Chapter 1: Sunny Side Up
The world loves Apple products, and Wall Street loves the company, which in 2012 surpassed Exxon as the most valuable in the world.
“Apple Passes Exxon as Most Valuable US Company in Terms of Market Cap,” Huffington Post, January 25, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/25/apple-passes-exxon-market-cap_n_1231074.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
More column inches were devoted to the Solyndra story in most outlets than to Japan’s Fukushima nuclear-power-plant disaster, which wrote down the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s value by $13 billion and required a $9 billion bailout by the people of Japan.
Kentaro Hamada and Linda Sieg, “Japan’s Stricken Nuclear Operator Set for $13 Billion Bailout,” Reuters, January 26, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/26/us-tepco-idUSTRE80P04B20120126 (accessed March 12, 2012).
In 2012 oil barons such as the Koch brothers will spend many millions on TV ad campaigns to tar President Barack Obama with the same brush they used on Solyndra.
Justin Sink, “Koch-Backed Group Spends $6 Million on Anti-Obama Solyndra Ad,” The Hill, January 16, 2012, http://thehill.com/video/campaign/204357-koch-backed-group-spends-6-million-on-anti-obama-solyndra-ad (accessed March 12, 2012).
Those who have the most to lose, the opponents of solar, will come out with fists flying—as the US Chamber of Commerce did in the 2010 election cycle. The massive business lobby outspent the Republican and Democratic National Committees combined to further its official policy of digging up every last ounce of fuel in the ground and burning it as soon as possible.
Bill McKibben, “Burning America’s Future,” Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2012, http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-mckibben-a-spectacularly-bad-idea-for-energy-20120118,0,2539447.story?track=rss (accessed March 12, 2012).
And public opinion is clear: according to the SCHOTT Solar Barometer, when voters were asked to select an energy source they would financially support if they were in charge of US energy policy, 39 percent said they would choose solar power while a measly 3 percent chose coal—almost the inverse ratio of our representatives in Congress.
“New Poll: 9 out of 10 Americans Support Solar, Across Political Spectrum,” Solar Energy Industries Association, November 1, 2011, http://www.seia.org/cs/news_detail?pressrelease.id=1710 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Greenpeace, the environmental advocacy organization, released a parody video that exposed the reality that the API campaign wasn’t divulging—that these energy sources are damaging and unsustainable and that the jobs the corporations claim to create are only temporary.
James Gerken, “‘I Vote 4 Energy’ Video Spoofs American Petroleum Institute Ad Campaign,” Huffington Post, January 6, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/05/i-vote-4-energy-video-spoof-api_n_1186400.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
As the API’s spokesman said when launching Vote 4 Energy, “It’s not about candidates, it’s not about political parties, it’s not even about political philosophy. Energy should not be a partisan issue…. We believe a vote for energy will elevate the energy conversation.”
Mark Green, “Starting the Energy Debate,” EnergyTomorrow Blog, January 5, 2012, http://energytomorrow.org/blog/starting-the-energy-debate/#/type/all (accessed March 12, 2012).
US solar-generated electricity expanded in 2011 by 45 percent over the first three quarters of 2010.
US Solar Market Insight, 1st Quarter 2011, Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research, www.seia.org/galleries/pdf/SMI-Q1-2011-ES.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
In comparison, natural-gas electrical generation rose only 1.6 percent, while nuclear output declined by 2.8 percent and coal-generated electricity dropped by 4.2 percent.
“Renewables Now Provide 12 Percent of Domestic Energy,” Clean Edge News, January 5, 2012, http://cleanedge.com/resources/news/Renewables-Now-Provide-12-Percent-of-Domestic-Energy-Up-14-Percent (accessed March 12, 2012).
In 2010, 16 states installed more than enough to supply approximately 2,000 homes, compared with only four states in 2007.
US Solar Market Insight, 1st Quarter 2011, Solar Energy Industries Association and GTM Research, http://www.seia.org/galleries/pdf/SMI-Q1-2011-ES.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
China enjoyed such a burst of solar power that it recalibrated the target in its twelfth five-year plan to 15 gigawatts installed by 2015—50 percent higher than the previous target and 50 percent more than we expect to have in the United States.
“China Releases Solar Industry 5-Year Plan,” Green Growth Investment, February 25, 2012, http://greengrowthinvestment.com/china-releases-solar-industry-5-year-plan (accessed March 12, 2012).
On the subcontinent, Pakistan has passed the point where solar power is cheaper than a lot of electricity that comes from diesel generators, and India is upping its target from 20 to 33 gigawatts to be installed by 2020.
“India Solar Compass,” January 2012 ed., Bridge to India, http://bridgetoindia.com/reports (accessed March 12, 2012).
Germany produced more than 18 billion kilowatt-hours of solar electricity in 2011. That’s 60 percent more than it produced the year before and is enough to supply 5 million households for a year.
“Germany Generates 60% More Solar Electricity in 2011,” Energy Matters, January 2, 2012, http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.php?main_page=news_article&article_id=1960 (accessed March 12, 2012).
All the others, including natural gas, are going up in price—no matter what the gas industry says. Although there is currently a surplus of natural gas in the US market due to the lower cost of fracking, it won’t last because when you’re dealing with a finite energy source and consuming it in the vast amounts that Americans do, it’s impossible to keep costs low over the long term.
“Why the Solar Industry Lacks Pricing Power,” PowerFin Partners, December 20, 2011, http://www.powerfinpartners.com/new_site/pdf/Why%20the%20Solar%20Industry%20Lacks%20Pricing%20Power%20122011.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
Globally, solar is the fastest-growing industry, valued at more than $100 billion. And in the United States, it’s the fastest-growing job-creating sector. Solar grew nearly 7 percent as an employment generator while the economy flatlined—a tenth of that growth from August 2010 to 2011.
Paul Krugman, “Here Comes the Sun,” New York Times, November 6, 2011, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/07/opinion/krugman-here-comes-solar-energy.html?_r=1&hp (accessed March 12, 2012).
Just before Christmas 2011, Google invested $94 million in four large-scale solar photovoltaic projects, edging the total amount the search giant invested in clean-energy projects toward $900 million.
“Google Shines on Solar Sector with $94m Investment,” BusinessGreen, December 21, 2011, http://www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/2133967/google-shines-solar-sector-usd94m-investment?WT.rss_f=Home&WT.rss_a=Google+shines+on+solar+sector+with+$94m+investment (accessed March 12, 2012).
Not to be beaten, and always one to place a bet when assets are artificially depressed, investment guru Warren Buffett dropped almost $2 billion on California’s Topaz Solar Farm, which will sell solar electricity to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), the local utility company, and generate electricity for about 160,000 homes.
Julianne Pepitone, “Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Buys First Solar Plant,” CNNMoney, December 7, 2011, http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/07/technology/buffett_first_solar/index.htm (accessed March 12, 2012).
Indeed Bloomberg New Energy Finance recorded the trillionth dollar of investment in clean energy since its records started in 2004.
Nathaniel Bullard, “$1 Trillion Speaks Louder Than UN Talks,” Bloomberg, December 7, 2011, http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-12-07/-1-trillion-speaks-louder-than-un-talks.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
Germany now gets a whopping 20 percent of its power from clean, sustainable energy, including solar power, and the country has become a laboratory for the kind of electricity supply that the world will benefit from in years to come.
“Crossing the 20 Percent Mark: Green Energy Use Jumps in Germany,” Spiegel Online International, August 30, 2011, http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,783314,00.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
The rest of Europe didn’t want the Germans to hog the solar spotlight, and now many other places have at times adopted a higher density of clean electricity in their grid than even Germany—such as Denmark (more than 30 percent), Spain (35 percent), and Portugal (50 percent).
Derived from http://www.iea.org/stats/electricitydata.asp?COUNTRY_CODE=DK (2009); http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_the_European_Union#Portugal; and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_the_European_Union#Spain (last modified February 16, 2012; accessed March 12, 2012).
In Crimea, Ukraine, a Vienna-based developer, Activ Solar, built the world’s largest solar park, a project of more than 100 megawatts in capacity—one-tenth the size of a nuke—and worth about 300 million euros (US $387 million), according to reports.
Mark Roca, “Europe’s Biggest Solar Park Completed with Russian Bank Debt,” Energy News World, December 29, 2011, http://energynewsworld.wordpress.com/2011/12/29/europes-biggest-solar-park-completed-with-russian-bank-debt (accessed March 12, 2012).
In spite of the staggering advances Germany has made, politics is besieging it. The country is experiencing a backlash against renewable energy, led by fiscal conservatives in the German parliament who believe that the incentives for solar power will cost too much in the future.
“Solar Energy Row Is an ‘Undignified Spectacle,’” Spiegel Online International, January 20, 2012, http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/0,1518,810370,00.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
More importantly, 50 percent of Germany’s solar panels are owned by individuals and farms, not big corporate generators. As one writer put it, this is a good thing: “Decentralized power generation, more relocalization and reregionalization of economic activity, the world getting smaller while more connected and therefore in a way bigger at the same time.”
Mat McDermott, “Over Half of Germany’s Renewable Energy Owned by Citizens and Farmers, Not Utility Companies,” TreeHugger, January 6, 2012, http://www.treehugger.com/renewable-energy/over-half-germany-renewable-energy-owned-citizens-not-utility-companies.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
The year 2011 marked the first time in history that these powerhouses invested more money in renewable energy than in fossil fuels.
“Renewable Power Trumps Fossil Fuels for First Time,” Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg, November 25, 2011, http://articles.latimes.com/2011/nov/25/business/la-fi-renewables-20111125 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Every state is different, but the economics are improving all the time, and by 2015, according to projections by the Department of Energy, two-thirds of American households will save money by using solar electricity.
Paul Denham, Robert M. Margolis, Sean Ong, and Billy Roberts, “Break-Even Cost for Residential Photovoltaics in the United States: Key Drivers and Sensitivities,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, December 2009, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/46909.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
The investments made in solar-product manufacturing by China, Korea, India, Germany, the United States, and other countries over the past five years have broadly tripled the production capacity, bringing down the end-product price more than 50 percent.
“Module Pricing,” Solarbuzz, March 2012, http://www.solarbuzz.com/node/3184 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Meanwhile, the fossil-fuel electricity-generation industries shed 2 percent of their employees.
It is our conclusion from http://www.economicmodeling.com (accessed March 12, 2012) that fossil-fuel electric power generation (NAICS 221112) lost 1,614 jobs, or −2 percent; this does not include distribution, just generation (http://www.census.gov/econ/industry/current/c221112.htm); electric power distribution (NAICS 221122) lost 2,279 jobs, or −1 percent (http://www.census.gov/econ/industry/current/c221122.htm); and electric power transmission, control, and distribution (NAICS 22112) was flat (0 percent), with only 39 jobs added (http://www.census.gov/econ/industry/current/c22112.htm).
The conservative intergovernmental International Energy Agency (IEA) is now predicting that by 2050 most of the world’s electricity could come from solar power.
Cédric Philibert, “Solar Energy Perspectives,” International Energy Agency World Solar Congress, September 1, 2011, http://www.iea.org/speech/2011/solar_perspectives.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
A study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance showed that making the United States a 100 percent solar nation would create nearly 10 million jobs.
“Energy Self-Reliant States,” 2nd ed., Institute for Local Self-Reliance, May 2011, downloadable at http://energyselfreliantstates.org/reports; also summarized at http://www.energyselfreliantstates.org/content/local-solar-could-power-mountain-west-2011-all-america-2026 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Chapter 2: Empires of the Sun Dirty Energy’s Petty Politics
When one of Reagan’s people was asked why, the spokesperson responded that solar panels were “not a technology befitting a superpower.”
John Wihbey, “Jimmy Carter’s Solar Panels: A Lost History That Haunts Today,” Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, November 11, 2008, http://www.yaleclimatemediaforum.org/2008/11/jimmy-carters-solar-panels (accessed March 12, 2012).
But get this: the administration of George W. Bush—a staunch Republican, like his hero Reagan—put solar back on the White House.
Lise, “Solar Panels at the White House,” CoolerPlanet.com, March 8, 2008, http://blog.coolerplanet.com/2008/03/08/solar-panels-at-the-white-house (accessed March 12, 2012).
Right now, as Grist writer Dave Roberts put it, “Republicans who stray, who say anything accommodating, who even acknowledge that scientists might be on to something are savaged by the base and the conservative media complex.”
David Roberts, “A Few Brave Conservatives Speak Up for Climate Sanity,” Grist, June 16, 2011, http://climatechangepsychology.blogspot.com/2011/06/david-roberts-grist-few-brave.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
Look at Newt Gingrich, who in 2008 went from endorsing Al Gore’s view of climate change to adopting a “Drill, baby, drill; dig, baby, dig” line through his nonprofit American Solutions for Winning the Future. He took $825,000 from the coal giant Peabody Energy and $500,000 from Devon Energy, an oil and gas player.
Dan Eggen, “Donations Flowed to Gingrich’s Nonprofit after He Shifted on Energy Issues in 2008,” Washington Post, December 28, 2011, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/donations-flowed-to-gingrichs-nonprofit-after-he-shifted-on-energy-issues-in-2008/2011/12/20/gIQA6PBKNP_story.html?wprss=rss_politics (accessed March 12, 2012).
In an op-ed on the politically influential blog Politico.com, Norquist and a colleague regurgitated some oft-made claims of the fossil-fuel lobby: that clean-energy requirements in some states were costing jobs and money, that legislators would be wise to repeal laws that require some amount of clean energy in their electricity system to level the playing field (as though pitting nascent clean energy technologies against the behemoths of the fossil-fuel industry would be a fair match), and that subsidies for the renewable-power industry are a waste.
Grover G. Norquist and Patrick Gleason, “Rethink Renewable Energy Mandates,” The Hill, December 18, 2011, http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70610.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
For example, in Colorado the RPS requirements to meet 20 percent of electricity needs by 2020 will be achieved eight years in advance, that is, in 2012, and will save customers $100 million in electricity costs while creating thousands of jobs and substantial tax benefits.
“Colorado to Achieve 30% Renewables 8 Years Early, Saves Ratepayers Big Bucks,” VoteSolar, November 13, 2011, http://votesolar.org/2011/11/colorado-to-achieve-30-renewables-8-years-early-ratepayer-savings-of-409-million (accessed March 12, 2012).
On the other side of the ledger, coal costs more than it creates in value, according to a 2011 study in the American Economic Review, which estimates that in the United States coal creates roughly $53 billion in damages per year—a cost that is more than twice as high as the market price of the electricity.
Nicholas Z. Muller, Robert Mendelsohn, and William Nordhaus, “Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy,” American Economic Review 101 (5) (August 2011) 1649–75, http://www.aeaweb.org/articles.php?doi=10.1257/aer.101.5.1649 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Investing in the energy technology that will power the world is a good risk to take (all entrepreneurs in every new field take these risks), but do note: in Solyndra’s case, its loan-guarantee program was set by the Bush administration, so the investment in the company (and by extension the industry) wasn’t an Obama or liberal interest, as some in the media would have you believe.
David Plouffe, “Did the Program That Funded the Solyndra Loan Start under George W. Bush? David Plouffe Says So,” Tampa Bay Times/PolitiFact.com, October 30, 2011, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2011/nov/17/david-plouffe/solyndra-loan-george-w-bush-david-plouffe (accessed March 12, 2012).
Overall the clean-energy loan-guarantee program has had a higher than 90 percent success rate.
“Solyndra Accounts for Less Than 2% of the DOE’s Successful Loan Program,” Daily Kos, November 21, 2011, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/21/1038907/-Solyndra-accounts-for-less-than-2-of-the-DOE-s-successful-Loan-Program (accessed March 12, 2012).
In 1992, for example, I was at the United Nations (UN) meeting in New York where, after much deliberation and many months of late-night sessions, world leaders drafted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, a global effort to slow global warming.
“Background on the UNFCCC: The International Response to Climate Change,” United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, http://unfccc.int/essential_background/items/6031.php (accessed March 12, 2012).
But young attendees, including yours truly (I was there as a journalist and youth activist), began to smell a rat in the framework when George H. W. Bush sent a message to the UN that “the American way of life was not up for negotiation”—meaning that Americans weren’t going to stop using fossil fuels to create electricity or give up their SUVs.
Lee-Anne Broadhead, International Environmental Politics: The Limits of Green Diplomacy (Boulder, CO: Lynne Reinner, 2002), 51.
In another example of Dirty Energy foisting continued fossil dependence on a community and the community fighting back, just a year earlier the utility PG&E spent $50 million on a campaign to stop a local clean-energy initiative in Marin County.
Paul Hogarth, “Despite Spending $50 Million, California Rejects PG&E,” California Progress Report, June 9, 2010, http://turn.org/article.php?id=1320 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Polling consistently shows that normal people across America like this idea: clean power of the people, by the people, for the people.
“Survey: Congress, White House Focus on Fossil Fuels, Nuclear Power Is out of Touch with Views of Mainstream America,” Civil Society Institute, November 3, 2011, http://www.civilsocietyinstitute.org/Media/110311release.Cfm (accessed March 12, 2012).
In October 2011 a poll from the University of Texas at Austin showed that out of more than 3,400 consumers surveyed, 84 percent were worried about US consumption of oil from foreign sources and 76 percent about a lack of progress in finding better ways to use energy efficiently and develop renewable sources.
“Poll: Americans Believe US Headed in Wrong Direction on Energy,” University of Texas at Austin Newsroom, October 9, 2011, http://www.utenergypoll.utexas.edu/newsroom (accessed March 12, 2012).
Chapter 3: Role Models for the Rooftop Revolution
In 1995 Ken was tried for a murder he couldn’t have committed and was convicted in a Nigerian kangaroo court and then executed—all at the behest of Big Oil by his country’s dictatorship, an act for which the country was suspended from the Commonwealth.
“Nigeria Hangs Human Rights Activists,” BBC, November 10, 1995, http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/november/10/newsid_2539000/2539561.stm (accessed March 12, 2012).
Ken’s family sued Shell for ordering his death, and in 2009 Shell settled out of court for $15 million.
Ed Pilkington, “Shell Pays out $15.5m over Saro-Wiwa Killing,” The Guardian, June 8, 2009, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jun/08/nigeria-usa (accessed March 12, 2012).
In the Energy Experts blog at NationalJournal.com, Nasheed explained to an American audience why he put solar on the palace: “This is a beginning step on the road to making the Maldives completely carbon-neutral by 2020.”
Tom Madigan, “What Can the US Do to Cut Carbon?” October 12, 2010, http://energy.nationaljournal.com/2010/10/carbon-neutral-what-will-it-ta.php?comments=expandall#comments (accessed March 12, 2012).
Before beginning Solarcentury, Jeremy was the chief scientist for Greenpeace International and one of the key influencers of the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change that bound 37 countries to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.
“Kyoto Protocol to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change,” adopted May 9, 1992, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, http://unfccc.int/essential_background/kyoto_protocol/items/1678.php (accessed March 12, 2012).
Forbes reported that the first major market GE’s brand-new solar division is going to step into will be solar farms around wind turbines, which the company is also going to build and finance.
Todd Woody, “GE, BrightSource and Sungevity Announce New Solar Projects as Solyndra Circus Continues,” Forbes, October 14, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites/toddwoody/2011/10/14/ge-brightsource-and-sungevity-announce-new-solar-projects-as-solyndra-circus-continues (accessed March 12, 2012).
Hawaii gets more than 90 percent of its electricity from the burning of this oil product, which is why its electricity is extraordinarily expensive by US standards.
“Average Electric Rates for Hawaiian Electric Co., Maui Electric Co. and Hawaii Electric Light Co.,” Hawaiian Electric Company, http://www.heco.com/portal/site/heco/menuitem.508576f78baa14340b4c0610c510b1ca/?vgnextoid=692e5e658e0fc010VgnVCM1000008119fea9RCRD&vgnextchannel
=10629349798b4110VgnVCM1000005c011bacRCRD&vgnextfmt=
defau&vgnextrefresh=1&level=0&ct=article (accessed March 12, 2012).
And when I say “good return” I mean it because the value of the electricity generated by a solar system is around 6 percent—certainly better than the 1 or 2 percent that you might earn with a CD or similar investment instrument.
CD rates as February 29, 2012, nothing higher than 1.08%, http://cdrates.bankaholic.com (accessed March 12, 2012).
For those who don’t know the history, the Navajo Nation has been the site of some of the largest strip-mining operations ever seen, mostly at the direction of Peabody Energy Corporation.
“Black Mesa Peabody Coal controversy,” Wikipedia, last modified May 6, 2011, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Mesa_Peabody_Coal_debate (accessed March 12, 2012).
Through a spirited campaign over many years, the community was able to stop this madness and dismantle the Mohave Power Station in Laughlin. (You can even watch the implosion of the smokestack on YouTube.)
“Mohave Generating Station Implosion 3/11/11 Laughlin, NV,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6nWma2SIds (accessed March 12, 2012).
Another incredible case in point is the wonderfully named Eden Full, a young woman you can Google and see present a TED talk on YouTube.
“TEDxYYC - Eden Full - 02/26/10,” YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zRannws9-M (accessed March 12, 2012).
Chapter 4: Take a Walk on the Sunny Side
Sometimes King CONG is more blunt, such as the Koch brothers’ “Solyndra = Failure” campaign ads and when ExxonMobil CEO Lee Raymond appeared on PBS’s Charlie Rose show and simply stated, “Solar is not a viable replacement” for oil.
“An Hour with CEO of ExxonMobil Lee Raymond, Charlie Rose, November 8, 2005, http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/663 (accessed March 12, 2012).
The truth is, a 1,000-square-mile area of solar panels would provide all of our country’s electricity needs, which is less than 10 percent of the land used by the oil and gas industry today.
Derived from multiple sources: Ken Zweibel, James Mason, and Vasilis Fthenaki, “By 2050 Solar Power Could End US Dependence on Foreign Oil and Slash Greenhouse Gas Emissions,” Scientific American (January 2008), http://www.solarplan.org/Research/Z-M-F_A%20Solar%20Grand%20Plan_Scientific%20American_January%202008.pdf; http://www.landartgenerator.org/blagi/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/AreaRequired1000.jpg (graphic); and “America’s Solar Energy Potential,” AmericanEnergyIndependence.com, http://www.americanenergyindependence.com/solarenergy.aspx (accessed March 12, 2012).
Take haughty Lord Christopher Monckton—the British politician and climate change denialist—who was caught on tape encouraging members of the Australian mining industry to create a Fox News–style media network and use it to further the mining agenda.
Graham Readfearn, “Monckton’s Push for an Australia Fox News,” The Drum, February 2, 2012, http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3807130.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
The congressionally commissioned report that exposed this outrageous waste of taxpayer money was released the same week Solyndra shut down operations.
“Report to Congress on Contracting Fraud,” Department of Defense, January 2011, http://www.sanders.senate.gov/graphics/Defense_Fraud_Report1.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
The media-watchdog group Media Matters, which documented this disparity in coverage, reminded its readers that Congress had planned for some failures with the Department of Energy loan guarantee program (which was actually set up before President Obama’s time) because it was a portfolio of risky investments they were making to help launch some new energy companies, and they had set aside $2.4 billion for the cost of defaults.
“Right-Wing Media Play with Numbers, Claim DOE Loan Guarantees Will Cost ‘$23 Million Per Job,’” Media Matters, September 29, 2011, http://mediamatters.org/mobile/research/201109290031 (accessed March 12, 2012).
It is currently estimated that here in the United States oil companies are receiving $7,610 per minute in tax breaks—that’s $4 billion per year.
“The Obama Energy Agenda: Gas Prices,” White House website, http://www.whitehouse.gov/energy/gasprices?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl (accessed March 12, 2012).
You can quibble over numbers, but fossil-fuel subsidies far outweigh those for renewable energy. The Environmental Law Institute reckons that the US government gave more than $70 billion worth of subsidies to fossil-fuel companies between 2002 and 2008. In that time, about $2 billion went to the solar industry.
Christian Kjaer, “More Than $5 Fossil Fuel Subsidies for Every $1 of Support for Renewables,” EWEA Blog, November 9, 2010, http://blog.ewea.org/2010/11/more-than-5-fossil-fuel-subsidies-for-every-1-of-support-for-renewables (accessed March 12, 2012).
US Congressman Earl Blumenauer calculates that the government is committed to spending more than $40 billion to subsidize the fossil-fuel industry from 2011 to 2015, while no more than $10 billion is scheduled to flow into renewable-energy businesses.
Nick Gass, “Rep. Blumenauer: Ending Big Oil Tax Incentives a ‘Win-Win,’” ABC News, April 25, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/04/rep-blumenauer-ending-big-oil-tax-incentives-a-win-win (accessed March 12, 2012).
And since the mid-2000s it’s been shedding jobs; indeed, Big Oil downsized its workforce by more than 10,000 in the second half of this century’s first decade.
“Profits and Pink Slips: How Big Oil and Gas Companies Are Not Creating US Jobs or Paying Their Fair Share,” US House Natural Resources Committee Democrats, September 8, 2011, http://democrats.naturalresources.house.gov/content/files/2011-09-08_RPT_OilProfitsPinkSlips.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
For example, in California, the major market for the Rooftop Revolution so far in the States, rebates have fallen from more than $2 per watt of solar power installed to less than $0.50 in most utility territories.
Go Solar California/California Solar Initiative, http://www.gosolarcalifornia.org/csi/rebates.php (accessed March 12, 2012).
As the IEA writes, “Only a small proportion should be considered subsidies or, rather, learning investments required to bring solar technologies to competitiveness.”
Giles Parkinson, “IEA Sees a World Run on Solar,” Climate Spectator, December 6, 2011, http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/iea-sees-world-run-solar (accessed March 12, 2012).
This has been well modeled in New York State, where energy regulators worked out that 5,000 megawatts of solar panels spread around the state would relieve some of the stress on the grid during times of peak demand—for example, in midsummer when air-conditioners are turned up full throttle and the state’s requirement can approach 34,000 megawatts, causing frequent brownouts.
Times Union Editorial Board, “A Bright Idea for Solar Energy,” TimesUnion. com, January 29, 2012, http://blog.timesunion.com/opinion/a-bright-idea-%E2%80%A8for-solar-energy/17630 (accessed March 12, 2012).
David Mills, founder of the solar-plus-storage company Ausra, has shown that by using storage you can easily correlate more than 90 percent hourly grid load and hourly solar plant performance.
“Study: Solar Thermal Power Could Supply over 90 Percent of US Grid plus Auto Fleet,” Ausra, March 6, 2008, http://ausra.com/news/releases/080306.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
The IEA says that solar power with storage is expected to be available to deliver competitive electricity globally by about 2030.
Giles Parkinson, “IEA Sees a World Run on Solar,” Climate Spectator, December 6, 2011, http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/iea-sees-world-run-solar (accessed March 12, 2012).
The Rural Electrification Administration, which took America from having just 15 percent of homes being electrified in 1935 to 85 percent by 1950, is a model for how we can do it.
Rural Electrification Administration, New Deal 2.0, A Project of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, February 25, 2011, http://www.newdeal20.org/2011/02/25/rural-electrification-administration-36317 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Big banks like HSBC, the “world’s local bank,” are starting to put red circles around a lot of fossil-fuel-based energy infrastructures because they may be stranded assets in the not-too-distant future.
Giles Parkinson, “Will the Bankers Kill King Coal?” Climate Spectator, November 11, 2011, http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/will-bankers-kill-king-coal (accessed March 12, 2012).
Climate Spectator’s Giles Parkinson, one of my favorite business writers on this stuff, summarized HSBC’s analysis of the speed at which clean energy can provide economic solutions. It notes, in particular, the impending arrival of wholesale prices for electricity from solar panels in India that are at or below the price per kilowatt-hour of coal-based electricity.
Giles Parkinson, “Will the Bankers Kill King Coal?” Climate Spectator, November 11, 2011, http://www.climatespectator.com.au/commentary/will-bankers-kill-king-coal (accessed March 12, 2012).
In fact, going solar by 2015 will be economically rational for two-thirds of the households in the United States.
Paul Denham, Robert M. Margolis, Sean Ong, and Billy Roberts, “Break-Even Cost for Residential Photovoltaics in the United States: Key Drivers and Sensitivities,” National Renewable Energy Laboratory, December 2009, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy10osti/46909.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
Two academics at Stanford University showed this virality with solar systems through a study of their installation in different ZIP codes.
Bryan Bollinger and Kenneth Gillingham, “Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar Photovoltaic Panels,” December 20, 2011, http://www.yale.edu/gillingham/BollingerGillingham_PeerEffectsSolar.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
Chapter 5: Hot Jobs
What’s more, these businesses now exist in all 50 states.
Solar Energy Industries Association, http://www.solarworksforamerica.com/States (accessed March 12, 2012).
In 2010 we had a net surplus of $2 billion in solar products traded globally. We were even a net exporter to China, the world’s solar giant, by more than $240 million.
“US Solar Energy Trade Assessment 2011: Trade Flows and Domestic Content for Solar Energy–Related Goods and Services in the United States,” GTM Research Study, August 2011, http://www.seia.org/galleries/pdf/GTM-SEIA_U.S._Solar_Energy_Trade_Balance_2011.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
Despite a lack of sustained government support in the past decade, the overall advanced-energy economy—including wind, energy efficiency (like insulation and weather stripping), and solar—has added more than 770,000 jobs.
Alexis Madrigal, “Green Jobs Grow: 770,000 Americans Already Have One,” Wired Science, June 10, 2009, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/06/green-jobs-grow-770000-americans-already-have-one (accessed March 12, 2012).
It has truly been a success: as of the end of 2011, the 1603 Treasury Program has financed more than 22,000 solar projects around the country, totaling $1.5 billion, which drove more than $3.5 billion in private investments in 47 states.
Jennifer Runyon, “Renewable Energy Groups Seek 1603 Extension; Analysts Offer Hope for Life after the Grant,” RenewableEnergyWorld.com, December 2, 2011, http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/12/renewable-energy-groups-seek-1603-extension-analysts-offers-hope-for-life-after-the-grant (accessed March 12, 2012).
A survey of the US Partnership for Renewable Energy Finance estimates that the end of the cash grant program will shrink the total financing available for solar projects by 52 percent in 2012 alone—just as the demand for solar is increasing.
Jennifer Runyon, “Renewable Energy Groups Seek 1603 Extension; Analysts Offer Hope for Life after the Grant,” RenewableEnergyWorld.com, December 2, 2011, http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2011/12/renewable-energy-groups-seek-1603-extension-analysts-offers-hope-for-life-after-the-grant (accessed March 12, 2012).
LinkedIn, which has some of the richest data about career paths and opportunities, was asked to analyze its 7 million US members who have switched industries during the past five years. The growth in the “Renewables and the Environment” category was 56.8 percent—almost off the chart. The Internet, online publishing, and wireless technology were the next closest, but these fields didn’t beat 30 percent growth.
Adam Davidson, “The Economic Rebound: It Isn’t What You Think, Wired, May 31, 2011, http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/05/ff_jobsessay (accessed March 12, 2012).
As of 2012, 114 megawatts of solar systems are already installed in California public-sector buildings, such as schools and government offices as well as other state-run facilities, and another 239 megawatts of applications are in process. The savings to California is greater than $1.3 billion! In a state that has a $5 billion deficit, you can see the relative significance of the savings created by going solar. Schools are among the worst hit by the state’s budget crisis, and a bright light for them is the savings they can realize by going solar. Of this savings, more than $800 million is expected to go to school districts and universities, freeing up resources to retain teachers and dampen budget cuts currently in process.
“Energy from Solar Panels Is Expected to Save $2.7 Million in Electricity Costs and Help Save the Environment,” Greenjobs.com, February 2, 2012, http://www.greenjobs.com/pg/news/industrynews/industrynewsarticle.aspx?id=inews11816 (accessed March 12, 2012).
In an analysis of the literature on the subject, academics at UC Berkeley determined that renewable-energy technologies create more jobs per average megawatt of power generated and per dollar invested in construction, manufacturing, and installation than does the processing of coal or natural gas.
Max Wei, Shana Patadia, and Dan Kammen, “Putting Renewables and Energy Efficiency to Work: How Many Jobs Can the Clean Energy Industry Generate in the US?” RAEL Report, University of California, Berkeley, January 2010, http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~rael/papers.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
At around the same time that Solyndra went bust in late 2011, GE announced plans to buy a startup solar manufacturer and build a factory using its technology.
Todd Woody, “GE Buys Stake in Solar Power Plant Builder eSolar, Licenses Technology,” Forbes, June 6, 2011, http://www.forbes.com/sites/todd woody/2011/06/06/ge-buys-stake-in-solar-power-plant-builder-esolar-licenses-technology (accessed March 12, 2012).
“We are all in. We are going to invest what it takes … because we know that by 2020 this is going to be at least a $1 billion product line.” This was said by GE’s Jeff Immelt (who also happens to head Obama’s Jobs Council). “I don’t care about Solyndra or any of that other stuff; we did this with no government funding. We can do this.”
Scott Malone, “GE’s Immelt Worries US Not Leading on Renewables,” Reuters, November 3, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/03/ge-solar-idUSN1E7A20AD20111103 (accessed March 12, 2012).
We know that the people want them: for four consecutive years, nine out of 10 Americans have said they “think it is important” for the United States to develop and use solar energy.”
“New Poll: 9 out of 10 Americans Support Solar, Across Political Spectrum,” Solar Energy Industries Association, November 1, 2011, http://www.seia.org/cs/news_detail?pressrelease.id=1710 (accessed March 12, 2012).
The Wired magazine article “The Economic Rebound: It Isn’t What You Think” analyzed job creation coming out of the recession. The publication concluded that the economy is not just gaining jobs as it slowly rebounds but also creating a new category of middle-class work that it called “smart jobs.”
Adam Davidson, “The Economic Rebound: It Isn’t What You Think,” Wired, May 31, 2011, http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/05/ff_jobsessay (accessed March 12, 2012).
This kind of business is booming—ePropser and Lending Club, which are peer-to-peer lending variations on the theme, each move hundreds of millions of dollars per year.
Matthew Paulson, “Lending Club Surpasses $500 Million in Loan Originations, Prosper Tops $300 Million,” P2P Lending News, February 1, 2012, http://www.p2plendingnews.com/2012/02/lending-club-surpasses-500-million-in-loan-originations-prosper-tops-300-million (accessed March 12, 2012).
As Republican Senator Scott Brown of Massachusetts said in Congress in late 2011, crowdfunding “has the potential to be a powerful new venture capital model for the Facebook and Twitter age and its potential to create jobs is enormous.”
“Sen. Brown Testifies on Crowdfunding before Banking Committee,” Scott Brown, United States Senator for Massachusetts, December 1, 2011, http://www.scottbrown.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2011/12/sen-brown-testifies-on-crowdfunding-before-banking-committee (accessed March 12, 2012).
Chapter 6: Energized
GE chief Jeff Immelt thinks India and China alone will install 200 gigawatts of solar power.
Scott Malone, “GE’s Immelt Worries US Not Leading on Renewables,” Reuters, November 3, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/03/ge-solar-idUSN1E7A20AD20111103 (accessed March 12, 2012).
By 2014 the industry expects to produce 25 gigawatts of manufacturing capacity of solar panels each year.
Sungevity internal industry analysis.
In the United States, the productivity of coal mines peaked in 2000 and has decreased rapidly since.
US Energy Information Administration, “Annual Energy Review 2009” (Figure 40), http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/annual/pdf/perspectives_2009.pdf; Annual Coal Report (Table 21), http://www.eia.gov/coal/annual/pdf/table21.pdf; and Bureau of Land Management, “Casper Field Office NEPA Documents,” http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/content/wy/en/info/NEPA/documents/cfo.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
This is the model of the carbon tax that Australia is imposing: take $20 per ton of carbon dioxide produced and create a fund to support clean energy over time.
James Grubel, “Australia Passes Landmark Carbon Price Laws,” Reuters, November 8, 2011, http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/us-australia-carbon-idUSTRE7A60PO20111108 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Since 1992, according to the UN report “Keeping Track of Our Changing Environment,” the historic rate of solar growth (30,000 percent) has actually exceeded that of Internet (29,000 percent) and cell phone (23,000 percent) adoption, which is why I am confident that the true takeoff of the technology has only just begun.
“Keeping Track of Our Changing Environment: From Rio to Rio+20 (1992–2012),” United Nations Environment Programme, October 2011, http://www.unep.org/geo/pdfs/Keeping_Track.pdf (accessed March 12, 2012).
In 2010 three times as much solar-power capacity as nuclear-power-plant capacity was installed worldwide.
Zachary Shahan, “Renewable Energy Passed Up Nuclear in 2010,” Clean-Technica, April 17, 2011, http://cleantechnica.com/2011/04/17/renewable-energy-passed-up-nuclear-in-2010 (accessed March 12, 2012).
For example, $88 billion is paid from the budgets of 11 of the world’s poorest countries for kerosene and diesel subsidies, according to the IEA and the International Institute for Sustainable Development.
“A Look Forward to 2012 from the Carbon War Room,” Carbon War Room News & Analysis, January 3, 2012, http://news.carbonwarroom.com/2012/01/03/a-look-forward-to-2012-from-carbon-war-room (accessed March 12, 2012).
“Solar is going to play a huge role in improving energy access,” says Fatih Birol, the chief economist at the IEA.
Bryan Walsh, “The Worst Kind of Poverty: Energy Poverty,” Time, http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,2096602,00.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
At least $2 trillion to $5 trillion will be spent on energy worldwide in the coming two decades.
“The High Cost of Fossil Fuels,” Environment America, June 30, 2009, http://www.environmentamerica.org/reports/ame/high-cost-fossil-fuels; and “Spending on New Renewable Energy Capacity to Total $7 Trillion over Next 20 Years,” Bloomberg New Energy Finance, November 16, 2011, http://bnef.com/PressReleases/view/173 (accessed March 12, 2012).
The DOD’s clean-energy investments grew more than 300 percent from 2006 to 2009 and are projected to continue at that clip through 2030.
Pew Project on National Security, Energy and Climate, “From Barracks to the Battlefield: Clean Energy Innovation and America’s Armed Forces,” Pew Environment Group, September 21, 2011, http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/reports/from-barracks-to-battlefield-clean-energy-innovation-and-americas-armed-forces-85899364060 (accessed March 12, 2012).
You might be surprised to know that some of the highest casualty rates among our troops in the past decade were sustained while protecting diesel shipments used to air-condition tents in our foreign wars; and the greatest risks of war to date with more countries relate to petroleum or nuclear power, from North Korea to Iran.
Nick Hodge, “Energy in 2030,” Energy and Capital, October 15, 2011, http://www.energyandcapital.com/articles/energy-in-2030/1837 (accessed March 12, 2012).
Epilogue: Fire 2.0 My Ride on the Solar Coaster—So Far
This model has been so wildly successful that it has gone from no market share just four years ago to being the majority of the residential solar market in the United States today. By the end of 2011, third-party-financed systems were 60 percent of the home solar market.
“Sunrun and PV Solar Report Announce Solar Leasing Has Eclipsed Cash Purchases,” Sunrun, October 17, 2011, http://www.sunrunhome.com/about-sunrun/sunrun-in-the-news/2012-press-releases/sunrun-and-pv-solar-report-announce-solar-leasing-has-eclipsed-cash-purchases (accessed March 12, 2012).
Recently, I came across a definition of entrepreneurship on Inc.com: “the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled.”
Eric Schurenberg, “What’s an Entrepreneur? The Best Answer Ever,” Inc., January 9, 2012, http://www.inc.com/eric-schurenberg/the-best-definition-of-entepreneurship.html (accessed March 12, 2012).
