Why Solar

I was asked this week why I wanted government help for solar. It was actually a pretty reasonable question considering all the bad news about solar both locally and nationally. It has taken me literally six years to come up with an answer to the question, “Why solar and why should the government be involved?” First I want to list all the bad things I have seen in the solar industry and also by people professing to have something to do with solar but really just being crooks. The first company I worked for left 2 wires exposed in a circuit box, they were dead but it still bothers me. Solyndra: My personal thoughts are the Federal Government shouldn’t be on the supply side—that’s nationalism. They can, however, help foster demand for a product through tax incentives or deregulation. (Solyndra was a pretty novel idea but they didn’t know that market conditions for all of their competition were about to cut costs by 40% right when Solyndra opened a huge new factory.) Evergreen First Solar Q cells AQT Solar PrimeStar Solar/ GE (GE bought thin film maker Prime star for approx $300m) All of these solar companies have either gone bankrupt or laid people off. Here is the connection between them all. There are two types of solar, Silicon which is made out of sand and Thin-film which is made out of rare earth metals. Some of these typically used metals are cadmium, telluride and indium.

Silicon makes up 27% of the earth’s crust, we have a lot of it and it’s recyclable. The cost of silicon has gone from $475kg in 2009 to sub $30kg in 2012 and it is still headed lower. (If you want to know why, I have another letter Andrews@solarbusinessalliance.com) Now locally South Carolina has had some missteps too. Solar EOS, Kingstree SC. I knew they were going to be unsuccessful the first time I met them, but no one asked me. Prior to meeting in person I did invite them to join SBA and they did, for one year. After I met the COO and he knew nothing about solar energy, I warned the SC Energy office that the COO was unlikely to succeed, and they told me they had come to the same conclusion. Global Energy Franchise, Blacksburg SC. Again I heard about someone fishing for grants and he had an ‘idea’, not a full business prospectus, not start-up capital, but an idea to open a factory/distributor/ warehouse. If you know solar, you know that manufacturing and distributorships don’t start with big factories they start in a lab or on a Web site. You have to grow these businesses and then expand. Boeing 2.6MW SC project goes to NC based contractor. Despite all these failures, or maybe because of them, I have never been more certain that solar research and development is the single, fundamental key to our energy future. All of our energy comes from the sun, I’ve said this 1000 times and I’ll say it again, all of our energy comes from the sun. Coal, oil and natural gas are fossilized plant matter created by the sun. Nuclear materials needed for fission are created by the sun. I have been extremely lucky to visit a coal plant, a hydro plant and a nuclear plant as a guest of Bob Long, of South Carolina Electric and Gas. Bob is a stellar individual and SCE&G is lucky to have him. His visits and my subsequent research have taught me a lot about energy. I have met many of the energy leaders in South Carolina. They are all very bright people. We are lucky to have them. I watched Catherine Heigel of Duke Energy deftly pit-bull solar activists at the Public Service Commission. She has been promoted to head up Duke’s SC division and rightfully so. Mike Couick of the SC Co-ops is a formidable man with his deep understanding of energy issues. Mike Smith of Central Electric Power Co-op has managed 70 installs of solar as part of a pilot program. Philip Greenway and Liz Kress of Santee Cooper have quietly advocated for smart policy on economically feasible renewable energy for years. Dukes Scott graciously listened to me in a meeting with the Office of Regulatory staff and Ashlie Lancaster of the South Carolina Energy Office has always listened to Solar concerns while balancing what is best for the State of South Carolina. Meeting and listening to these people has helped shape my understanding of energy production in SC. Everything I’ve learned has shown me that energy and government are intertwined and have been since the beginning of the modern age. The federal government taxed and regulated the SC fur trade in the 1740’s when Charleston was one of the biggest trading cities in America. Co-ops were born out of the federal Rural Electrification Agency in the 1930’s before rural America had access to electricity. All research in nuclear energy has been funded by the federal government but private companies have benefitted greatly from nuclear power plants. This is how America works, government protects the people, (sometimes from themselves) and private business prospers. There is no aspect of private business that does not benefit directly from government and taxes are levied to keep the system in balance. Investor owned utilities receive $52 dollars per rate-payer, per year in incentives and non-profit co-operatives receive $23 dollars per year, per rate-payer. Nuclear power is underwritten by the federal government and the state gives tax breaks in county and state taxes to enable power plant expansion. Do I endorse this system of government? Somewhat. Do I condemn it? Yes, somewhat, but it is the way we do things and for solar I know only one thing—eventually it will be an integral part of our energy mix. So when asked the question, “Why solar and why should the government be involved?” The answer is we have always used solar; the future will just be more so… and yes if the government is for the people, by the people and of the people then a definitely yes!

State politics slows industry growth

While most of us may not realize it day to day, without electricity, modern life ceases to be. Coal and oil have been the single greatest vehicles to wealth in the history of our species. It is this fact that makes it critical we address the depletion of fossil fuel. All utilities across the country make plans for production and growth several decades into the future and they watch energy prices every minute of everyday. The conversation we have today, directly impacts the next decades of our lives. When a single coal plant costs $2.2billion dollars and a nuclear plant costs 5 times that, we have to get these decisions right.

Every living thing on the surface of the planet gets its energy from the sun. Coal and oil are nothing more than storage units of the sun’s energy. Wind and biomass are also energy created from the sun. Nuclear plants are mimicking the sun’s fusion reaction but we use fission and fuel that is poisonous. To me then it seems abundantly clear that we should explore the mining of the sun’s energy directly. Spectra Labs a division of Boeing makes the most efficient/ most durable solar panels on and off the earth. American engineers can still create great things. USC located in Columbia SC is doing some amazing research into semiconductor materials and photovoltaic’s (solar electric, PV for short)

Since energy is one of the four critical things we need to have modern society, I believe it is the next arms race and the next vehicle of economic growth (actual sustainability) for the US and the world. 60% of the world’s oil is located near India and China. India and China have one third of the planet’s population. China is spending its $2.1 trillion dollars of currency reserves on energy bets globally; China is also outspending us on renewable energy infrastructure. The majority of American’s despite our political arguments and social differences are fat and happy. We need to put aside our differences at the local level and create the support needed to get solar energy on parity to coal, if we don’t someone else will. Food, shelter, communications and energy are the underpinning of our happiness.

So with the eventual rise of China and India (go to Wal-Mart or ask your telephone credit card representative where they got their college degree) we have to ask ourselves now where is our energy going to come from in 20-40yrs from now. Paul Campbell (R) Berkeley recently said “we need a clean energy standard in South Carolina.” We need this new leadership to prevail. It is lack of education and state support for new industries that will cause us to lag behind the rest of the country and the world.

Some people have been quoted saying South Carolina is too humid for solar. This is completely false. South Carolina gets 43% more output than Germany, the world’s leader in solar installs. Solar most certainly does work in South Carolina. We have the 13th best solar irradiance in the nation and we far outstrip Europe in sun mining potential. That is why we must mine the sun. Can solar meet base load demand (energy 24 hrs a day) right now? No, but not utilizing it where we can, (peak shaving, offsetting the most expensive energy at high demand times) is wrong. The internal combustion engine was industrialized in the 1870’s and yet even today only 10% of the used energy moves the vehicle, should we have waited for 20%, or 40%?!

While our house and Senate continue to resist helping entrepreneurs build a new industry in SC, other states like North Carolina and Georgia are creating jobs, gaining investments and creating energy security. Lindsey Graham US senator for South Carolina gets it. His approval of national climate legislation will bring jobs to our state. Not only thru solar and biomass but natural gas drilling off the SC coast and wind turbines and nuclear technology investment will bring billions to SC. Do we want to fight (running up the deficit and losing our most precious resources) over fossil fuel reserves or do we want to build the new energy economy?

So it’s a question of new jobs, new money, and new ideas or no ideas and the blind hope that our economy will create jobs by itself. Tell your state representative that North Carolina has fully supported solar with legislation and they have much lower unemployment due to this investment, we need to match North Carolina incentives. If we invest in new technology and innovation we secure our position as global leader and will prosper as these other economies buy our products and knowledge as they already do in relation to fossil fuels now. Its hard to give up what has been so good to us, fossil fuel powered America’s industrial revolution. We will remain the leaders in petro-chemical production and research for the foreseeable future but if we look back to why America is great its much easier to realize we can and must build a new energy economy on solar power because the sun is so integral to all life and energy is prosperity.

State politics slows industry growth

While most of us may not realize it day to day, without electricity, modern life ceases to be. Coal and oil have been the single greatest vehicles to wealth in the history of our species. It is this fact that makes it critical we address the depletion of fossil fuel. All utilities across the country make plans for production and growth several decades into the future and they watch energy prices every minute of everyday. The conversation we have today, directly impacts the next decades of our lives. When a single coal plant costs $2.2billion dollars and a nuclear plant costs 5 times that, we have to get these decisions right.

Every living thing on the surface of the planet gets its energy from the sun. Coal and oil are nothing more than storage units of the sun’s energy. Wind and biomass are also energy created from the sun. Nuclear plants are mimicking the sun’s fusion reaction but we use fission and fuel that is poisonous. To me then it seems abundantly clear that we should explore the mining of the sun’s energy directly. Spectra Labs a division of Boeing makes the most efficient/ most durable solar panels on and off the earth. American engineers can still create great things. USC located in Columbia SC is doing some amazing research into semiconductor materials and photovoltaic’s (solar electric, PV for short)

Since energy is one of the four critical things we need to have modern society, I believe it is the next arms race and the next vehicle of economic growth (actual sustainability) for the US and the world. 60% of the world’s oil is located near India and China. India and China have one third of the planet’s population. China is spending its $2.1 trillion dollars of currency reserves on energy bets globally; China is also outspending us on renewable energy infrastructure. The majority of American’s despite our political arguments and social differences are fat and happy. We need to put aside our differences at the local level and create the support needed to get solar energy on parity to coal, if we don’t someone else will. Food, shelter, communications and energy are the underpinning of our happiness.

So with the eventual rise of China and India (go to Wal-Mart or ask your telephone credit card representative where they got their college degree) we have to ask ourselves now where is our energy going to come from in 20-40yrs from now. Paul Campbell (R) Berkeley recently said “we need a clean energy standard in South Carolina.” We need this new leadership to prevail. It is lack of education and state support for new industries that will cause us to lag behind the rest of the country and the world.

Some people have been quoted saying South Carolina is too humid for solar. This is completely false. South Carolina gets 43% more output than Germany, the world’s leader in solar installs. Solar most certainly does work in South Carolina. We have the 13th best solar irradiance in the nation and we far outstrip Europe in sun mining potential. That is why we must mine the sun. Can solar meet base load demand (energy 24 hrs a day) right now? No, but not utilizing it where we can, (peak shaving, offsetting the most expensive energy at high demand times) is wrong. The internal combustion engine was industrialized in the 1870’s and yet even today only 10% of the used energy moves the vehicle, should we have waited for 20%, or 40%?!

While our house and Senate continue to resist helping entrepreneurs build a new industry in SC, other states like North Carolina and Georgia are creating jobs, gaining investments and creating energy security. Lindsey Graham US senator for South Carolina gets it. His approval of national climate legislation will bring jobs to our state. Not only thru solar and biomass but natural gas drilling off the SC coast and wind turbines and nuclear technology investment will bring billions to SC. Do we want to fight (running up the deficit and losing our most precious resources) over fossil fuel reserves or do we want to build the new energy economy?

So it’s a question of new jobs, new money, and new ideas or no ideas and the blind hope that our economy will create jobs by itself. Tell your state representative that North Carolina has fully supported solar with legislation and they have much lower unemployment due to this investment, we need to match North Carolina incentives. If we invest in new technology and innovation we secure our position as global leader and will prosper as these other economies buy our products and knowledge as they already do in relation to fossil fuels now. Its hard to give up what has been so good to us, fossil fuel powered America’s industrial revolution. We will remain the leaders in petro-chemical production and research for the foreseeable future but if we look back to why America is great its much easier to realize we can and must build a new energy economy on solar power because the sun is so integral to all life and energy is prosperity.

Sheep make clear climate change is real

Money men ignoring climate change
Ecologist

7th January, 2010

Survey finds global financial decision makers ignoring climate risks and opportunities
An extensive survey of the world’s leading asset managers has found that only a few are including climate risks and opportunities throughout their investment analysis.

The report by US-based Ceres, a coalition of investors, environmental groups and other public interest organisations, surveyed 500 of the world’s foremost assets managers on how they factor climate-related trends into investment decision-making.

Nearly three-quarters of asset managers reported that they did not expressly consider climate risks and opportunities.

Mindy Lubber, president of Ceres and Director of the Investor Network on Climate Risk said:

‘These findings make clear that the investment community is overly focused on short-term performance and ignoring longer-term business trends such as climate-related risks and opportunities.

'The recent sub-prime mortgage meltdown is a painful reminder of the fallout for investors who ignored 'hidden' long-term risks.’


One thing everyone should know for sure by now, Wall Street can't predict rain in a hurricane, since before 1929 they have consistantly failed to predict every major market shift. IT is because of this that I can now tell you with certainty that climate change is real and we will see its impacts in our lifetimes.

Richard Rainwater a billionaire investor who pegged peak oil in 2008 at $129 a barrel (just $18 short of all time high) when it was well below $100 and increased his net worth by $500million in doing so is leading the way to make a small SC town green and solar.

Rainwater is a proponent of peak oil, that we have already drilled and pumped all the easy deposits and oil shortages will severely impact the world economy. Hmmm if this guy has all the money in the world why would he waste any on energy security. Just sayin'