The site will eventually total five solar plants and generate enough renewable energy to offset the carbon emissions of 288,000 cars after twenty years of production. Equivalently, the 1.9 million megawatt hours generated by the solar farm is expected to power over 186,000 average U.S. homes for one year.

Xcel Energy:

The announcement took place during an activation event held today at the 10.8 MW photovoltaic solar farm located at 800 W. Derrick Rd near the Carlsbad regional airport. Carlsbad City Mayor Dale W. Janway welcomed guests to the public event that highlighted the multi-site solar project that is expected to be fully activated by the end of 2011. The five sites are comprised of utility-scale, photovoltaic solar power plants or solar farms estimated to produce more than 109 million kilowatt-hours of energy in the first year of operation alone.

Financial services juggernaut Wells Fargo helped finance the project to the tune of $200 million. Since 2006, the bank has spent $2.2 billion on renewable energy projects, spanning a portfolio of 220 solar projects and 35 wind projects in 26 states.

The push toward solar energy has encouraged regional academics to reach out to the area’s 25,000 farmers with cost-saving techniques that could reap dividends in a part of the state known for its spotty availability of electric power.

From Western Farm Press:

New Mexico State University’s College of Engineering and the Cooperative Extension Service are teaming up to show New Mexico’s farmers and ranchers how they can use alternative energy in their business. Extension officers can now provide live demonstrations with a portable solar-powered water pump.

[...]

Tom Jenkins, professor of engineering technology and head of the department’s renewable energy program, has been working with the Extension service to produce training presentations explaining the use of renewable energy sources in agricultural applications. Taking the idea further, Extension officers wanted to be able to demonstrate to the agricultural community in the state how solar power could be used to pump well water.

An example of the positive impact a few cells can have on a farmer:

A portable demonstration unit … that consists of a rolling cart outfitted with a small solar panel that collects heat energy from sunlight and converts it to electricity. The electricity powers a high-pressure submersible pump in a 50-gallon storage vessel. The pump is equipped with a sophisticated control box that optimizes the power needed to control the speed of the pump. Meters show the current and voltage produced by the solar panel and used by the pump.

“Less than two months ago, Mr. Harrison met with us and other Committee members to assure us that Solyndra was in a strong financial position and in no danger of failing,” DeGette wrote with California Representative and Committee Ranking Member Henry Waxman. “At that time, [Harrison] said the company was projected to double its revenues in 2011, there was ‘strong demand in the United States’ for its shipments, and the company was expected to double the megawatts of panel production shipped this year. These assurances appear to contrast starkly with his company’s decision to file for bankruptcy last week.”

Silicon Valley-based solar panel maker Solyndra was a new-energy darling of the Obama 2009 stimulus package. The company received roughly $530 million in government loans and yet went belly up last month.

The events seemed to confirm the worst fears and suspicions of green energy critics who see the sector as a money hole, a land of hyped hope and dreams that provides fertile ground for get-rich-quick schemes and government-business insider graft.

Stearns this week said he “smelled a rat” in Solyndra from the beginning and pointed to the fact that Solyndra investor George Kaiser was an Obama campaign donor. The Energy Department downplayed the accusations, saying that Solyndra support was in the pipeline during the Bush administration and the Obama team merely finished the deal.

More likely, Solyndra appears to have made the kind of business bets that can make or break a company and that broke this one.

As the New York Times reported, the company’s panels don’t use silicon, which was a much more costly commodity in 2009 when the loan guarantee was approved than it is now. And the cylindrical design of the panels was meant to cut installment costs and improve efficiency by more easily catching the sun wherever it is in the sky. But manufacturing those special panels proved too costly.

The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee will conduct its hearing on the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee program and Solyndra on September 14th.

DeGette’s letter:

Dear Chairman Stearns:

We understand that you have scheduled a hearing on September 14, 2011, to examine the Department of Energy’s 2009 loan guarantee to Solyndra and the recent announcement by the company that it is planning to file for bankruptcy. We hope this hearing will help the Committee understand whether mistakes were made in the handling of this loan and how Congress can improve loan guarantee program and develop appropriate policies to promote clean energy technologies.

We are writing to request that you invite Brian Harrison, chief executive officer of Solyndra, to testify at the hearing. Less than two months ago, Mr. Harrison met with us and other Committee members to assure us that Solyndra was in a strong financial position and in no danger of failing. At that time, he said the company was projected to double its revenues in 2011, there was “strong demand in the United States” for its shipments, and the company was expected to double the megawatts of panel production shipped this year. These assurances appear to contrast starkly with his company’s decision to file for bankruptcy last week.

Any thorough examination of the Solyndra loan guarantee should include the opportunity to ask Mr. Harrison about his representations. He did not convey to us the perilous condition of the company and the Committee should know why.

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

Henry A. Waxman Diana DeGette
Ranking Member Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations

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It’s important to note that there is a strong underlying political back story surrounding these panels. It comes down to Carter (who installed the panels) vs. Reagan (who took them down). For environmentalists this dynamic tells a broader story about the positions of Democrats and Republicans on climate change, and it is a not-so-subtle metaphor for the current dynamic in Congress.

At the same time, the decision is meant to send a signal that solar technology is alive and well, despite the fact that it lags far behind wind.

According to the White House, the installation is part of a broader “Department of Energy demonstration project showing that American solar technologies are available, reliable, and ready for installation in homes throughout the country.”

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said:

This project reflects President Obama’s strong commitment to U.S. leadership in solar energy and the jobs it will create here at home. Deploying solar energy technologies across the country will help America lead the global economy for years to come.

Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) and Sam Brownback (R-Kan.) unveiled a proposal Tuesday to increase use of renewable energy. (Flickr, Auntie K)

A bipartisan coalition of senators today unveiled a proposal that would require a certain percentage of the country’s electricity to come from renewable sources like wind and solar. The announcement revived hopes that the measure could move this year, but it remains unclear if there is enough time or political will in the Senate to pass the legislation this session.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has not committed to setting aside floor time for the proposal this year. And the bill’s author, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), told reporters today that he would wait to cement the necessary votes before approaching Reid to schedule a vote.

Renewable energy advocates and environmentalists praised the announcement, while noting that the renewable energy standard, or RES, is not stringent enough. The last six months have been difficult for environmentalists, who faced a string of legislative defeats — first on economy-wide cap-and-trade, then on a narrow cap-and-trade bill. And now there are legitimate questions about whether the Senate will be able to pass a slimmed-down energy bill or an oil spill response bill, even after the mid-term elections.

So the RES announcement was, for many environmentalists, a welcome respite from months of disappointment. Sean Garren, clean energy advocate at Environment America, said, “Senator Bingaman’s renewable electricity standard would commit America to beginning the move towards a clean energy economy.  While the standard is weaker than America can and should achieve, the Senate must pass the bill quickly to deliver to the entire country the benefits that states with standards are already enjoying.”

The bill, which is sponsored by Bingaman and Sam Brownback (R-Kans.), has early support from a number of Democrats, including Sen. Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.). Two other Republicans, Sens. Susan Collins (Maine) and John Ensign (Nev.), also lent their support to the proposal.

The proposal, which is nearly identical to a provision in an energy bill passed by Bingaman’s Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year, requires that 15 percent of the country’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2021. Entities can meet the standard by producing or purchasing renewable energy like wind, solar, biomass and some hydropower. They can also meet the standard through energy efficiency savings. The RES will not affect state programs, many of which are more stringent than the federal proposal, according to a summary of the bill.

But a 2009 analysis of a similar RES proposal by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, a research arm of the Department of Energy, found that it likely won’t increase renewable energy development beyond a business-as-usual scenario. The analysis is based on Bingaman’s original 20 percent by 2021 RES proposal, which was cut down to 15 percent to win support from Republicans on the committee.

Bingaman said he believes he has the 60 votes necessary to pass the new RES bill. “I think that the votes are present in the Senate to pass a renewable electricity standard,” he said in a statement. “I think that they are present in the House. I think that we need to get on with figuring out what we can pass and move forward.”

Franz Matzner, climate center legislative director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says the RES proposal “doesn’t deliver the goods the way we’d like to see it.” The bill is a “band aid” measure, he says, arguing that the Senate needs to move on comprehensive climate change legislation. But Matzner says, “If this is the best place we can get bipartisan agreement, it’s better than getting nothing done.”

It’s too early to say whether the bill will be able to pass the Senate this year. There are very few legislative days left before the Senate breaks for the mid-term elections, and it’s unclear how long a lame-duck session might be. “They could have an eight-hour lame-duck session or they could have a productive two weeks or they could sit and do nothing,” Matzner says.

Reid’s spokeswoman, Regan Lachapelle, notes there is very little time left in the year to pass the RES bill. “Senator Reid strongly supports a national renewable electricity standard,” LaChapelle says. “But, there is very limited time before the October recess and probably even during the lame duck, so the proponents of a stand-alone RES will need to demonstrate they have 60 votes for swift floor action before floor consideration could be scheduled.”

One environmentalist — who has been closely following the issue but is not authorized to speak on the record — said passage of the RES could be dependent on whether it moves as a stand-alone measure or is packaged together with other provisions. At the same time, the environmentalist says, much will depend on the outcome of the mid-term elections. “The bigger the Republican success on election day, the less likely anything will be accomplished during the lame duck session,” the environmentalist says.

Many environmentalists have called for a 25 percent RES by 2025, but before the August recess a coalition of renewable energy advocates endorsed the Bingaman 15 percent RES, noting that it was the only proposal that could win bipartisan support. “In this political climate, we have to do what we have to do,” American Wind Energy Association President Denise Bode told reporters in July.

According to a blog on 350.org, the environmental group that organized the meeting:

As we expected (but secretly hoped wouldn’t be the case), the White House didn’t commit to … well, anything. We tossed them a big, fat soft ball to hit out of the park and they just watched it float on by.

In an op-ed in today’s Washington Post, McKibben said installing solar panels on the White House would be a much-needed symbol of the Obama administration’s support of renewable energy, one that environmentalists need following a crushing legislative defeat on climate legislation this year.

McKibben, in the op-ed, also serves a bit of cold, hard reality regarding the likelihood of passing strong environmental legislation any time soon:

Clearly, a solar panel on the White House roof won’t solve climate change — and we’d rather have strong presidential leadership on energy transformation. But given the political scene, this may be as good as we’ll get for the moment.

It’s important to note that there is a strong underlying political backstory surrounding these panels. It comes down to Carter (who installed the panels) vs. Reagan (who took them down). For environmentalists this dynamic tells a broader story about the positions of Democrats and Republicans on climate change and it is a not-so-subtle metaphor for the current dynamics in Congress.

In a statement, Kerry said:

While we continue the fight to bring comprehensive energy legislation to the floor of the United States Senate, it’s essential that we take action to start moving in the right direction. Providing incentives for clean energy production will drive our economy forward and take us one step closer to reducing our carbon emissions and ending our dependence on foreign oil.

According to the statement, the bill, which Kerry introduced today, would:

• provide tax incentives for solar energy;
• provide tax incentives for electric vehicles and the batteries that are necessary to run them;
• extend tax credits for energy efficient homes and buildings;
• provide incentives for natural gas vehicles;
• and extend the tax credit for companies that make energy efficient appliances.

For more, here’s the bill text:

Kerry energy tax bill –

But the credits may not be dead. Senate leaders decided to attach the renewable energy bill that prolongs the credits onto the $700-billion financial bailout package that lawmakers hope to vote on tonight.

This actually makes sense, and not just because it’s the government’s last chance this year to save a booming sector of the economy from an uncertain future. (I’ll have more on just how uncertain that future is in a forthcoming piece.)

It also makes sense because the credits will help save Main Street jobs.  With the financial system ailing, unemployment on the rise and energy prices bouncing up and down, Congress can’t afford to end tax credits that have rapidly stimulated the green economy, according to solar and wind industry experts.

For now, folks in the renewable energy industry will have to keep doing what they’ve been doing all year long — nervously biting their nails as they wait to see what lawmakers do.