Great article from the Washington Monthly Magazine, explaining the underlying issue in most of our posts.
Click here to read “Rooftop Revenue” by Anya Schoolman.
It was tweeted to us by Community Power Network (@Power4theFuture):
“Government helps big corporations make billions off green energy. How about cutting the average family in on the deal?”
Amen.
What can the average person do if they want to help bring about the change we need?
Enter… Clean Energy Victory Bonds (CEVBs).
North American Windpower is reporting that
“U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., is sponsoring the Clean Energy Victory Bonds Act of 2012 (H.R.6275), which would enable the continuation of the production tax credit (PTC) and other clean energy incentives for 10 years.
It would also give all Americans a way to invest in a clean energy future that creates energy independence, jobs and economic opportunities.”
Up to now, financial factors are probably the leading reason renewable energy has not experienced an even larger mass expansion than has already been achieved. Surprisingly, these financial factors may have little or nothing to do with the actual final cost of generating the energy that would be produced.
Although in most cases the “fuel” to be used -like sunshine and the wind- will be free once the project is built, Renewable Energy projects require a large amount of money up-front, which leads to..
Investment, financing and tax break opportunities are generally limited to: utilities, existing energy companies (usually dirty energy-most of whom are fighting against renewables) or deep pocketed hedge funds / private multi-millionaire investors.
This is mainly a US problem due to our investment laws. Theres much talk about getting around this by:
You know we’re always looking for new ways the average person can get involved, on any financial level.
Take the minute and click on Clean Energy Victory Bonds.org and by all means use their system to contact your legislators to back this proposal.
…otherwise known as “What we need to do to make this just happen”
Check it out here by clicking: freeingthegrid.org which is tracking grid connection policy in all 50 states.
(Click the picture to watch the video)
Freeing The Grid short movie explains solutions to the grid connection barriers solar and renewable energy face.
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A Great website and seperate video explaining why we need a more “democratic grid” with clearer rules and equality for all.
As it is All Our Energy, we would like to see this expanded promoting this for all renewable energy, for all citizens.
Curious what you could be doing with solar power? Testing if an Electric Vehicle (EV) could work for you?
Check out this iPhone and Android app that puts the power of the sun in the palm of your hand.
Courtesy of our friends at Clean Technica.
Solar Power Resources & EV Driving Potential Estimated with Free Solar App (iPhone & Android) (via Clean Technica)
You can now use the screen of your smartphone to simulate the active surface area of a solar panel, and receive an estimate of the solar resources in that position. In addition to that, the free app, available for iPhones or Android phones, also gives you information such as “hours of light generated…
