Just another reason to consider solar energy:

From the article located at The Seattle Times by Emily Heffter on March 4, 2010:

Low Snowpack Means City Light May Seek Higher Rates

The Seattle City Council is considering a temporary electricity-rate increase to shore up Seattle City Light's reserves as the utility faces its second revenue shortfall in two years.

Low snowfall this winter means Seattle City Light will likely be at least $70 million short of its projected revenue from energy sales. The utility relies on selling millions of dollars worth of hydroelectric power every year, one reason it says its rates are low.

"The disadvantage to hydro is that when you have bad water years, you're short on power," City Light Superintendent Jorge Carrasco said at a news conference Thursday. "In the last 10 years, we've had three normal water years. ... It isn't predictable."

The City Council will decide about a temporary rate increase this month, said Councilmember Bruce Harrell. The utility hopes to cover the shortfall through budget cuts. An increase is "a last resort," he said.

A 1 percent increase in rates would mean about $6 million in annual revenue, he said.

The utility also will sell surplus property, cut back on maintenance and capital projects and refinance its bond debt to try to scrape together a $100 million "rainy-day fund" to better insulate itself from future shortfalls.

The City Council late last year approved a 13.8 percent increase in this year's utility rates. The average monthly residential bill of about $44 increased $6.27.

That increase was the first since 2001, and it helped close a $70 million shortfall the utility faced because of lower-than-expected wholesale revenue.

Last year's snowpack was fine, but low natural-gas prices drove down the selling price of power.

In the past 50 years, only eight winters have had less snowfall than this year, according to Seattle City Light data. A snowy March could improve the snowpack, but at this point the utility is forecasting low flow through the dams it depends on for most of its power.

To avoid this kind of emergency in the future, council members want the utility to come up with a plan by the end of the month to cut its spending and build the $100 million rainy-day fund.

City Light has only about $25 million in savings now — small enough to make Carrasco concerned City Light could lose its good credit rating.

Building such a large cash reserve during already hard economic times won't be easy, said Harrell, but it will be a long-term response to the utility's unpredictable revenues.

Other regional utilities — Puget Sound Energy and Snohomish County PUD — say this year's low snowpack is not forcing rate increases. They depend less than Seattle on hydroelectric power and wholesale sales revenue.

Harrell and the other members of the council's utility committee wrote a strongly worded letter this week to Carrasco, telling him the utility had to develop a plan to keep its spending in line with its actual revenues.

"We believe it is prudent for you and the executive to develop a specific spending plan with actual targets that demonstrate such plan is in alignment with the actual revenue," the letter said. "While we have been sharing these policy directives at the last several meetings, we thought requesting a written work plan would prevent the utility from walking down a road of inadvertent and unmonitored spending into the next budget cycle."

In an interview, Harrell said it should have been up to Mayor Mike McGinn to tell the utility to spend less. "McGinn's going to have to step it up," he said.

McGinn, in response, said budget problems at City Light and other city departments are the result of decisions made by Harrell and the rest of the council.

"We've been in office two months," he said. "This budget and the Seattle City Light policies are a legacy of past decisions."

This year Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is broadening the scope of its Renewable Energy Education program that allows local schools and other institutions that educate the public about renewable energy to apply for small solar or wind demonstration projects.  PSE has funded over 20 such projects since 2004, allowing students and other interested members of the community to experience the benefits of renewable energy.  Read the press release.

It's still technically winter but it certainly looks and feels a lot more like spring lately here in the Northwest.  A great time to start thinking about harvesting that solar energy!  There are some important, yet simple, things you can do before you install solar that will make your solar investment even more productive.  Find out how.

From Green Inc. blog, NYTimes.com

February 10, 2010, 9:10 am

Renewables Industry Promotes Its Potential

Funds from the $787 billion stimulus package and other federal assistance kept growth in the renewable energy sector strong in 2009, a trend that will probably persist as federal investment continues to pay off over the coming year, industry leaders said in a teleconference Tuesday.

The picture was especially good for the solar industry, which created almost 20,000 new jobs in 2009 while adding 470 megawatts in generating capacity, a record, according to Rhone Resch, the president of the Solar Energy Industries Association. The solar industry could create as many as 45,000 new jobs in 2010 if Congress extends several tax incentives and grant programs set to expire at the end of the year, Mr. Resch said.

“I think 2010 is going to be a bigger year than 2009,” he said. “Most analysts expect the solar industry to grow by 100 percent this year.”

Yet while the near-term outlook for renewables is mostly positive, the industry’s long-term prospects will be shaped significantly by energy legislation under consideration by Congress, the executives said. At the top of renewable executives’ wish list was the passage of a national renewable energy standard, which would require all utilities to generate a certain fraction of electricity from sources like wind and solar.

“What is really critical for us is the renewable energy standard,” said Denise Bode, the chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association.

Countries like China have enacted such standards and watched renewable energy production and manufacturing soar as a result, said Ms. Bode. “Give us those hard targets that other countries have,” she said.

Federal tax policy on renewable energy manufacturing and production was also a source of concern. Bob Cleaves, the president and chief executive of the Biomass Power Association, said a key tax credit for the biomass industry lapsed at the end of 2009, putting thousands of jobs in jeopardy.
“Congress let expire our tax credit for existing facilities, putting at risk probably 50 percent of the 15,000 jobs in our community,” Mr. Cleaves said. The biomass industry generates power from organic residue – everything from wood chips to waste matter from sugar production – and its facilities are concentrated in rural areas particularly hard-hit by the recession.

“Virtually all of our facilities are in rural areas that have unemployment rates that far exceed 10 percent,” Mr. Cleaves said.
A tight credit market was also seen as a challenge, with industry executives urging Congress to extend financing assistance for renewable energy projects. “The bottom line is that the big banks aren’t coming in and investing like they did two or three years ago,” Mr. Resch said.
Despite their concerns, executives were hopeful that their success in generating job growth and expanding manufacturing would inspire continued support from Congress and the Obama administration.

“We’re still the bright part of the economy,” Ms. Bode said.

Sunergy Systems was on hand yesterday for a media event to highlight the importance of the BETC program in Oregon.

From the article located at Sustainable Business Oregon by Mason Walker on Feb. 10, 2010:

Companies showcase incentive-enabled solar project

On the same day that the Oregon State Legislature met to vote on reform for the Business Energy Tax Credit, a group of Oregon companies convened to showcase a project made possible by the program.

The project, a 116 kilowatt roof array, was installed at Iwasaki Bros Inc., a nursery in Hillsboro. Jim Iwasaki, owner and general manager of the nursery, stated that the project wouldn't have penciled out without incentives from Energy Trust of Oregon, a grant from the USDA, and Business Energy Tax Credits from the Oregon Department of Energy. The array is expected to provide 23 percent of nursery's considerable energy needs.

Howard Lamb, founder of Sunergy Systems, the firm that designed and installed the project, talked about the influence of Oregon's incentives on his business. Based in Seattle, Sunergy does the majority of their commercial projects in Oregon. "Incentive programs in Oregon have allowed us to tap into larger projects," he said. "Larger projects cost less per watt, which helps with economies of scale."

Bob Beisner, managing director of SolarWorld Industries America, the provider of the panels in the Iwasaki project, commented on the importance of Oregon's BETC. "We know solar energy can't be subsidized forever. In the meantime, incentives like the BETCs let us operate on a scale that's internationally competitive."

We are currently experiencing bandwidth issues with our phone system through our communications provider.  Because of that, when you call in there may be some break-up that occurs similar to a bad connection on a cell phone.  We apologize for the call quality and are working behind the scenes with our provider to fix the problem.  Unfortunately it is out of our hands at this point and we are waiting on another company for broadband installation to alleviate the problem.

Please feel free to email us in the meantime with questions or concerns or follow this link if you'd like to request us to come out to your site for an evaluation and quote. 

Thank you for your patience and please bear with us.  We'll have it fixed soon.

We're having our first weekend version of Solar U coming up on the 30th.  We hope to see you there!

Click through the link for all the details about the upcoming Solar U seminar.

Have you ever been curious as to what companies or organizations are walking their talk when it comes to using renewable energy?  Have a look at this link from the EPA that shows the top 50 users of green power in our nation.  The article lists their annual Green Power usage (kWh), Gree Power percentage of total used, providers and Green Power resources.

Recently Kohl's Department Stores overtook PepsiCo for the #2 spot on the list with Intel Corporation in the lead.  Rankings are based on annual Green Power usage

A snippet from the article:

These green power purchases help reduce the environmental impacts of electricity use and support the development of new renewable generation capacity nationwide. Purchase amounts reflect U.S. operations only and are sourced from U.S.-based green power resources. Organizations can meet EPA purchase requirements using any combination of three different product options (1) Renewable Energy Certificates, (2) On-site generation, and (3) Utility green power products.

Another article on Monday, January 25th from BizJournals.com states that Intel Corp. on Monday said it will install 2.5 megawatts of solar electric systems at its campuses in four states.

Look for us at the Bellevue Home Show

Stop by our booth, B-3, in the Sustainable Living area of the Bellevue Home Show, January 22-24.  We'll have representatives on hand to discuss Solar Power with anyone who drops by. 

We also have extra guest passes.  If you need one, call or stop by and we'll be happy to give you one.

In addition we'll be presenting on the Sustainable Living stage:  Saturday, January 23 @ 12:00 PM & Sunday, January 24 @ 4:00 PM