Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Understanding the Cost of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Starts with the Cost of Doing Nothing

New Jersey has more solar than Florida not because it has more sunshine, but because homeowners in NJ pay more for electricity, they have an RPS, and fees (collected into a Public Benefit Fund) charged the electric customer are used to incentivize the homeowner for photovoltaics (PV) and solar hot water heaters for their roof. If such a fund collected $1.50 on your electric bill, Florida could have the equivalent of California’s Million Solar Roofs Program. Clearly $1.50 is less than the $40 a month cost of doing nothing. While solar hot water heating is cost effective today, PV without a subsidy is not cost effective today, but the subsidy is still less than the cost of “accelerated cost recovery” for nuclear power. The cost of PV on your roof is expected to be $0.15 kWh in 2011 without subsidies, and it will be cheaper than coal electricity. What about the jobs? These jobs will not be in China and India, they will be done by your neighbor. Vote Solar estimates that more than 3,800 megawatts (MW) of solar could be added by 2020 and with it approximately 85,500 new jobs in Florida. What a great way to love your neighbor.

From the Article:
Understanding the Cost of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Starts with the Cost of Doing Nothing
By James Fenton
Read the whole article here

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