The new San Diego Solar Equity Program targets low-income residents who can't afford rooftop solar to get access to clean energy.

City of San Diego unveils $10 million plan to provide solar energy to low-income communities

SAN DIEGO — There is a push for clean energy in communities that may be most at risk to climate change.

The city of San Diego is partnering with San Diego Gas & Electric and the Center for Sustainable Energy to provide solar panels at little to no cost for low income families.

The program is called the San Diego Solar Equity Program.

“It’s targeted to low income folks who otherwise might not get access to clean energy because they can’t afford the $20,000 it takes to put solar on their rooftop,” said Lawrence Goldenhersh of the Center for Sustainable Energy.

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Source: CBS 8 San Diego

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The climate bill contains numerous provisions that could aid the efforts of ordinary Californians to reduce emissions.

There’s a lot for Californians in the federal climate bill. Here are the details

The sprawling climate bill that the U.S. Congress could pass in the coming days contains numerous provisions that could aid the efforts of ordinary Californians to reduce emissions.

The bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act because it includes deficit reduction as well as climate and health provisions, “contains the strongest climate action we’ve ever taken in American history,” said Sheryl Carter, an expert on electric power with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Passage is going down to the wire, with Congress’ August recess imminent. Democrats appear to have just succeeded in getting the endorsements of Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz. — key votes given the essentially even partisan split in the Senate.

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

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The Senate approved a sweeping package to combat climate change, lower health-care costs, raise some taxes and reduce the federal deficit

Senate approves Inflation Reduction Act, providing boon to solar industry

The Senate on Sunday approved a sweeping package to combat climate change, lower health-care costs, raise taxes on some billion-dollar corporations and reduce the federal deficit, as Democrats overcame months of political infighting to deliver the centerpiece to President Biden’s long-stalled economic agenda.

The party-line vote was a milestone in a tumultuous journey that began last year when Democrats took control of Congress and the White House with a promise to bring financial relief to ordinary Americans. With a tiebreaking vote from Vice President Harris, the 50-50 Senate sent the bill to the House, which aims to approve it and send it to the White House for Biden’s signature later this week.

Dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, the package would authorize the biggest burst of spending in U.S. history to tackle global warming — about $370 billion to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below their 2005 levels by the end of this decade. The proposal also would make good on Democrats’ years-old pledge to reduce prescription drug costs for the elderly.

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Source: The Washington Post

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DOE is launching the Cadmium Telluride Accelerator Consortium to make CdTe solar cells less expensive, more efficient & develop new markets.

DOE launches $20 million consortium to advance US-made cadmium telluride solar cells

US Department of Energy (DOE) is launching the Cadmium Telluride Accelerator Consortium, a $20 million initiative designed to make cadmium telluride (CdTe) solar cells less expensive, more efficient and develop new markets for solar cell products.

CdTe solar cells were first developed in the United States and make up about 20% of the market for solar modules. The Consortium intends to to spur technological advancements in CdTe manufacturing that will help increase America’s competitiveness, bolster domestic innovation, and support clean electricity deployment supporting President Biden’s goal of achieving a net-zero economy by 2050.

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Source: PV Magazine

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The historic climate bill would deliver billions of dollars in tax and other incentives to US solar manufacturers.

How Joe Manchin’s change of heart could revive the US solar industry

The gamble by a company here churning out large volumes of solar panels was starting to look risky.

Its plan to be a launchpad for a solar manufacturing resurgence was already audacious in an industry so dominated by China, whose cheap products drove the closure of many American solar plants. Government investment championed by the White House was supposed to position domestic firms to compete, but a paralyzed Congress was refusing to write the check.

But the wager in Dalton by Qcells North America may have paid off with an ambitious climate package now on a path to President Biden’s desk. The bill, negotiated in part by Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), would deliver billions of dollars in tax and other incentives to U.S. solar manufacturers, equipping them with government support on a scale of those China used to corner the market.

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Source: Washington Post

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A guide to recent legislation and research throughout the country. All eyes are on the Senate as the climate bill is considered.

August solar policy snapshots

Over 100 California city, county government leaders ask CPUC to reject new solar fees
Sacramento, California

As the California Public Utilities Commission continues to deliberate on NEM 3.0, city and county government leaders across the state are asking the body to reject new solar fees. More than 24 city governments, 43 mayors and 40 city or county councilmembers signed the letter addresses to both the CPUC and Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Mississippi raises solar net-metering cap and creates new rebate program
Jackson, Mississippi

The Mississippi Public Service Commission recently raised the state’s net-metering participation cap and added a $3,500 state rebate for homes and small businesses that go solar. The commission also announced higher rebate payments to households earning up to 250% of the federal poverty level.

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Source: Solar Power World

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The Inflation Reduction Act would avoid 24 tons of climate emissions for every new ton it creates.

How the Senate’s big climate bill eliminates 4 billion tons of emissions

A week after US Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Joe Manchin stunned the world by announcing they’d finally struck a deal on a climate, energy and health package, the implications for greenhouse gas emissions are starting to come into view.

The Democratic senators initially said the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would cut US emissions about 40% below 2005 levels by 2030, and expert climate policy modelers said reaching that target was plausible. Now three preliminary climate models of the IRA — by researchers at Princeton University, the think tank Energy Innovation, and the research firm Rhodium Group — offer more details on how exactly the US could get there: through changes in the electric power sector, the use of carbon-capture technologies and more.

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Source: Bloomberg

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Terabase Energy plans to scale up its system for mass installation reduce the cost of developing utility-scale solar projects.

Gates-led fund backs robots to automate solar panel installation

A Berkeley, California startup that automates solar panel installation has raised $44 million in a funding round co-led by Bill Gates’ Breakthrough Energy Ventures.

Terabase Energy has already developed software to design solar panels and improve their efficiency in changing weather conditions. It plans to use the new funding to scale up its system for mass installation, aiming to reduce the cost of developing utility-scale solar projects.

While there are existing methods to automate or digitize separate steps of solar construction and deployment, Matt Campbell, co-founder and chief executive officer of Terabase, says that the company automates the whole process.

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Source: Bloomberg

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The $369B climate and tax bill would affect every aspect of US energy production for producers and consumers to move away from fossil fuels.

Seven key provisions in the Climate Deal

The climate and tax deal announced by Senate Democrats on Wednesday would pump hundreds of billions of dollars into programs designed to speed the country’s transition away from an economy based largely on fossil fuels and toward cleaner energy sources.

The legislation, called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, is a far cry from the ambitious multi-trillion-dollar domestic policy and tax proposal that President Biden sought and that Democrats in Congress spent more than a year laboring to pass.

What remains is a downsized but still significant package, born of compromise between Democratic Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York.

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Source: The New York Times

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Solar workers, consumers, clean energy advocates, community leaders, conservationists, and climate activists protest at PG&E office

Protesters opposed to increased solar fee rally in San Luis Obispo

Dozens of protesters held a “Don’t Tax the Sun” rally on Tuesday in San Luis Obispo. The group marched to the office of Pacific Gas & Electric on Higuera Street.

It was part of a statewide effort to protest proposed changes by the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) that would significantly increase the cost of using rooftop solar panels.

“We showed up at the PG&E office to deliver a simple message and highlight the fact that PG&E and the other utilities have been the mastermind behind the anti-solar tax making its way through state government,” says Carter Lavin with California Solar & Storage Association.

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Source: Paso Robles daily News

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