Good Solar Business | Green Energy News

January 16, 2005 – Vol.9 No.43

GOOD SOLAR BUSINESS.

Business is looking good in the solar industry and expected to get better.

Southern California Edison (SCE) has announced it has awarded a rebate of $4.3 million to Kern Community College District for the construction of a 959-kilowatt solar power plant at the Cerro Coso Community College. The 6100 solar panels of the project cover 6.5 acres and provide almost all the power needed at the college.

The rebate, which offsets almost half the cost of the $9.2 million project, was part of the Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) offered by SCE and three other organizations in California. The program is a way to build new power generating capacity (generally clean and renewable) through cost sharing.

For 2005 the incentive budget for SGIP is a combined $112,500,000 for grid-connected projects greater than 30 kilowatts and up to 5 megawatts. (Though the incentive will cover only up to 1 megawatt.) SGIP is an incentive of last resort, and there is, apparently, a waiting list.

Participants in SGIP are:

Southern California Edison (SCE) http://www.sce.com/RebatesandSavings/SelfGenerationIncentiveProgram/

Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) http://www.pge.com/suppliers_purchasing/new_generator/incentive/

San Diego Regional Energy Office (SDREO) http://www.sdge.com/business/self_generation.shtml

Southern California Gas Company (SoCalGas) http://www.socalgas.com/business/selfgen

Elsewhere, Solar Promotion - a Germany-based solar trade fair organizer - says the German solar industry generated sales of more than EUR 2 billion ($2.6 billion) in 2004, a 60 percent increase over the previous year. Visit Solar Promotion at http://www.intersolar.de/

And, Solar Plaza, an Internet-based solar PV marketplace, said the Spanish market for solar sales was EUR 90 million ($117 million) in 2004. Solar Plaza is offering, for a fee, a report entitled The Spanish Solar PV Market which covers just that. Visit Solar Plaza at http://www.solarplaza.com/ .

Finally, Greenpeace International and the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) say in their report - Solar Generation II - that solar power could provide electricity for 1 billion people by 2020, create jobs for more than 2.2 million and eventually be a EUR 62 billion ($80 billion) industry. By 2040, they say, solar could provide 20 percent of global energy needs. For the report http://www.epia.org/documents/press_release_SG2_english.pdf