy premium payment from the utility company in addition to the contract reimbursement rate, specific to the actual form of renewable energy technology.
Photovoltaic (PV) technology, itself, has evolved to such an extent that accurate energy forecasts can now be created for a planned solar project, factoring in solar irradiation, weather modelling and technological variables, such as improvements in conversion efficiency.
Leonie Greene, a spokeswoman for the association, says it is “crazy and shortsighted” to pull the plug from solar at this stage “not least because it is clear from Germany and elsewhere that solar has the capacity to drive down wholesale electricity prices which also helps the consumer”. On the contrary, utility scale solar has been shown to stabilize the grid, while enabling the optimisation of existing conventional generation assets, delivering cost competitive electricity and, as a bonus, allowing utility companies to comply with ever more stringent emissions regulations.
Meanwhile, Kelly maintains, public relations campaigns continually shine the industry’s desires on state lawmakers. “At the moment, the mines don’t have any capital so they are relying on the renewable power business to come to them with solutions”. The energy I produce during long summer days will offset my energy demands in the winter.
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Mike Masterson’s column appears regularly in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
