In addition to the White House announcement, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced today it had approved permits for two utility-scale solar projects on federal lands
Note: The RoundUp received this email today from the Solar Energy Industries Association. This is one special interest lobby we are proud to say we support and appreciate. We'd sure like to see more of our county and state officeholders and candidates hop aboard and help spur on new local green energy businesses and jobs, not to mention the potential this has for long term savings to taxpayers by reducing government power costs.
Send your comments and news tips to roundup.editor@gmail.com, to Michael Rider at grassroots@seia.org or click on the "comments" button at the bottom of the story
Today was a huge day for solar energy in the U.S!
The Obama administration announced that they plan to install solar on the roof of the White House residence. The system will be installed early next year and will provide both electricity and hot water for use in the White House residence.
SEIA has learned that the system will be large for a residence - between 5-15 kW. The White House estimates that the system could produce nearly 20,000 kWh of electricity and roughly 245 therms of heat energy, which will save around $3,300 per year in utility costs.
SEIA was an original supporter of the GlObama campaign to put solar on the White House roof and we are proud to join them in declaring victory today! When First Lady Michelle Obama started the first White House garden last year, thousands of Americans followed her leadership and started gardens of their own - we hope and expect that this move by the President will spur just as strong a reaction. Click here to learn about solar rebates and incentives in your area.
Interested in going solar yourself? Visit SEIA's website to learn more about solar energy and find an installer in your area.
In addition to the White House announcement the U.S. Department of the Interior announced today it had approved permits for two utility-scale solar projects on federal lands. Tessera Solar received a permit to commence construction on its 709-MW dish-engine Imperial Valley Solar Project, and Chevron Energy Systems received a permit to commence construction on its 45-MW PV Lucerne Valley Solar Project. Located in California, these projects will create nearly 1,000 new jobs, according to estimates by the Department of the Interior. This is an historic milestone for the deployment of utility-scale solar power in the United States, as these are the first utility-scale solar projects ever to be permitted for development on public lands. You can read more about these projects here.
According to an independent survey by Gotham Research Group, 3 out of 4 Americans support solar energy development on public lands.
Stay tuned for more good news on solar energy!
Michael Rader
Solar Energy Industries Association
PS - If you haven't already done so, this would be a great time to sign the Solar Bill of Rights!
18 comments:
And yet border patrol programs are stuck in red tape.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/05/border-patrol-projects-caught-months-red-tape-study-shows/
Which is more important? Approving solar programs for the White House or dealing with illegal immigration?
Agreed Peter, this is the same old diversionary politics, “Style over Substance” that Bill Clinton developed into an art form. Former Presidents Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush both tried to tap the sun for power during their stays in the White House. Carter spent $30,000 in 1970 on solar water heating and Bush's solar systems powered a maintenance building and heated water for the pool. They were also in trouble politically, so solar was necessary to heat up their sagging polls. It didn’t work then ...
Please note that only between 5 and 15 kW will be supplied (daytime) which will save around $3,300 per year in utility costs. No one mentions what the cost for components, installation and maintenance will be. In the future, Solar will certainly help with our energy problems but only marginally. What a load of green fluff.
Anybody seen Michelle out hoeing in the White House garden lately?
Long term energy needs are more important than your short term emotional diatribe... how about subsidies of the big bidness buddies who will personally hire anyone that's cheap? how about that low hanging fruit, buckos? prepared for the tirade, you betcha. How many cylinders in a full size 12 passenger van? mpg? what'd I miss? current energy practices are for short term and short sighted... when responding to this, please remain seated and lock your wheels....
Here you go...
By NATASHA METZLER, Associated Press Writer / April 1, 2010
Washington
First lady Michelle Obama welcomed spring to the White House Wednesday by replanting her popular vegetable garden with the help of local elementary school students.
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First lady Michelle Obama, left, works in the garden at the White House with schoolchildren on Wednesday.
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View gallery: The White House vegetable garden
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* Yes, the White House will grow veggies, Michelle Obama says
* Michelle Obama's White House garden is a growing success
Mrs. Obama was joined on the South Lawn of the White House by third- through sixth-grade students from Bancroft Elementary School in Washington and Hollin Meadows Elementary School in Alexandria, Va. Both schools have gardens that Mrs. Obama has visited.
"Some of your classmates and some of you guys were part of helping us get the first garden ready, right?" she asked the students. "And this year we're ready to do it again."
IN PICTURES: The White House vegetable garden
Mrs. Obama said that the 1,000 pounds of food harvested last year fed many people, both at the White House and at nearby homeless shelters. The work on the garden started a national conversation about healthy eating, she said. [See note below about possible lead contamination of the garden last year.]
"Everybody is talking about that garden, not just here in Washington, not just here in the United States, but all over the world," she said. "And we've been able to start thinking about things like getting kids to try new foods that they've never tried, vegetables that they've never had."
What a mess this nation is in.
Our leadership refuses to see "the forest for the trees." The middle class is near extinction and no one cares.
15 million Americans are unemployed.
There are up to 20 million illegal immigrants living and working in our nation.
Public education is in serious trouble with learning outcomes and funding.
American companies are building plants/factories overseas and continue to outsource jobs to other nations.
Obama and Congress refuse to work with the business sector to provide incentives for job creation for Americans who need them.
We are in a deep chasm with no escape and no rescue available.
It is not just about installing solar panels at the White House. It is about setting an example and sending a message to other US and foreign leaders that we all need to take a leadershop role in promoting alternative energy. It needs to take a front seat to more wasteful fossil fuel polluting craziness when it comes to subsidies, technological advances and consumer gluttony.
The $200,000 or so spent on solar panels at the White House is not going to save the economy and stop illegal immigration. Get real.
How about adding a tariff to US companies who forfeited US jobs so they can make products in shithole sweat shops in the Phillipines and return them to sell at Wal-Marts in the US to unemployed workers?
Quit blaming the government for your lives being miserable. Start focusing on the real problem - the unregulated corporate sector who runs our economy and controls our government leaders like puppets on a string.
Americans need a national 12 step program for government co-dependents. The corporate private sector - who manipulates our politicians with lobby money - is like a father who has committed incest. But the child citizen refuses to see they are getting betrayed and molested. So they keep blaming the government when the government is just watching the bedroom door.
To "Ralphy-boy"
We all know about the Corporate-Military Complex ruling our government and direction; however, if legislators would have the ethics and "cajones" to stand up to the Complex it wouldn't remain the controlling entity over all our lives.
So, government does have a strong hand in all this and you needn't defend it.
Dear vacuous Condescending last Anonymous:
What Obama did with the solar panels is a good thing. And if you illegal alien xenophobes and angry against the government co-dependents would realize that your unproductive and redundant attacks on government are just distractions from the real problem of corporate totalitarianism, we might get somewhere.
But then again, you are addicted to complaining and not doing anything else - other than maybe being a follower.
The new mantra of focusing on government as the cause of everyone's problems is of great benefit - as in a fortunate distraction - to the corporate crooks with their legal business immunity who pollute our lands, ignores safety regulations and kills mine and platform workers, and pilfers our tax dollars to bail themselves out from their incompetent unbridled greed. Look at how BP and Massey Energy have been forgotten by even the liberals.
Ralph is correct in that the real enemy is our own complacency and misdirection of our anger. And writing a few words about electoral politics in a blog is not nearly as an effective change agent as what we choose to do with our money, i.e. buy-cotts and boycotts, investor activism, etc.
Americans in general are good trusting people - and they believe a politician when they say they are going to do something. Unfortunately, it is that same simple trust that makes Americans gullible, and then disillusioned with politicians and goverment.
There is a difference between politicans and government. The institution of government is not bad in and off itself. It is the politicians that run government that make it bad.
If we are going to solve our nation's ills, we all need to make an effort to understand the difference.
How someone can defend spending money on something that is not viable is crazy. Why not spend the money on research to better develop the process? Oh wait that would mean we would have to give the money to big business to do the research.Feel good programs have to stop! We cannot afford to keep spending on something that will not work.
Rocky said, “There is a difference between politicans [sic] and government. The institution of government is not bad in and off itself. It is the politicians that run government that make it bad.”
Rocky, please read what you wrote! Frankly that is an absurd statement, even from you. Take out the politicians and what do you have left? I’d say besides the military, greedy incompetence. Only the worst liberals can’t see that the Obama administration and its policies are taking the USA economy down as planned.
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t let the businesses off the hook; the current statement that we don’t want to raise taxes on the rich and businesses because they create jobs is laughable. This may be shock to many, but not one business in the world exists to create jobs they exist to create profits. When I was in business, I know that if I could have laid-off half of my employees and improved my bottom line, I would have done it in a heartbeat. There are only two factions that want you to have a job, you and the government. Businesses constantly look for new ways to reduce their costs; illegal alien labor, overseas plants and labor, automation, Government subsidies and tax breaks.
Whoever said solar doesn't work and is a waste of money is completely mistaken! Germany, today, relies on solar as it's national alternative power source, 20% to 30%, and growing. China is eating our lunch on manufacture and development of solar and green technology. Please read up on the subject before making such ignorant statements. If our country doesn't start getting off it's stupid oil addicted ass, we'll be headed in the same direction as the dinosaurs.
Nuclear Power is the answer but the environmentalists keep pushing two more expensive and less desirable options, Wind and Solar. France gets 78.8% its electricity from clean Nuclear Power Plants. It makes so much power that it exports about 18% of its total output to other countries. That would be the fix for our dependence on foreign oil after converting our cars to batteries.
Nameless wonders always have the answers - but can't formulate real questions.
How about this way of saying it so it won't require too much brainpower: if we had smart and honest civil servants running our governments, the dislike of government would be much more limited - from mostly simple minded libertarians and mob rule republicans.
To the other nameless wonder: the money used to purchase the solar panels did go to big business. Who do you thinks makes the panels? The Obama Socialist Factory? Have you ever heard of GE? Or Siemans? Or Vestas?
And why not state your names so we can identify you for your brilliant analysis. It's so easy to hide in the darkness. But then again, that may explain the poor vision.
Richard, thanks for at least using your real name.
Yes, us tree hugging commie anti-capitalism Obama-justifying environmentalists do want more evidence that the waste from nuclear power plants will not be disposed off irresponsibly - or used to make more nuclear weapons so if some world domination nutcase gets elected US President we won't have that much more to worry about in our lives.
Seriously, once we know that some criminal cost cutting company modeled by the likes of BP, Transocean, Massey Energy, etc. is not going to be involved in the construction and operations sub-contracting in the nuclear effort - and the disposal issue is well thought out and safeguarded - nuclear power is a very viable option.
Additionally, since industry is now in control of the regulators, how can we citizens know that something as potentially catastrophic as nuclear energy will me monitored responsibly and with the utmost integrity? Do we need a meltdown before we know the answer to that question?
Also, Richard, could you please define "less desireable options." And less desireable to whom? In my mind, solar and wind are much more desireable simply because the chances of a Chernobyl and major problems from the waste disposal issue are almost nil. Also, solar and wind is certainly not more expensive than nuclear. And most important, solar and wind can be decentralized and allows individuals to be off the grid and independent of both big business or government.
And isn't France one of those "old Europe" socialist countries who we got our "freedom fries" from?
Richard, read up a little more on France's "clean" nuclear power, and the effects its having on the country's rivers and water. Nuclear does have a role to play in our country's transition to truly "clean" energy, so long as the ramp up is controlled and closely monitored. Remember, the radioactive waste leaves a toxic threat for thousands of years. Nobody is lining up to store the stuff. Solar and wind are absolutely FREE and CLEAN energy sources. No real fallout to speak of. The only hurdles are
1) not enough money into R&D for ultra-efficient conversion, 2) a smart national power transmission grid 3)the naysayers, and 4)stupid politicians in the pockets of the oil and coal industries. "Environmentalists" get a bad rap for wanting nothing more than to keep our land, water, air and our backyards clean for our kids and grandkids and great grandkids and great great grandkids. You get the picture, don't you?
Rocky, as you stated with "government" the corporate sector also is NOT a bad entity in itself. It is a segment of corporate leadership that has made a bad name for all corporations.
I agree, Peter, not all corporate leaders are crooks. But the continuum of competency is getting more and more suspect.
And publicly-traded companies - as their charter is to make a profit rather than ensure safety (in fact, ensuring safety would cut into profits) - are not the best entities to be used for nuclear energy development. And they really should not be involved in water.
Even health care is suspect when it comes to stockholder corporate decision making. HMOs and insurance companies have their "death panels." They are called accountants. But no one seems to make a fallacious stink about that reality.
So you can make your own decisions about who the corporate good, the bad, and the ugly are.
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