How clear could it be – the republicans in Tallahassee are much more interested in pocketing the bribes from the electric industry then they are about helping floridians. Yet some people continue to vote the same scum back into office. From: tampabay/news/business/energy/net-zero-communities-that-make-solar-power-work-expand-in-florida/2211425 Herman Martinez hasnt paid an electric bill above $11 for his 2,150-square-foot home in the two years he has lived in it. Air conditioning? He runs it as little or as much as he wants. Christmas lights? He hangs more and more every year. Florida utility executives and state regulators portray rooftop solar as too much of a luxury to play a significant role in the states energy mix. In fact, regulators approved proposals by the utilities to gut their energy-efficiency goals and end solar rebates because they said neither is cost-effective. Now the utility industry also wants homes and businesses that use solar to pay more for a connection to the electric grid to help share the costs of power lines and big-box power plants. Significant increases in solars costs could erode the benefits Martinez and his neighbors enjoy. Solar would seem a natural for the Sunshine State. The Solar Energy Industries Association ranks Florida third for solar potential but 13th in installations. Florida now trails such states as New Jersey and North Carolina. And Georgia is set to eclipse the Sunshine State in its solar deployment. Duke Energy Florida president R. Alexander Alex Glenn has told lawmakers that the Sunshine State has too many clouds for solar to make sense without battery storage. Were also the partly cloudy state, he said. At a time when the utilities are expressing concern about the impact of solar, state regulators voted in November to gut energy-efficiency goals and to end solar rebates administered by the utilities, saying they are not cost-effective. Thats because, solar proponents say, barriers in Florida hinder solar success, including: • The states tangible personal property tax on solar installations makes the cost of installing panels on existing homes too costly for SolarCitys business model to work. • State law prohibits any business other than utilities from selling power directly to consumers. So a landlord cannot lease solar panels on his property and sell that power to a tenant — residential or commercial.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 17:59:44 +0000
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