Mayor Bowser's Threat to Solar Renewable Energy Credits (SRECs)

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in the industry. These are all gimmicks. Honestly, the idea of clean energy in DC only makes people feel good. It has no big effect on anything, but it gives you a talking point.

I find the idea of switch from gas to electricity to be ludicrous. How do you think electricity is made? We don't have enough land for utility scale renewable energy that would have a real impact.

What part of the industry to you work in, the coal or petroleum part? Electricity can be produced from renewable sources. While covering all of DC's needs may not be immediately possible, solar can make a significant impact. Solar is covering over 90% of my home's needs, including charging an electric car. If this experience were repeated all over the city, it would have a very important and noticeable difference.

It would only work as you propose if everyone lived in a single family home with a large enough roof. I assume you don’t believe that everyone in DC should live in a single family home. As a result, it’s a solution that doesn’t scale and so it’s no solution at all.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in the industry. These are all gimmicks. Honestly, the idea of clean energy in DC only makes people feel good. It has no big effect on anything, but it gives you a talking point.

I find the idea of switch from gas to electricity to be ludicrous. How do you think electricity is made? We don't have enough land for utility scale renewable energy that would have a real impact.

What part of the industry to you work in, the coal or petroleum part? Electricity can be produced from renewable sources. While covering all of DC's needs may not be immediately possible, solar can make a significant impact. Solar is covering over 90% of my home's needs, including charging an electric car. If this experience were repeated all over the city, it would have a very important and noticeable difference.

DP. You *highly subsidized* solar panels cover a *portion* of your home’s during the day time. It is not charging your car in the middle of the night. The other big subsidy for your panels — on top of the SRECS — is that you’re not charged the true cost to the system of keeping a gas or coal plant on standby during the day so it can provide electricity to you at night or when your panels otherwise go off line. Customers who take from the system are cheaper to serve per kWh. Nor do the “emissions savings” usually take into account the operation of those plants during the day on standby or the ramping them up and down, which is much less efficient than producing electricity at a steady state.

Power plants operate at whatever efficient or inefficient pace they're doing because of the needs of the system overall, not because of a handful of people with rooftop solar panels. And if Pepco isn't charging the right price for the grid connection to homes with solar installed, they could certainly adjust that. I believe we pay at least $12 per month even in months when we produce more than we consume. What is the "true cost" that you think we should be paying there?

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in the industry. These are all gimmicks. Honestly, the idea of clean energy in DC only makes people feel good. It has no big effect on anything, but it gives you a talking point.

I find the idea of switch from gas to electricity to be ludicrous. How do you think electricity is made? We don't have enough land for utility scale renewable energy that would have a real impact.

What part of the industry to you work in, the coal or petroleum part? Electricity can be produced from renewable sources. While covering all of DC's needs may not be immediately possible, solar can make a significant impact. Solar is covering over 90% of my home's needs, including charging an electric car. If this experience were repeated all over the city, it would have a very important and noticeable difference.

I work in renewables. I think DC is completely unrealistic. Even if they provide help to lower income people, solar is really expensive to install and so are electric vehicles. I have one myself. I paid a lot of money for it. Also, who can afford the upfront costs of putting in a charger? Most people don't have garages and DC's infrastructure sucks. I truly believe DC needs to slow down. I wouldn't get a subsidy for solar panels and can't afford them without it. There are thousands of people like me.

How much were your solar panels?

[jsteele]

I was finally able to track down the Council's revision of the budget which you can read here:

https://lims.dccouncil.gov/downloads/LIMS/55181/Meeting1/Engrossment/B25-0784-Engrossment1.pdf?Id=191696

These types of bills are hard to read because they always reference other documents that are being amended, but based on my reading this does reverse Mayor Bowser's gimmick.

See the sections:

SUBTITLE B. RENEWABLE ENERGY PORTFOLIO STANDARD

and

SUBTITLE N. SUSTAINABLE ENERGY TRUST FUND UTILIZATION

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in the industry. These are all gimmicks. Honestly, the idea of clean energy in DC only makes people feel good. It has no big effect on anything, but it gives you a talking point.

I find the idea of switch from gas to electricity to be ludicrous. How do you think electricity is made? We don't have enough land for utility scale renewable energy that would have a real impact.

What part of the industry to you work in, the coal or petroleum part? Electricity can be produced from renewable sources. While covering all of DC's needs may not be immediately possible, solar can make a significant impact. Solar is covering over 90% of my home's needs, including charging an electric car. If this experience were repeated all over the city, it would have a very important and noticeable difference.

I work in renewables. I think DC is completely unrealistic. Even if they provide help to lower income people, solar is really expensive to install and so are electric vehicles. I have one myself. I paid a lot of money for it. Also, who can afford the upfront costs of putting in a charger? Most people don't have garages and DC's infrastructure sucks. I truly believe DC needs to slow down. I wouldn't get a subsidy for solar panels and can't afford them without it. There are thousands of people like me.

How much were your solar panels?

I will repeat again. Poor people and get free solar sponsored by the government. Everyone else can get free solar through private companies. What happens is a company will install panels for you, but you sign over your SRECs to them. You get ownership of the panels and any electrical savings. The company gets the SRECs which they sell and make a profit. Anyone in DC with a south facing roof should be able to afford solar.

If you want to buy your system, which I did, you get a 30% tax credit from the Federal government. My system cost just over 20k, but I will get 30% back when I do my taxes next year. Chargers are cheap. In fact my car came with a level 2 charger. I went ahead and bought a fancier one, but the Federal government will provide a tax credit for 30% up to $1,000 and the DC government will provide a %50 credit up to $1,000. My charger was only $500. The installation was expensive because I had to run a cable quite a ways. But, the tax credits will make it more affordable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I work in the industry. These are all gimmicks. Honestly, the idea of clean energy in DC only makes people feel good. It has no big effect on anything, but it gives you a talking point.

I find the idea of switch from gas to electricity to be ludicrous. How do you think electricity is made? We don't have enough land for utility scale renewable energy that would have a real impact.

What part of the industry to you work in, the coal or petroleum part? Electricity can be produced from renewable sources. While covering all of DC's needs may not be immediately possible, solar can make a significant impact. Solar is covering over 90% of my home's needs, including charging an electric car. If this experience were repeated all over the city, it would have a very important and noticeable difference.

I work in renewables. I think DC is completely unrealistic. Even if they provide help to lower income people, solar is really expensive to install and so are electric vehicles. I have one myself. I paid a lot of money for it. Also, who can afford the upfront costs of putting in a charger? Most people don't have garages and DC's infrastructure sucks. I truly believe DC needs to slow down. I wouldn't get a subsidy for solar panels and can't afford them without it. There are thousands of people like me.

How much were your solar panels?

Why wouldn't you get a subsidy for solar panels? You're eligible for a large federal tax credit, regardless of D.C.'s policies. A lot of other states have straight state subsidies of solar panels; D.C. instead pushes the value of the SRECs up (but has no direct local tax credit for solar).

D.C. also doesn't have a local credit for EV purchases, which some states do (but you don't have to pay sales tax for electric vehicles here). Policies on all this stuff varies by location.

[Anonymous]

@jeff what is the latest on this? Is the Council reversing the Mayor's proposal or is solar screwed going forward?

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:@jeff what is the latest on this? Is the Council reversing the Mayor's proposal or is solar screwed going forward?

The Council just passed the final version of its budget yesterday. It is available online here:

https://lims.dccouncil.gov/downloads/LIMS/53228/Meeting1/Enrollment/B25-0320-Enrollment2.pdf?Id=164769

I am completely revising my previous assessment of the Council's bill (which I wrote about 5 minutes ago). I don't see any language about renewable energy in the final version of the Council's budget. Therefore, I assume that current law will remain in effect and Bowser's gimmick will not be enacted.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:@jeff what is the latest on this? Is the Council reversing the Mayor's proposal or is solar screwed going forward?

The Council just passed the final version of its budget yesterday. It is available online here:

https://lims.dccouncil.gov/downloads/LIMS/53228/Meeting1/Enrollment/B25-0320-Enrollment2.pdf?Id=164769

I am completely revising my previous assessment of the Council's bill (which I wrote about 5 minutes ago). I don't see any language about renewable energy in the final version of the Council's budget. Therefore, I assume that current law will remain in effect and Bowser's gimmick will not be enacted.

There is a "Sustainable Energy Trust Fund Rightsizing" provision, but I don't really know enough about the issue to understand whether it's related to this budget move.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:@jeff what is the latest on this? Is the Council reversing the Mayor's proposal or is solar screwed going forward?

The Council just passed the final version of its budget yesterday. It is available online here:

https://lims.dccouncil.gov/downloads/LIMS/53228/Meeting1/Enrollment/B25-0320-Enrollment2.pdf?Id=164769

I am completely revising my previous assessment of the Council's bill (which I wrote about 5 minutes ago). I don't see any language about renewable energy in the final version of the Council's budget. Therefore, I assume that current law will remain in effect and Bowser's gimmick will not be enacted.

There is a "Sustainable Energy Trust Fund Rightsizing" provision, but I don't really know enough about the issue to understand whether it's related to this budget move.

That's Charles Allen's provision to replace gas appliances with electric appliances.

[Anonymous]

jsteele wrote:

Anonymous wrote:@jeff what is the latest on this? Is the Council reversing the Mayor's proposal or is solar screwed going forward?

The Council just passed the final version of its budget yesterday. It is available online here:

https://lims.dccouncil.gov/downloads/LIMS/53228/Meeting1/Enrollment/B25-0320-Enrollment2.pdf?Id=164769

I am completely revising my previous assessment of the Council's bill (which I wrote about 5 minutes ago). I don't see any language about renewable energy in the final version of the Council's budget. Therefore, I assume that current law will remain in effect and Bowser's gimmick will not be enacted.

Whew! I meant to call but forgot. The SRECS are the only way we could afford solar.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have to wonder if the mayor fully understood that or if she was bamboozled by lobbyists for the oil and gas industry.

This is completely backwards for DC policy.

She was probably bamboozled