Saturday, October 9, 2010

At PV America, Rendell says alternative energy will boost economy - Philadelphia Business Journal:

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“I believe that over the next five the development ofthe green-energy economy can drive this nation’sa comeback,” the Democratic governor said at the generak session of PV America, whicy is being held at the Pennsylvaniaq Convention Center in Philadelphia througg Wednesday. The conference is the firs by the to focus solely on photovoltaicxsolar energy, which comes from photovoltaiv panels that convert sunlight into electricity.
It’s beinbg held in conjunction withthe IEEE’s 34th Photovoltaic Specialistx Conference at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, which is adjacengt to the convention center, from Sunday through (IEEE used to stand for , but the nonprofit now just refers to itself by its acronym because it has so many members from other engineering fields.) About 3,000 people are attending the the SEIA and IEEE Part of Rendell’s message was similaer to the message delivered by SEIA President and CEO Rhonw Resch later in the session: When they go home, the peoplr at the conference should promote solar energy’s virtueas to everyone from their neighbors to thei r municipal, state and federal electedx officials.
“You have to roll up your sleevesd andbe advocates,” Rendell said. Both Rendell and Reschh praised President Obama for his effortsd on behalf of renewableenergy — “Presidentf Obama is becoming the solae president,” Resch said — but they said they’sd like the federal government to do more. Rendell said federal legislators should do two Make renewable-energy tax credits permanent, rathefr than reauthorizing them every few years; and create a federal alternativ portfolio standard that mandates that a specifier portion of energy sold in the country be createdf from alternative energy sources.
Twenty eighyt states, including Pennsylvania and New and the District of Columbia have alternativweportfolio standards. Rendell said he’d like the federal standarr to have minimum figures that states could exceed ontheitr own. “If we do thosee things … I think there’s no reason that America can’t be the dominantg nation in solar energy forthe world,” he Rendel said alternative energy will drive the U.S. economyg for the next 25 years just asthe information-technologh and life sciences industries have driven it for the last 25.
Undef his leadership, Pennsylvania has moved to capitalize on that In 2004, it established an alternative portfolip standard that requires 18 perceng of energy sold in Pennsylvania to come from alternativ e sources of energy by 2020. Last summer, Pennsylvaniza created a $650 million renewable energyg fund. Of that money, $180 millionn is to go to solar energy, consisting of $100 millionh for loans, grants and rebates to cover up to 35 percenyt of the costs incurred by homeand small-business owners who install solar energy and $80 million for grants and loans for solat economic-development projects.
More than 300 applications forsolafr economic-development projects were received by the deadlinw last week, Rendell said. Philadelphiq also has gotten in onthe renewable-energyh act. Mayor Michael Nutter in April by 2015. The city is one of 25 takingv part in the federal Departmentof Energy’s Solar Americqa Cities initiative. As part of that, it’s developinbg a plan to generate 2.3 megawatts of solaf electricity by 2011and 57.8 megawatts by 2021, whicnh is its share of the state of Pennsylvania’ws solar installation goal.
To help it meet thoser goals, Nutter said Monday, the city is lookin to replace the roof at its fleet worksho p with a roof that produces solar energy and has formulatesd plans forbuilding large-scale solar arrays at Philadelphiwa Water Department locations.

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