All About Solar | Green Energy News

December 3, 2006 – Vol. 11 No. 37

ALL ABOUT SOLAR.

This week’s news.

Before the 109th Congress closed its doors it passed some measures that are sure to be signed by President Bush. Among the measures are allowing additional exploration for oil and natural gas in the Gulf of Mexico as well as extension of the Residential Solar Tax Credit and the Business Energy Tax Credit. Both were created with the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Both were set to expire at the end of 2007. With the extension both will now be extended one year and expire on December 31, 2008.

Though one year is a short extension at a time when longer, multiyear extensions would be helpful in building new solar power capacity and help continue to build a solar industry, short extensions are nothing new to renewable energy. For years the wind energy industry has had to return to Congress on a regular, often yearly basis, to beg for the extension of the production tax credit (PTC). Now the solar industry will have to suffer the same pain.

(A one-year PTC extension for wind also passed the House and Senate and is on its way to the President’s desk.)

The Residential tax credit is 30-percent of the cost of solar water heating, solar electric and fuel cell systems to a maximum of $2000 for solar hot water and solar electric systems and $500 for each half-kilowatt of fuel cell power. (Which of course has nothing to do with solar. It’s just how Congress writes legislation.)

The Business tax credit is for solar water heat, solar space heat, solar thermal electric, solar thermal process heat, photovoltaics, geothermal electric, fuel cells, solar hybrid lighting, direct use geothermal and microturbines. Tax credits vary from 10-30 percent and have some limitations depending on the technology.

For more information on the tax credits visit the Database of State Incentives for Renewable Energy at http://www.dsireusa.org/ (Add a year to the expiration dates if the two incentive programs are not updated.)

If you don’t have the upfront cash for a solar system, here’s a possible solution: rent your solar system.

Citizenre Corporation has launched its REnU solar rental plan. In a 25-year agreement the company will design, install and maintain a solar system on your home at a fixed monthly rate that is competitive with conventional electric rates in 40 US states. The company will own the system, but you’ll get the power from it.

Think 25 years is a long time to commit to a rental program? Do you think you can do better by handling the whole solar system installation yourself? Only your gut and accountant will know for sure.

Yet, while the company has some challenges ahead to convince homeowners that rental is solar possibility, innovative financial solutions like this from Citizenre will be needed if the residential solar market is to flourish and we all get solar systems for our homes. Visit Citizenre at http://www.affordablephotovoltaics.com/

The solar market is booming. Every solar panel that comes off the production line is sold and put to work. Building new capacity for solar production seems a safe bet, as long as raw materials suppliers can keep up with production line demand.

The glamor part of the industry is with the companies that make solar cells and panels. The less glamorous players are the ones that supply the production line equipment to make solar cells and modules in the first place.

GT Solar is one of those companies.

The company has announced its latest sale: production equipment to Solar Cells Hella S.A. of Patras, Greece that will allow them to produce 30 megawatts of multicrystalline solar wafers and cells annually. GT builds manufacturing solutions to meet all aspects of the silicon solar industry.

As long as the solar industry grows the companies that make the equipment to build solar should follow a parallel uphill path. Visit GT Solar at http://www.gtsolar.com/