solar energy
Christie Goes Solar
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie signed legislation a few days ago to strengthen the state’s solar industry. Utilities will be required to 2.05% of their power from solar in 2014, rising to 4.1% in 2028. The law also sets a price cap of $339 for each megawatt-hour short of the goal in 2014. According to …
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CONTINUE READINGA New Report on the Governor’s Local Renewable Energy Initiative
Last July, I reported on a conference convened at UCLA by California Governor Jerry Brown to further his efforts to increase the amount of local renewable electric generation in California to 12,000 megawatts of installed capacity by the year 2020. Berkeley Law’s Center for Law, Energy and the Environment provided the substantive support for that event, …
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CONTINUE READINGExploring Policies to Promote Local Renewables
Last July, California Governor Jerry Brown held a conference, hosted by the Luskin Center at UCLA, to launch his initiative to achieve 12,000 megawatts of local renewable energy projects in California by 2020. Local renewables, often called distributed generation, are projects no larger than 20 megawatts located close to customer demand. Berkeley Law’s Center for …
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CONTINUE READINGCheap Solar Provides Some Reason for Climate Optimism
Solar energy is getting really cheap. And that fact could alter the landscape of energy production and the course of climate change in ways we can only begin to imagine today. One of the conundrums of climate change is trying to predict the future. This difficulty in prediction may be especially true with respect to …
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CONTINUE READINGPost-Tsunami Japan Teaches the World About Energy Within Limits
Earlier this summer, I accompanied a class of renewable energy law students to a home in Vermont that is “off the grid”. The family lives quite comfortably – television, microwave oven, electric washing machine, sizable refrigerator. With the exception of a small diesel generator, which they use once or twice a year, they derive all …
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CONTINUE READINGJerry Brown’s Push for Local Renewable Power
Local renewables – those photovoltaics, small wind turbines, etc. on people’s roofs, and in public spaces close to demand – how big of a role can they play in our renewable energy future? Berkeley and UCLA law schools wrote about that topic in In Our Backyard, and California’s Governor Jerry Brown made this question a …
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CONTINUE READINGHome Solar Good for More Than a Guilty Conscience
Despite all of the tax breaks, utility rebates, and net metering potential, the common assumption is that rooftop residential photovoltaics are not economical for many customers. Some people figure that you install a solar system if you want to feel good about yourself, or make a statement about the environment, but you had better expect …
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CONTINUE READINGThat’s “Chief Justice Bitch”
The ongoing Wisconsin saga of public sector union rights has, predictably, involved the state’s Supreme Court. But in a much more personal way than one would think at first: The April 5th state Supreme Court election in Wisconsin, where incumbent Justice David Prosser is seeking re-election, is now being shaken up by news about the …
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CONTINUE READINGSolar Power — More Reliable Than You Might Think
Wind and solar power are intermittent — we can rely on them to make power only when the wind blows or the sun shines. And it can cost a lot (in terms of dollars and the environment) to fill in the gaps with conventional power sources. That’s why the development of energy storage is so …
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CONTINUE READING…and another thing about electric rates and the environment…
Last week, I wrote about how a proposal to change the design of residential electric rates might get in the way of efforts to encourage energy efficiency. Sushil Jacob, a keen-eyed student in my Energy Regulation and the Environment class, points to another potential problem. PG&E, the largest utility providing service in California, wants …
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