² California Energy Commission, Policy Report on AB 1890 Renewables Funding, CEC Pub. No. 500-97-002 (Sacramento, Calif.: March 1997).
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³ California Senate Bill 90 (enacted October 12, 1997).
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⁴ California Energy Commission (CEC), Renewable Technology Program Guidebook, Volume 3: Emerging Renewable Resources Account, CEC Pub. No. P500-97-011V3 (Sacramento, Calif., January 1998).
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⁵ Another $2.4 million had been reserved by purchasers of fuel-cell systems, which also are eligible for the California Emerging Renewables Buydown Program. These funds will support the installation of three fuel-cell projects using methane from sewer plants, with a combined total generating capacity of 1,000 kW.
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⁶ Tom Jensen, Photon International, personal communication, Irvine, Calif., Aug. 4, 1998.
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⁷ Robert O. Johnson, "PV Industry Overview, Domestic & International," Conference Proceedings, Utility PhotoVoltaic Group Annual Utility PV Experience Exhibition & Conference (Mountain View, Calif., October 1996), p. 32.
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⁸ This information is from Howard Wenger, AstroPower Inc., "Distributed Generation & Regulatory Reform: Grid-Connected PV as a Case Study," presented at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Summer Meetings, Seattle, Wash., July 1998; and Tom Jensen, Photon International, personal communication, Irvine, Calif., Aug. 4, 1998.
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⁹ The Massachusetts State Legislature appointed the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative to administer the new Renewable Energy Initiative. The Technology Collaborative selected the firm Arthur D. Little to analyze markets and technologies for the fund and Bain & Company to develop a strategic plan for the use of the fund. See the Photovoltaics for Utilities Program (PV4U) Monthly Memorandum, June 1998.
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¹⁰ The text of the draft bill is available on the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) website at http://www.doe.gov/ceca/ceca.pdf.
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¹¹ Michael Lotker, "A Structure for Commercialization of Utility Scale Photovoltaic Systems," PV for Utilities State Working Group Handbook (Camarillo, Calif.: Photovoltaics for Utilities, 1992).
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¹² Ibid.
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¹³ The Bullitt Foundation, 1997 President's Report: Climate Change & Solar Energy: Lessons from the Computer Revolution (available on the Web at http://www.bullitt.org/presiden.htm). Denis Hayes is now the president of the Bullitt Foundation, based in Seattle, Wash.
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¹⁴ Robert Johnson, of Strategies Unlimited, has said that the Japanese program "addresses the multiple objectives of becoming pre-eminent in the production of photovoltaics, providing an energy alternative for a national largely without domestic sources, and reducing the impact of global warming." Robert O. Johnson, "PV Industry Overview, Domestic & International," Conference Proceedings, Utility PhotoVoltaic Group Annual Utility PV Experience Exhibition & Conference (Mountain View, Calif., October 1996) , p. 29.
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¹⁵ A 1994 paper by representatives from the Solar Energy Department at Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization stated: "Breaking through this [cost] barrier can be done when the Japanese government introduces a nationwide policy to stimulate the installation of photovoltaic power generation systems to bring about a extended [sic] use, which will lead to mass-production of the system, and thereby to reduced production cost and price." Koshi Nakagawa and Hiroshi Katsumata, "Arranging Social Circumstances for Spreading Photovoltaic Power Generation Systems," Conference Proceedings,1994 IEEE First World Conference on Photovoltaic Energy Conversion (Waikaloa, Hawaii, 1994), p. 2364.
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¹⁶ California Energy Commission, Policy Report on AB 1890 Renewables Funding: Report to the Legislature (Sacramento, Calif.: March 1997), p. 33.
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¹⁷ Robert H. Williams, "Proposed Grand Bargain for Commercializing Renewable Electric Technologies in China," unpublished paper, Princeton University, Princeton, N.J., February 1998.
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¹⁸ The Bullitt Foundation, 1997 President's Report: Climate Change & Solar Energy: Lessons from the Computer Revolution (available on the Web at http://www.bullitt.org/presiden.htm).
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¹⁹ Denis Hayes, The Bullitt Foundation, Seattle, Wash., personal communication, July 26, 1998.
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²⁰ Bullitt Foundation, 1997 President's Report.
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²¹ This assumes that the utility (or other entity whose approval is needed) has interest in learning from its earlier experiences; if the goal is to continue making life as miserable as possible for the customer seeking to interconnect, the utility may conveniently fail to learn these lessons. One PV provider told us that his utility voluntarily waived its onerous technical requirements for PV interconnection, but only on a case-by-case basis and at its discretion. His conclusion was that the utility wanted to be able to fall back on the more onerous requirements if the PV market started to accelerate.
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²² Also influential were California's own tax credits, the California Public Utility Commission's favorable interpretation of Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act's (PURPA) avoided-cost requirements, and the requirement that utilities offer "standard contracts" for the purchase of power.
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²³ Thomas A. Starrs, "Legislative Incentives and Energy Technologies: Government's Role in the Development of the California Wind Energy Industry," Ecology Law Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1 (1988), p. 109.
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²⁴ The five projects included three fuel-cell systems totaling 1,000 kW and two PV projects totaling 738 kW.
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²⁵ Dan W. Reicher, "Nuclear Energy and Weapons," Sustainable Environmental Law (St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1993), p. 966.
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²⁶ Terry M. Peterson, "Making Photovoltaics Economical for Electric Utilities," EPRI Strategic R&D Report (Palo Alto, Calif.: Electric Power Research Institute, Fall 1997), p. 2.
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²⁷ Bullitt Foundation, 1997 President's Report.
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²⁸ Howard J. Wenger, "Net Metering Economics and Rate Impacts," American Solar Energy Society: Proceedings of the 1998 Annual Conference, Albuquerque N.M., June 1998.
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²⁹ This is approximately 84% of California's population.
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³⁰ California's Emerging Renewables Buydown Program starts at $3/Watt and declines 50˘ for each tier of funding to $1/Watt in the final tier.
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³¹ See Williams, "Proposed Grand Bargain"; Peterson, "Making Photovoltaics Economical.
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³² Wenger, "Net Metering Economics."
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³³ U.S. Census Bureau, State Population Estimates (available on the Web at http://www.census.gov/statab/www).
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