A few years ago, the City of Gainesville, Florida, drew some attention for its implementation of feed-in tariffs for solar. At the beginning of 2013, the policy was suspended, however. The strangest thing for Craig Morris was not the apparent glee with which some alleged supporters of renewables, including from the solar sector, expressed upon hearing the news. It was their inability to get the story right.
All posts tagged: USA
What role will shale gas play in the Energiewende?
International onlookers sometimes wonder when shale gas will get going in Germany. Americans in particular think, based on their own shale boom, that the Germans could reduce their carbon emissions and lower their energy prices with shale gas. Craig Morris says the situation looks much different within Germany.
Innovative Third-Party Financing Makes Solar Affordable—For All
Ten years ago many Americans couldn’t afford to buy a solar electric system for their home. Today, many consumers still can’t stomach the steep sticker price, even if it offers the promise of low-cost, clean renewable energy in the long term. But, as RMI’s Laurie Guevara-Stone finds, that’s changing thanks in large part to third-party financing that frequently includes no-money-down options for residential PV systems.
Can the Cost of Solar in the U.S. Compete with Germany?
Installing solar capacity is much more expensive in the U.S. than it is in Germany. RMI has released a new report with Georgia Tech to analyze U.S. installation cost reduction opportunities. RMI’s Koben Calhoun and Jesse Morris summarize the findings.
Something to copy from Germany: transparency of energy data
Over at the AWEA blog, our colleague Michael Goggin recently wrote of a new record. Craig Morris says the most interesting part was that the data are not publicly available.
Lowering the Cost of Solar PV: Soft Costs with Hard Challenges (Part 2)
In part one, Dan Seif, principal with Rocky Mountain Institute’s electricity and industrial practices, and Jesse Morris, Senior Associate for electricity and transportation practices at Rocky Mountain Institute, discussed the importance of lowering the soft costs of solar PV – all the related solar energy system costs besides the hardware. They covered two cost areas addressed in RMI and NREL’s new roadmap report on solar PV soft costs: 1) permitting, inspection, and interconnection (PII) and 2) customer acquisition. This time, they are looking will look at reducing financing and installation labor costs.
Lowering the Cost of Solar PV: Soft Costs with Hard Challenges (Part 1)
Why does Germany, a country with the same amount of sun on a yearly basis as Alaska, have residential solar costs half that of the U.S.? Why have solar panel prices dropped significantly while whole-system cost has remained relatively high? For Dan Seif, principal with Rocky Mountain Institute’s electricity and industrial practices, and Jesse Morris, Senior Associate for electricity and transportation practices at Rocky Mountain Institute, the answer lies in the soft costs of solar PV—all the non-hardware-related costs of installing a solar PV system.
German Market Evolution
Since a few years, self-consuming solar systems are on the rise. Jesse Morris, a senior associate of Rocky Mountain Institute, takes Germany as an example and looks at the possible implications for the U.S.
The laws of nature are immutable, not the laws of man
How do America’s future environmentalists view Germany’s energy transition? Craig Morris recently spent a day with a group of students from the US and found some things encouraging, others not.
The American West and the Energiewende
Could the German Energiewende be a blueprint for the United States? Jonathan Thompson recommends to learn from the German experience and realize that the transition makes sense not only environmentally, but also economically.