Power to the People!!

Power to the People!

I earn my keep these days designing and selling solar systems, mainly for personal residences. These systems are compact, powerful and can fit on a wide variety of roof tops.

Many folks take advantage of government incentives to assist with the funding of their systems. Currently, state and federal funding are available to assist with the costs.

My company, Sun Light & Power, has been at this for over 33 years. Based in Berkeley, it's founder, Gary Gerber, is still at the helm of the company. Gary is well respected in the solar community as a tireless advocate for solar, a creative innovator and a good businessman who treats his customers, employees and business associates with respect and integrity.

The solar industry has seen twists and turns in it's fortunes over the past several years. Many incentive programs have come and gone, the latest being the California Solar Initiative. This program was designed to spur the solar industry in California, and in many ways, it has.

10s of millions of dollars have been poured into state incentive programs for Californians. 10s of thousands of installations have been built. The Bay Area is one of the most active areas in the country when it comes to new solar installations.

But the program may be a victim of it's own success. In a very short, 2 1/2 year period, much of the funding has been used and the level of funding is being quickly depleted. Solar has always been for the very green and the very wealthy. Mainstream acceptance has been slow to arrive. But the two main groups which have been drawn to solar the most still need to keep an eye on costs, because if the numbers don't pencil out, even for the tried and true environmentalists, then there simply won't be compelling enough reasons to go solar.

A feed in tariff, which would encourage maximization of solar roof space and a distributed generation system feeding the electric grid, is probably not that far from reality. The utilities are not excited about it, since it creates stiff competition, so it will be fought. On the other hand, the utilities don't want to be seen as standing in the way of renewable energy. We need to find a way to spur the feed in tariff if we are to succeed in bringing solar to the masses. Either we must buy from PG&E or we build our own systems. If we build our own, it has to be financially viable.

A strong feed in tariff can help the nascent solar industry to flourish. But we'll need strong advocacy from any number of lawmakers and other concerned organizations to make it happen. In the meantime, let's support alternative energy, conservation and energy efficiency measures any way we can. It's one way out of the mess we are in. Energy Independence, a reduction on reliance on foreign oil, and the catastrophic dangers of climate change all point to a need to do this differently.

If we all are going to thrive, then we need to support renewable energy and reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. Let's do this together!