All Our Energy

In response to NY State Governor Cuomo’s call to quadruple the state’s solar capacity, called Solar In New York: It’s Strategy to Make Solar Shine by Elisa Wood, just published today at Renewable Energy World

Interesting points include

Cuomo proposed competitive bidding to attract large-scale solar projects. … NYSERDA, has set out a plan to realise Cuomo’s goal, which the authority says could bring 269 MW of solar to the state from 2012-2015, and 110 MW some time after. NYSERDA calls the plan ‘aggressive but achievable’.

To attract industry investment, the state must provide a more consistent policy for long-term growth, say solar advocates. To that end, they have been pushing for a solar feed-in tariff (FiT)

(We ask “why only Industry Investment? Why only Solar?”),

…solar renewable energy credits (SRECs), or other methods to move the industry beyond developing hundreds of megawatts of solar into thousands of megawatts.

Cuomo also is opening up new opportunity for big solar projects through his new ‘Energy Highway’ initiative to upgrade the state’s aging infrastructure. As part of the (‘Energy Highway’ ) initiative, his office issued a formal solicitation in April 2012 seeking ideas … to fix various energy problems…. so that it reaches its target of getting 30% of its electricity from renewable energy by 2015 and more beyond that. The state hopes to draw $2 billion in private investment.

The article goes on to mention our local utility LIPA’s involvement, achievement and proactive stance in delivering utility scale solar at minimal cost to ratepayers.

Now if we could just get them all to agree that homeowners, non-homeowners and the public at large should be more easily and readily able to

• Sell their rooftop solar into the grid at a realistically profitable price (similar to what they pay the big corporations).
• Generate more energy than they use (this is already too limited – to only 5% above use in most cases!)
• Have access to participate in off-property “virtual metering”, “community” or “cooperative” projects (like community wind in Minnesota) where individuals can invest their money to generate any viable renewable energy (wind and eventually ocean/wave as well) and sell it to and through the grid. Millions of apartment dwellers can never be investors, and are relegated to be just “consumers”, never providers.

That’s not to say individuals shouldn’t do what they can with solar on their roof, but if we need more, why not pay New Yorkers for it and allow more?

News flash: it is not a free market out there. These types of projects are near impossible to do because current tax code and utility laws are set up to keep the already picked winners in their monopolized place at the top, and keep what I’d like to call “democratic energy” from expelling them from that position.
No: you cannot invest in renewable energy except through megacorporation stocks or a small generator on your property that only offsets your use.

This is the number one thing keeping renewable energy and the “green economy” in it’s so-called place. It is going to take a “green revolution” to get there.

Governor Cuomo it’s a start, but a half one at best. Why are we soliciting mega corporations, with development money that guarantees no results, This, when the average New Yorker, who would love to, cannot invest in renewable energy other than offsetting only their own household use and only on their own home, or by buying stock in, say BP, as one of the few mega companies with a dedicated solar division? That doesn’t allow New Yorkers, to do more!

That’s the question that defines All Our Energy’s entire existence.

Would you like to invest in renewable energy? Let’s find out how to do that and get things done differently, together!