Lucrative tax breaks afoot for solar energy
Soggy Western Washington may not seem like a hotspot for solar energy, but that cloudy image isn't keeping state lawmakers from pursuing legislation that would provide a powerful boost to the solar energy industry.
The Senate is considering two bills that would offer aggressive incentives to manufacturers and consumers of renewable energy. One bill, SB 5111, would provide tax breaks for solar energy system manufacturers, with additional incentives for those who build facilities in rural counties. A second bill, SB 5101, would help create a market for those products by essentially paying consumers who generate their own electricity using solar, wind or anaerobic digester systems, which convert farm waste to energy.
While many think of Washington, particularly the Puget Sound area, as too cloudy to generate much solar energy, Washington in fact has more than enough solar potential to provide power to all its residents. The state could, if built out with current technology, generate enough solar power to supply 4.2 million homes, far more than the roughly 2.4 million households in Washington, according to NW Energy Coalition, a group of consumer, environmental and renewable energy developers' organizations.
Seattle gets more sun than the prime solar power sites in Germany, one of the world's most prolific solar power generators, said Mike Nelson, manager of Northwest Solar Center. Even rainy Forks on the Olympic Peninsula gets more sunshine than most of Germany. In eastern Washington, solar conditions are better: Yakima gets more sun than the Gulf Coast of Texas, Nelson said.
Solar energy is a feasible year-round option in Washington because the net-metering program the state implemented in 1999 spreads the benefit of solar energy across the entire year. Under that program, environmentally minded residential, business and nonprofit customers have solar systems hooked up to the utility grid. During the summer, those customers generate much more power than they need, and build up credit like a bank account with their utilities. Come overcast winter, when those customers are generating less electricity than they need, they can tap into that account.
Nelson, who is also with Washington State University's energy program, said the state's economic development potential is just as significant. If the bills are implemented, the solar power industry, which now employs 450, could grow to 4,000 to 5,000 jobs in 10 years, he said.
Solar power, first developed in the United States in 1955, has been growing worldwide at about 25 percent a year, Nelson said. Washington gained an early foothold in the industry because of Boeing solar research and spinoffs, cheap electricity and demand from the marine industry.
Continue reading this story from the Puget Sound Business Journal:
Lucrative tax breaks afoot for solar energy
