The solar industry cheered the California state assembly’s passage of a bill to mandate 100 percent “carbon-free” electricity by 2045, calling it a “groundbreaking legislation.”
“As we await final confirmation in the Senate, this bill will lead to significant investment and jobs creation in California, and elsewhere in America,” Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said in a statement.
It’s no secret why SEIA supports the legislation since it increases the amount of renewable energy California must get by 2030. Experts expect most of that increase to be met by solar panels and wind turbines.
“We urge Governor Brown to sign this legislation as soon as it hits his desk,” Hopper said of California’s energy mandate.
That’s billions of more dollars guaranteed to flow to solar panel manufacturers and installers should the legislation pass. California already subsidizes solar panels through feed-in tariffs, tax credits and mandates all new homes have solar arrays.
Critics have said such policies make affordable housing harder to come by in California. Installing rooftop solar panels is expected to add between $8,000 and $12,000 to the cost of a house.
Legislation passed by the State Assembly on Tuesday night would increase the state’s renewable energy mandate from 50 to 60 percent by 2030. The bill then requires 40 percent of state electricity to come from “carbon-free” sources — that is, with no carbon dioxide emissions.
That can also include solar panels, but seems also meant to include nuclear power, hydroelectric dams and power plants with carbon capture and storage technology (CCS).
Analysts with ClearView Energy “do not currently regard the bill as a potential driver for new nuclear power buildout or CCS.”
Instead, ClearView analysts “expect solar and wind to represent a significant portion of the incremental zero-carbon policy,” according to an analysis of their legislation sent to clients on Wednesday.
The real question is whether or not more solar power can be shoehorned into California’s electric grid. The state already generates so much solar power during midday, when demand is low, that utilities have to pay other states to take the excess power to protect the grid.
Solar energy made up about 12 percent of California’s in-state electricity generation in 2017, according to California Energy commission data. It’s the state’s largest, non-hydro, source of renewable electricity.
But that’s not good enough for the solar industry it seems. Hopper also called on California lawmakers to pass another piece of legislation requiring utilities to buy more renewable energy and a bill to create a regional electricity market with neighboring states.
“That’s why we are asking lawmakers to also pass AB 893, which would require utilities to ramp up procurement of renewable resources,” Hopper said. “Furthermore, AB 813, legislation to create a regional electricity market that includes California and neighboring states will help accelerate renewable energy deployment in California and other areas of the West.”
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This article was originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation
Just imagine all our Beautiful Landscapes full of Solar and Wind Power covering it…!!!
And, How will they be able to fight fires around and under these Solar Panels…It will be so much more expensive when it destroys them!!! Plus, We are already taking more and more of our Farmland for these Wild-Haired Ideas of the Left!!!
Then all of the lovely falling down eyesores like on Altamonte Pass when this entire load of CR@P falls apart and nobody can clean it up….like in Germany today.
But none of it will be within sight of our SiliValley Oligarchs.
I wonder if they manufacture the solar and wind parts in a low cost energy country?
We NEVER hear all that the owner is responsible for after these solar panels have been installed. WHY? What IS the length of life of a system that gets sun-power? What will fail first? And yes it does muck up the landscape It is just as distasteful as the huge propellers of the wind industry. Low income people cannot afford this FREE STUFF-because it REALLY ISN ‘T FREE!
Plus the solar farms incinerate birds that fly over them because of the extreme heat and the wind turbines butcher eagle populations. The hypocrisy never ends with these horrible people who pretend to care about animals and the environment but obviously just want to destroy both.
Jerry Brown isn’t doing us any favors either!
He raises the taxes , raises the COST OF WATER BY DECREASING the amount of WATER to 50 gal. a day–We get dead back yard gardens and flowers- and there is no carbon for the plants to breath and give us oxygen
Then the twin tunnels to hell steal away our WATER IN THE NORTH! iT IS ALL WRONG AND I will vote it down each and every TAX AND EXPENSIVE GIMMICK COMING OUT OF the silicone valley of rich ,selfish mean-spirited lib-LEFTS who want to destroy the farms and wild animal habitat -NO VOTE ON ALL THEIR DESTRUCTIVE IDEAS!
I wonder if the California legislature would be interested in a beautiful bridge in Brooklyn?