Congressman Cliff Stearns (R-FL6-Ocala/Gainesville) is learning about solar energy in his district, having gained national embarrassment – including an indirect presidential chastisement – for claiming in an interview that the USA cannot compete with China in solar energy. If the congressman spent a little more time learning about the subject instead of blindly using his sub-committee’s platform for bashing the Solyndra deal and all alternative energy thingys that offer weak campaign donations, he might be better able to represent his constituents by addressing their best interests and the nation’s energy needs. In fact, two lessons have been sitting in his district awaiting his discovery.
Stearns’ “A Tale of Two Solar Sites” begins with a trip to Ocala to visit Solar Trek, a solar equipment company that has been in business for 30 years. The congressman’s press release about the visit is subtitled, “Successful Private Firm Advancing Alternative Energy,” as if “successful” was utterly unheard of in the solar industry, like “Intelligent Life Form in the Republican Caucus.” There were other choice comments, like this:
“Being competitive in the global market in alternative energy depends on businesses such as SOLAR TREK that are innovating and deploying ‘smart’ solar.” Stearns is a strong advocate of utilizing the nation’s competitive advantage in technologies to succeed in the world market.
“Smart” solar? Competitive advantage? Confused? Me, too. Anyway….
Stearns learned about solar thermal from his trip to Solar Trek. The company targets a different kind of solar technology from solar energy or photovoltaics – generating electricity. Solar thermal refers to the relatively simple process of solar heating water which conserves electricity by reducing, and sometimes even eliminating the need for power hungry hot water heaters, and even enabling heated swimming pool water.
Stearns’ response to this new experience didn’t stray far from his talking point:
“I think we can compete with solar thermal. I still question solar panels,” Stearns said after touring Solar Trek’s small facility in Ocala. “We’re better off putting it into research and development.”
He also heard this:
“We need the federal government to make a statement,” Bill Gallagher, president of the Florida Solar Energy Industries Association, told Stearns. “We need the federal government to stand behind solar.”
Clearly Mr. Gallagher was going to have to do better than expect something for nothing. Hopefully one of Stearns’ staff told Gallagher to imitate the Florida Chamber of Commerce and shower megabucks on some legislative campaign accounts. Gallagher will need to reach deep in his pocket because he has some tough competition. Florida Power and Progress Energy have no interest in reducing power consumption and have been leading donors to the Florida GOP.
The other solar site is in Gainesville. The success of their feed-in tariff program has sparked the solar business there in a big way. Of course, Gainesville Regional Utilities is not Progress Energy or Florida Power, otherwise it never would have happened. I mean n-e-v-e-r!
A Gainesville Sun article highlighted the feed-in tariff as well as other factors contributing the brightness of solar in the city. The feed-in tariff program enables financing the high cost of solar energy systems based on electricity being supplied by the homeowner to the electric utility. Now you see why Progress Energy and Florida Power aren’t fans of solar energy – unless they’re making the solar energy, of course.
Demand for solar is increasing as the costs of traditional carbon-based fuel power plants pushes prices higher, and the costs of maintaining and creating new nuclear plants remains astronomical. As demand increases, the cost of solar panels continues to decrease. Add in federal and other incentives, and the growth of the solar industry can take off.
Robert Reedy, director of the Solar Energy Division at the Florida Solar Energy Center, said solar energy is on the cusp of matching fossil fuels for utility and economic viability… “Within two years, we will reach grid parity — when solar energy will cost the same or less than what you are paying for non-solar,” he said.
Unfortunately we have no idea how Congressman Stearns would respond because he apparently has never met Mr. Reedy or heard his amazing claim about “grid parity” in a few years. That certainly doesn’t correspond with Stearns’ reality which has somehow contrived ‘smart’ solar as something only the Chinese produce and the USA cannot. US solar industry is restricted to ‘dumb’ solar, according to Stearns, except when we’re doing research. Stearns did not clarify whether our national focus should be on ‘smart’ research or ‘dumb’ research.
However, if you wanted to understand why the USA has a ‘dumb’ energy policy, having Cliff Stearns in Congress for over 20 years is a contributing factor. He doesn’t realize how much he could learn … from visiting his own district.
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