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Active Legislation
As of May 16, 2012. Legislative updates occur every Wednesday.
Senate Bills
SB 843 (Wolk D) Energy: electrical corporations: City of Davis PVUSA solar facility: Community-Based Renewable Energy Self-Generation Program.
Status: Re-referred to Committee on Utilities & Commerce.
Summary: This bill would create a Community-Based Renewable Energy Self-Generation Program. The program would authorize a retail customer of an electrical corporation to acquire an interest, in a community renewable energy facility, for the purpose of receiving a bill credit to offset all or a portion of the participant's electricity usage.
SB 1128 (Padilla D) Energy: alternative energy financing.
Status: To Appropriations Committee Suspense File.
Summary: This bill would temporarily expand the sales and use tax exemption under the California Alternative Energy and Advanced Transportation Financing Authority (CAEATFA) program to include “advanced manufacturing.”
SB 1484 (Pavley D) California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank: clean energy technology.
Status: Read third time. Passed Senate to Assembly.
Summary: This bill would establish the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank within the Governor's Office of Business and Economic Development. This would be used for the purpose of funding specified types of infrastructure development projects.
Assembly Bills
AB 1608 (Wieckowski D) Clean Vehicle Rebate Project and Hybrid Truck and Bus Voucher Incentive Project.
Status: Referred to Appropriations Committee. Suspense file.
Summary: This bill would require more valuable rebates to be offered for zero-emission vehicles manufactured in California. The state board would be required to provide the California manufacturer with a rebate that is 20% greater than the rebates provided to out-of-state manufactures.
AB 2131 (Olsen R) Local government: investments.
Status: Read second time. To third reading.
Summary: This bill would authorize the legislative body of a city, county, or city and county to invest up to 5% of the city, county, or city and county's aggregate investment funds in Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) bonds or projects financed with PACE bonds.
AB 2135 (Blumenfield D) Building standards: solar distributed generation technology on residential and commercial property.
Status: Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar.
Summary: This bill would require the California Building Standards Commission, the Department of Housing and Community Development, and the State Fire Marshal to cooperate in developing a model ordinance and guidelines. This would assist local agencies to develop building standards and permitting processes for solar distributed generation technology on residential and commercial property and post the model ordinance and guidelines on their respective Internet Web sites.
AB 2165 (Hill D) Net energy metering: eligible fuel cell customer-generators.
Status: In Senate Committee on Rules. For assignment.
Summary: This bill would redefine the term “eligible fuel-cell customer-generator,” as well as require the electrical corporation to change the way it caps fuel cell generation. The bill would increase the net metering cap for fuel cells from a statewide 112.5 megawatts (MW) to one percent of the aggregate customer peak demand in any electrical utility’s service territory, or roughly 500 MW statewide. The bill would require the commission to authorize an electrical corporation to charge a customer a fee based on the cost to the utility associated with providing interconnection inspection services for that customer.
AB 2196 (Chesbro D) Renewable energy resources.
Status: Do pass as amended.
Summary: This bill would provide specific conditions as a part of the eligibility requirement for the Renewable Portfolio Standard program. Conditions would be based on the use of landfill gas, digester gas, or another renewable fuel delivered to the facility through a common carrier pipeline; the transaction, including the source of the fuel and delivery method, shall meet certain requirements.
AB 2196 (Chesbro D) Renewable energy resources.
Status: Do pass as amended.
Summary: This bill would provide specific conditions as a part of the eligibility requirement for the Renewable Portfolio Standard program. Conditions would be based on the use of landfill gas, digester gas, or another renewable fuel delivered to the facility through a common carrier pipeline; the transaction, including the source of the fuel and delivery method, shall meet certain requirements.
AB 2205 (V. Manuel Pérez D) Hazardous materials: geothermal waste.
Status: Read second time. Ordered to consent calendar.
Summary: This bill would add a new category to the existing list of geothermal waste that is exempt from permitting requirements by the Department of Toxic Substances Control. The new category is geothermal waste continuously contained within a piping system, noneathen trench, descaling area, or other related equipment used in connection with extraction of commercial substances from the geothermal waste.
AB 2450 (Hall D) Electric Program Investment Charge: Clean Vehicle Rebate Project program.
Status: Referred to Appropriations Committee. Suspense file.
Summary: This bill would establish the Clean Vehicle Rebate Project Fund in the State Treasury and require the PUC to allocate at least $15,000,000 annually from EPIC to the fund. The bill would authorize the ARB, upon appropriation by the Legislature, to distribute money from the fund for rebates pursuant to criteria established by the state board's Clean Vehicle Rebate Project program.
The Latest Bright Spots
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Why Consumers Shouldn’t Worry About the New Solar Tariffs
The federal government’s decision yesterday to slap fairly hefty tariffs on Chinese solar panels has prompted worries about a big rise in costs for consumers to go solar. But the impact will not likely be as significant for two reasons: any price increase will be absorbed along the way by everyone from manufacturers to installers, and the growing competition in the retail solar market will keep the cost to consumers in check. Competition in the retail sector has intensified in recent years, which will make it difficult to raise prices and still compete effectively. Venture-backed startups such as Sungevity, SolarCity and Sunrun started in 2006 or 2007 and have expanded well beyond their home turf of California.
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$7.5 Million in Grants to Lower the Cost of Large-Scale Solar
The Bay Area Photovoltaic Consortium (BAPVC), an industry-supported program led by Stanford University and the University of California-Berkeley, has announced its first research grants aimed at making utility-scale solar power cost-competitive by the end of the decade. A total of $7.5 million will be given to 18 research teams at BAPVC partner institutions. The three-year grants will be used to develop new technologies that significantly reduce the cost of photovoltaic modules and make large-scale solar technology cheaper for electric utilities by 2020.
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Solexel Raises $25 Million for Silicon Gas-Based Solar Panels
Milpitas-based Solexel Inc., closely held U.S. solar-panel maker that uses silicon gas to manufacture its wafers, received $25 million to build a pilot plant in California. The pilot is intended to test Solexel’s manufacturing process with larger equipment that would be used in a factory planned in Malaysia. Gentry Venture Partners and SunPower Corp. joined Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Technology Partners and DAG Ventures LLC, as investors in the project.
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Apple Data Center Will Be Totally Green by 2013
Apple Inc. said its 500,000-square-foot data center in Maiden, North Carolina, will be powered entirely by renewable sources by the end of the year. Apple is installing solar panels from San Jose-based SunPower Corp. at the 100-acre site and using fuel cells from Bloom Energy Corp., a closely held company based in Sunnyvale. While Apple’s California data center doesn’t generate power on-site, it will use only renewable sources by February 2013.
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Marin’s ‘Largest Solar Project’ Planned for San Rafael Airport
Marin energy officials announced a new agreement to buy electricity from a 972-kilowatt solar installation to be erected on rooftops at the San Rafael Airport. The Marin Energy Authority made the 20-year deal with the airport as part of its feed-in tariff program, which allows local property owners to sell electricity from small-scale installations directly to the authority. The airport will likely get a seven to eight percent return each year on the three million dollar investment.
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California ISO Seeks to Advance Mini-Solar Plants, Other Distributed Generation
The California Independent System Operator (ISO) is betting that commercial rooftop solar arrays and other small-scale generation will make it easier to connect directly to local electricity grids. The California ISO Corporation board of governors voted to streamline the process for interconnecting distributed generation, which includes renewable projects. The benefit of the new interconnection process is that distributed generation will obtain deliverability status in about half the time as the current process.
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Monterey School District Board President Envisions Vast Solar Power System
The Monterey Peninsula Unified School District spends about $1 million a year in energy consumption. Board President Debra Gramespacher has a plan that could eventually reduce those costs to zero. For a cost of $10 million — payable through a bond — the district could be energy self-sufficient in 10 years, she found. As an added incentive, the district could sell Solar Renewable Credits.
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Biofuel Access at Its Highest in Sacramento
Once fluctuating gas prices become a regular fixture in a hard-hit economy, people look for ways to save money, and sometimes they run into alternative fuels. With the convergence of gas and biodiesel prices, Sacramentans now have the choice to use clean-burning, sustainable fuels since the area has become a hotspot for biofuel availability. Sacramento has two major biofuel sources, one private and the other public.
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Tracy Gets Green Light for Solar Power Project
The city of Tracy will be allowed to purchase a 200-acre tract of land from the federal government to build a solar energy project after a bill passed and gave the project the green light. U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham (R-Turlock) said the project will help create jobs in California’s Central Valley, one of the most economically hard hit areas in the nation. Tracy Mayor Brent Ives said in a statement that the project could create up to 200 jobs.
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New Alternative Fuels Station Opens in Fullerton
A gas station that offers E85 ethanol and biodiesel fuels has opened in Fullerton, becoming the first of more than 200 clean mobility centers slated for the state. There are 16 pumps at the Fullerton station, eight of which are for gasoline. The four pumps for E85 are yellow and topped with a sign that lists all the cars that are flex-fuel compatible. The four pumps for biodiesel are green and evenly split between fuel made with either 5 percent and 20 percent recycled vegetable oil.
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Cap-and-Trade to Generate Millions, Tough Choices
Starting later this year, California’s cap-and-trade system will generate millions of dollars in revenue, as companies buy and sell permits to produce greenhouse gases. How should the money be used? With the first permit auction scheduled for November, that question still hasn’t been fully answered by Sacramento. Now a series of studies, released by Next 10, delves into the legal and economic implications of this market-based system, trying to assess which options would most benefit Californians.
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CPUC Proposes that RPS Procurement Values Costs of Transmission, Grid Benefits
The California Public Utilities Commission is currently considering a proposal that would change the way that utilities value renewable energy in required purchases under the state’s renewable portfolio standard policy. The proposed ruling would use a “least cost, best fit” formula to prioritize projects located near existing transmission, as well as factoring in impacts on grid operation. Concentrating solar power (CSP) companies note that this formula would allow utilities to account for the benefits to grid operation that CSP technology can provide with thermal energy storage.
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