Response to Readers Regarding Petition Supporting Renewable Energy & FIT/CLEAN Program
Dear Readers,
If you are in favor of renewable, clean, or solar energy, please sign this petition for FIT/CLEAN Program, accessible at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065 . Thank you very much. We are at a critical juncture in human history when individual effort and participation in the transition into renewable energy age is desperately needed! Your signature will be very meaningful in helping all earthlings! For a summary of why we need to switch to power the earth with Wind-Water-Sunlight quickly, reasons are explained by Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobson at http://sunisthefuture.net/?m=20110731 There are more than sixteen episodes of discussions on FIT (Feed-In-Tariff/CLEAN Program) available at http://sunisthefuture.net Please feel free to read/listen to them (type in feed-in-tariff in the search box at right). Thanks to those of you who informed me about the discrepancy of the site in IPhone display. It’s being worked on right now. I think those of you who have recently updated your IPhone may be seeing some discrepancies on the right sidebar. Since there is no such a discrepancy in IPad or desktop, I’d ask you to use an alternate device ( desktop, IPad, or mobile device other than IPhone) while we are working on making it also compatible with latest IPhone display. Thank you for your patience.
John & Y.T., thank you for your question on wanting clarification of Feed-In-Tariff. If you’d get to my May 8th post on Incentive For Solar (8)-Feed-In-Tariff (FIT), http://sunisthefuture.net/?m=20110508 ,there is a very informative discussion by a panel of scientists and policy makers and even our very own Floridian Ed Regan, you would also see that:
the first form of feed-in-tariff was actually implemented in US in 1978, under President Jimmy Carter’s administration, telling Americans that the energy crisis
was a “clear and present danger to our nation” and drew out a plan to address it.
The problem with the federal mandated feed-in-tariff rate from 1978 is that: the federal government had given individual states the authority to set its own FIT rate as long as it meets the minimal level of avoided cost. So, we ended up getting a lot of states simply setting its FIT rate at the avoided cost (for FL, this avoided cost is much lower than the cost of producing solar energy, therefore, there is no incentive for any one trying to produce extra energy). It simply would not be economically feasible. You can also find this discussion in my June 8th post and video with Craig Lewis of Clean Coalition, http://sunisthefuture.net/?m=201106. I have another issue with this avoided cost FIT rate: that is, it is set at a fixed rate without the consideration of what time in the day when the energy is produced. The value of energy changes throughout the day because energy is in greater demand during the day time and when sun is up (esp. in FL when it is on a hot summer day, when AC is in huge demand). The current fixed avoided cost FIT rate ends up favoring the wind energy producers and very unfavorable for the solar energy producers (solar energy is produced when demand is highest and therefore during the time when the energy is/should be more valuable. But this can all be modified/monitored with current technologies and smart meters. So, what we need from the state government is an effective Feed-In rate that would provide incentive (economically feasible) for every/any one who wants to participate in production of renewable energy (solar, water, wind, etc.) to do so feasibly. Some of you may argue to wait until the cost of producing renewable (esp. solar in FL) energy to be much lower and continue the status quo for now. But I (and many others) feel that we cannot afford to wait any longer because it takes time to educate, implement, and assist the general public to make the transition into a new world of renewable energy. If we want a smooth transition, without too much societal disruption, nor increased unemployment or dramatic lowering of standard of living, the most effective strategy is by implementing effective Feed-In-Tariff/CLEAN Program (as indicated in World Future Council http://www.worldfuturecouncil.org/feed_in_tariffs_in_us.html). We have seen how effectively implemented Feed-In-Tariff had already benefited our neighbor Gainesville, FL community (and at least 65 other nations and territories):
- http://blip.tv/etopia-news-now/ed-regan-at-gru-talks-about-gainesville-s-first-in-u-s-feed-in-tariff-1777179
We would simply like to ask our state legislators to consider re-examining the issue of Feed-In-Tariff and come up with a plan for an effective Feed-In-Tariff/CLEAN Program that may be inclusive of all, the small users, medium users, and large users (even utility companies). For we are all in this together. I am sure that the power/utility companies are well aware of the fact that it is much better to serve a community of economic prosperity, because 10% of a smaller number is still larger than 100% of zero, such would be the case if/when the power company has to cater to the needs of unemployed users.)
As we refocus on our topic of Solar Decathlon in the next episode, I will like to start presenting this year’s (2011’s) entries from state of Florida, my home state. Stayed tuned in at the same bat channel….
Because some of you were asking for the original source of all of my articles/posts, I will try to clarify in the future by ending all of my posts with:
written and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker, sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Homepage: http://sunisthefuture.net http://sunisthefuture.com http://sunisthefuture.org
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
www.youtube.com/user/sunisthefuture
www.kiva.org/team/sunisthefuture
www.facebook.com/sunisthefuture
www.pinterest.com/sunisthefuture
Tags: clean energy, feed-in-tariff, FL, Gainesville, petition, renewable energy, Renwable energy, Solar Energy, Sun Is The Future, sunisthefuture, sunisthefuture.com, sunisthefuture.net, susan sun nunamaker