In California, where the sun truly does shine almost all the time, a new record for rooftop solar was achieved last year, and the figures don’t even include systems installed in areas served by the state’s municipally-owned utilities.
Homeowners and businesses installed 158 megawatts of photovoltaic panels, in spite of a widening recession that seems to have targeted the state, at least according to the most recent study released by the Milken Institute, a Santa Monica-based economic think tank.
This is in spite of the credit freeze that is parching the economy and drying up renewable energy projects from coast to coast. So how did California, leader in all things green, accomplish this record-breaking solar wave, which doubled the 78 megawatts installed in 2007?
State-funded initiatives, according to the California Public Utilities Commission, and most of these attributable to the California Solar Initiative started two years ago.
Not only did 2008 top 2007, but the largest volume of homeowner rebate requests came in December, the year the recession hit home in terms of record unemployment, nearly negative GDP, dead housing starts and negative home values, minimal Christmas retail sales, sliding stocks and – most indicative of all, at least to this writer – the bankruptcy filing by the New York Times-owned Tribune Company.
If that doesn’t sum up the bad news, I don’t know what does. In spite of that, even California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger was forced to admit that solar panels sales were the single bright spot in an economic doom-and-gloom picture that threatens to cut the state’s payout of tax refunds, student grants and welfare checks unless the budget can be forced to balance.
“I’m encouraged to see that even in these difficult financial times we are breaking solar installation records and spurring private investment in solar projects.” The governor noted.
As well he should be. The Solar Initiative, funded by ratepayers, offers rebates to homeowners and businesses that install solar panels, and the refunds are typically between 20 and 50 percent of a system’s cost.
You would think Californians would be tightening their belts. Instead, new federal tax breaks via the Clean Energy Stimulus Act of 2008, combined with state and regional initiatives, have Golden Staters turning away from stocks and dodgy real estate and going for the real gold – power from sunlight.
Solar is certainly a good place to invest one’s money when all else seems in danger of failing. In fact, the U.S. Department of Energy has projected that solar power could potentially be the largest contributor to the nation’s renewable energy portfolio, or up to 28 percent of the renewable energy mix.
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