Winds of Change Newsletter, December 2005     See sidebar for table of contents

Meanwhile, elsewhere (jobs, money, renewable energy)

Though the sun provides energy for free, the cost of the panels and other gear (a decade ago) was so high that solar couldn't begin to compete with grid power. In a sense, it still can't - solar energy in this country costs consumers something like a quarter per kilowatt-hour, compared with something like a nickel for conventional fossil fuel. But that's starting to change. Not because regular electricity is getting a lot more expensive; with its abundant coal America can generate cheap power for a very long time. But because - sporadically, haltingly, and over the objections of the federal government - America is beginning to realize that the real cost of cheap energy is considerably higher. That burning coal means polluted air, sick kids, global warming. And so, in a few key places, government is beginning to tilt the balance. If you put in a solar system in New Jersey, the state will cover as much as 70 percent of the cost. In California and in New York, about half. A scattering of other states - including Arizona, Vermont, and Massachusetts offer similar subsidies.

The pressure for such programs is increasing as the news about climate change becomes more urgent - in August, a study in Science reported that solar technology was developed enough to play a major role in fending off global warming, but only if we increased its use 700-fold in the next half-century. That sounds impossible - but it's only a 14 percent annual increase, less than half the current global rate. One solar panel manufacturer calculates that the domestic PV market is growing as fast as 60 percent a year, fast enough that within a decade, California alone should have more solar panels than any single nationThe world spent $20.3 billion on development of solar and wind power in 2003, one-sixth of the total global investment in power-generation equipment. Notes Udall, "This is not a children's crusade any more."

The subsidy for renewable energy doesn't come close to matching the billions in government support for fossil fuels, which includes everything from the oil-depletion allowance to the endless federal largesse for "clean coal" research. Still, the government help, almost all of it from states instead of the federal government, is crucial.

Our particular subsidy programs have been piecemeal, expensive, and not always very well designed.The Bush administration's energy policy has made token nods in the direction of renewables while preparing for a future that belongs to the oil, coal, gas, and nuclear industries.

Every day 10,000 times more energy strikes the earth than we humans use. If the sun's out, it's hitting your roof right now, and bouncing back unused into the atmosphere - a wink unnoticed, a flirtation ignored, a gift refused.
--Excerpted from One Roof at a Time: With no help from the Bush administration - but plenty from Europe, Japan, New York, and California - solar power is edging into the mainstream. by Bill McKibben in the Nov./Dec. 2005 issue of Mother Jones

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Indian govt to make tapping solar energy mandatory for all new buildings

In a bid to optimize the renewable sources of energy and to meet the growing demands of power in the country, the Indian government is planning to make tapping solar energy mandatory for all new buildings and complexes.

"Solar energy is such a renewable source that even countries that get hardly 25 percent of sunlight, tap this source for meeting their power requirements," an Indian official said.