Creative Energies Blog

Above and following are photos from my recent visit to the Solar Decathlon event in Washington DC. Teams of students from 20 universities design and build small homes that need to meet specific performance and comfort goals. The event is held every two years, when the homes are “built” on the Mall in Downtown Washington DC. Tours are given to the public and the houses are tested and judged. The application of quality building materials and the innovation in small footprints (800 sqft is the maximum) is really interesting to see and experience. There was plenty of variety in the solutions to the meet the engineering challenges of the event, but one thing remained the same as the last Solar Decathlon – Germany won. I had a couple favorites – Ontario and California, with many bits and pieces from other homes. Check out the Solar Decathlon website for virtual tours, product lists and links to competing teams websites. http://www.solardecathlon.org/

by Molly Loomis

350-  so what? 350 Creative Energies customers? Nope. Keep trying. 350 wind
turbines waiting installation in Wyoming or 350 reasons to buy a hybrid?
Wrong. That’s 350 parts per million (ppm) of carbon dioxide in our
atmosphere—the upper limit of what scientists consider safe for avoiding
catastrophic climate change.

It’s also the name of leading environmental journalist and organizer of
2008’s Step It Up campaign, Bill McKibben’s urgent call to arms for the
reduction of our atmosphere’s current carbon dioxide levels from 387ppm down
to 350. Step It Up was America’s largest protest against global warming to
date but McKibben hopes that 350 “actions” will dwarf that.

Visit the website, www.350.org , to find out how you can help and organize
an action in your area which will help spread the word about this crucial
number and how it effects us all. It could be as simple as sending the
information to everyone on your email list or more involved like organizing
an event in your community- 350 people gathered to reduce carbon emissions,
350 miles bike ride relay- whatever!

At the end of 2008 world leaders will be gathering in Poland for the UN
Climate Change meeting. It is essential that we pressure US leaders to get
on board and move forward rather than maintain our level of involvement per
the Kyoto Protocol.

Visit 350.org today!

Extending tax credit incentives for renewable energy has been very difficult for Congress to agree on this year.  Whether or not tax credits are a long term answer, it will sure be an important boost to the industry in the short term (the extension may be for eight years).  A tax credit extension has been included in four energy bills that have passed the House, and it appears for the first time that the bill is likely to pass the Senate as well.  Big oil and gas seem to get off easier with this bill, which is what had been a show stopper in previous versions, including a presidential veto threat.  Hopefully we’ll know more soon.  The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) is a good resource to stay updated - see link to the right.

Extending the solar federal tax credit incentive has been on the table now five times in Congress this year. The fourth try failed last week, and apparently a fifth attempt is in discussion right now. More information at Solar Nation.

After passing the Senate by a convincing margin, it doesn’t appear that the Cantwell-Ensign bill will make it through the House. We will post updates as the occur, there is more information at the SEIA website.

Federal incentives for renewables have been up and down for both solar and wind since the invention of renewable energy.  Currently, the investment tax credit is set to expire at the end of 2008.  This means that any system has to be installed and operational before the end of the calendar year to be able to claim the credit.

There has already been two attempts at extending these incentives this year, and a third go-round is in progress.  Today, the Senate adopted an amendment to the housing stimulus bill by a wide margin of 88-8.  In addition to extending the commercial and residential investment tax credits, the $2,000 cap for residential projects would be removed and there would no longer be an exclusion for utilities.

This bill would have a big impact on the already booming solar industry.  The next step is for the House and Senate to agree on a final version to send to the President.

Visit the SEIA website for more breaking news.  For more information regarding current  incentives, visit WY and federal incentives.