California And Massachusetts Lead U.S. Solar Boom

ThinkProgress - Alejandro Davila Fragoso

CREDIT: AP Photo/Chris Carlson

Solar energy is ballooning across the United States with California and Massachusetts leading the way, according to a Solar Foundation report unveiled Wednesday.
The U.S. solar industry now employs slightly over 200,000 workers, representing a growth of 20 percent since November of 2014. What’s more, last year the industry added workers at a rate nearly 12 times faster than the overall economy.
“We are seeing solar in Arkansas, Virginia, Kentucky, all over the place. Arkansas in fact just broke ground on their first community solar project,” said Andrea Luecke, president and executive director of the Solar Foundation.
The sixth annual report is based on nearly three months of data collection and evaluated figures of 19,000 companies. It’s also more detailed than it has ever been, as it now has solar job data for every state and federal congressional district. “Solar jobs is just a metric, but it’s an important metric. It basically serves as a barometer for understanding whether and where policies are working,” Luecke told ThinkProgress.
California has five times more solar jobs than Massachusetts, the second highest ranking state. That’s not surprising to Luecke, “but for the first time Massachusetts hit the 15,000 mark. Between the two of them they have 50 percent of all the solar jobs.”
California — which last year implemented a law requiring utilities to get 50 percent of their energy from renewables by 2030 — not only maintained its leadership position; it also created over 20,000 solar jobs. Meanwhile, Nevada, Florida, Maryland, Tennessee, Oregon, Michigan, and Utah are among the top 20 solar jobs states growing by 30 percent or more.
“The economy has done very well over the last couple years, but the solar industry is doing better,” Luecke said, “and for a technology that makes up only one percent of the overall energy mix, I think it’s really surprising.” She noted however that some 15 states shed workers in 2015, and that coal-dependent states like Wyoming, Montana and West Virginia rank the lowest in solar job creation.

Total solar jobs by state. CREDIT: The solar foundation

Still, solar companies expect to expand nearly 15 percent this year, and have as much as 240,000 solar workers. According to the report, that job growth is 13 times faster than the U.S. workforce as a whole. The exponential growth of solar energy is happening as coal use declined 25 percent in the United States since 2005. Moreover, solar technology is becoming cheaper. Since 2010, U.S. average installation costs declined 35 percent for residential use, and 67 percent for utility-scale installation.
“We are seeing utility scale contracts in places like Texas and Nevada that blow away anything that even these rock bottom natural gas prices can meet,” said Amit Ronen, director of the George Washington University Solar Institute.
That is happening partly because most patents in renewable energy are from the 1970s, so now they’re off-patent. Barriers for entry are lower than ever as companies can innovate on free patents, all while many states use renewable energy standards. The industry now benefits from a federal tax incentive, too. Last year Congress approved multiyear tax credits for renewable energy that may incentivize and create the stability that the industry was lacking in the past.
Yet the solar industry has challenges ahead, as some states like Nevada and Arizona debate net metering policies allowing solar energy system owners to sell excess power back to the utility. In most states, customers can sell the excess power back to the utility at the retail electricity rate. For other states like Hawaii and Nevada, excess power is credited at a lower wholesale rate, decreasing investment return on solar installations.
And then there are issues related to storage and the outdated grid, which allows energy to flow only in one way. “Fundamentally, you want a grid that … is able to flow energy in both directions and different nodes,” Ronen said.
Congress, meanwhile, is aware of the needed improvements and has been working on an energy bill that could bring some solutions. This energy bill — now stalled in the Senate over an amendment related to Flint’s water crisis — presses for advanced grid technology, and calls for measures to allow more clean energy into the grid.
“There is a lot of excitement around the potential of solar,” said Luecke. “It’s starting to get a foothold in our nation’s energy landscape. I have no doubt the future of solar is very bright.”

Links

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• World’s largest investor flags up climate risk

CSIRO Climate Cuts 'Devastating', Almost 3000 Scientists Tell Malcolm Turnbull

Fairfax - Peter Hannam

Almost 3000 scientists from nearly 60 nations have appealed to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other Australian leaders to halt the CSIRO's plans to halve the number of researchers working on climate monitoring and modelling.
In a letter that was also sent to the CSIRO's board and chief executive Larry Marshall, the 2900 researchers said the decision to cut 100 full-time positions out of about 140 staff from two units of the Oceans and Atmospheric division "alarmed the global research community".

Larry Marshall, CSIRO's chief executive, has resisted calls to reconsider deep cuts to climate and other programs. Photo: Daniel Munoz

"The decision to decimate a vibrant and world-leading research program shows a lack of insight, and a misunderstanding of the importance of the depth and significance of Australian contributions to global and regional climate research," the letter said.
"The capacity of Australia to assess future risks and plan for climate change adaptation crucially depends on maintaining and augmenting this research capacity."
The letter follows a statement earlier this week by the World Climate Research Program that the proposed axing risked severing "vital linkages with Australian colleagues and to essential southern hemisphere data sources, linkages that connect Australia to the UK, the US, New Zealand, Japan, China and beyond".
Fairfax Media sought comment about the letter from the CSIRO and the offices of the Prime Minister and Science Minister Christopher Pyne.
Paul Durack, a researcher at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in the US who helped co-ordinate the letter, said Australia played a vital role in monitoring and modelling, particularly for the southern hemisphere.
"Our continued improvement to climate understanding depends very much on Australia's contribution," Dr Durack, a former CSIRO scientist, said.
"In fact, for the Southern Ocean almost a quarter of the ocean observing capacity [using Argo floats] is provided by the Australian program."
Dr Durack hopes the letter will prompt the CSIRO to reconsider the cuts.
Maintaining climate capability, which feeds into learning how Australia can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and identify climate risks, is "more important to the globe now than ever before", he said.
Australia's scientists are also mobilising to find ways to limit the reductions, or secure new homes for the researchers and their programs, Andrew Holmes, president of the Australian Academy of Sciences, said.
The academy a week ago warned that the proposed job losses would cut deeply into programs that had already lost $20 million in the 2014-15 budget.
"I hope we are not in a sinking ship," Dr Holmes said. "I think there is the opportunity for a constructive and positive response.
"Why would you want to throw away something that we're good at, and that's useful?"

Links

CSIRO climate cuts 'devastating', almost 3000 scientists tell Malcolm Turnbull

CSIRO chief Larry Marshall points his ship into a scientific storm

Heat to stay on CSIRO climate cuts amid claims Malcolm Turnbull was 'blindsided'

CSIRO Marine Research Ship Hired To Oil And Gas Companies BP And Chevron

Fairfax - Andrew Darby

Australia's marine science flagship, RV Investigator Photo: CSIRO

A prized $120 million CSIRO ship built to study marine science has been hired out to international energy giants Chevron and BP to help them search for oil and gas in the Great Australian Bight.
Under the deal the ship Investigator is to spend two months working for the multinational corporations in the Southern Ocean, filling a period where it would have otherwise sat idle because of a lack of government funding.
The arrangement drew opposition from critics worried that the ship meant to vault Australia into the global marine science big league was being used for commercial, rather than institutional, research.
It also lands Investigator amid a controversy over the exploitation of the Bight's waters, where a marine reserve straddles the leases.
CSIRO defended the arrangement as assisting Australian scientific excellence.
Despite Investigator's array of marine scientific firepower, much of it directed at understanding the changing climate, the ship has been tied up in Hobart since July 1.
Though it is capable of 300 days' operations each year, and CSIRO has said it could be filled four times over by institutional research requests, the government is funding the ship for only 180 days' operations.
Under a multi-million dollar deal, Chevron will be the first to charter it commercially from 22 October.
CSIRO marine geoscientists will collect sea floor core and rock samples from a depth of up to 4500 metres, and biologists will work on marine life, using Investigator's state-of-the-art equipment.
"The program will provide a better understanding of the (Ceduna) Basin's geology and petroleum prospectivity, to reduce exploration risks and costs," a government statement said.
"It will also improve understanding of the ecology and provide baseline data to inform environmental assessments."
BP, which is further advanced than Chevron with plans for drilling in the Bight, will take over the charter in a December marine ecosystem study, CSIRO confirmed.
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said it was clear the public's ship was being used by the energy companies to reduce their commercial risks, or for potential green-washing.
"I would say the use of this boat to aid commercial hydrocarbon interests is certainly a most powerful signal in terms of the government's approach to climate research," Senator Whish-Wilson said.
Both energy companies' exploration leases reach over a "multiple use" section of the Great Australian Bight Commonwealth Marine Reserve, according to The Wilderness Society.
TWS is campaigning against hydrocarbon exploitation in the Bight, and said it was alarming the companies could be using Investigator to research a pristine ocean for their own interests.
"I don't think the people of Australia would be impressed with that," said TWS South Australia director Peter Owen.
A CSIRO director of strategy, Toni Moate, said research work on the ship would be done by 35 scientists and support staff from CSIRO and partner institutions, and the data gathered would be made publicly available, as normal, after 12 months.
Ms Moate said CSIRO's priority in maximising the use of Investigator was to conduct excellent research in the national interest.
"This will ensure Australia remains attractive as a frontier exploration area whilst maintaining Australian scientific expertise and capability," she said.
In his first press conference as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull said Australians were not doing well at collaborations between primary scientific research and business.
"We're actually the second worst in the OECD, so it is … a very, very important priority to make a change to that," Mr Turnbull said.

Links
CSIRO chief Larry Marshall points his ship into a scientific storm
CSIRO climate cuts 'devastating', almost 3000 scientists tell Malcolm Turnbull