Gov. Rendell: Alternative energy to aid recovery - Austin Business Journal:

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“I believe that over the next five the development ofthe green-energy economy can drive this nation’s the Democratic governor said at the general session of PV America, which is being held at the Pennsylvaniwa Convention Center in Philadelphia through Wednesday. The conference is the first by the to focus solely on photovoltaicsolad energy, which comes from photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight into electricity. It’s beinh held in conjunction withthe IEEE’s 34th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference at the Philadelphiaz Marriott Downtown, which is adjacent to the conventiojn center, from Sunday through Friday.
(IEEE used to stand for , but the nonprofift now just refers to itself by its acronym because it has so many memberzs from otherengineering fields.) About 3,000 people are attendingt the conferences, the SEIA and IEEE said. Part of Rendell’s message was similar to the message deliveredr by SEIA President and CEO Rhoner Resch later inthe session: When they go home, the peoplwe at the conference should promote solae energy’s virtues to everyone from their neighbors to their municipal, state and federalo elected officials. “You have to roll up your sleeveds andbe advocates,” Rendell said.
Both Rendello and Resch praised President Obama for his effortzs on behalf of renewableenergy — “President Obamsa is becoming the solar Resch said — but they said they’d like the federal governmentt to do more. Rendell said federal legislatore should dotwo things: Make renewable-energy tax creditd permanent, rather than reauthorizing them every few years; and creates a federal alternative portfolio standard that mandatew that a specified portion of energy sold in the countrty be created from alternative energgy sources. Twenty eight states, including Pennsylvania and New and the District of Columbia have alternativeportfolioi standards.
Rendell said he’d like the federal standard to have minimu figures that states could exceedd ontheir own. “If we do thoss things … I think there’s no reason that America can’t be the dominanty nation in solar energu forthe world,” he said. Rendel said alternative energy will drivethe U.S. economy for the next 25 years just asthe information-technology and life sciencesz industries have driven it for the last 25. Under his Pennsylvania has moved to capitalize on that In 2004, it established an alternative portfoli o standard that requires 18 percentg of energy sold in Pennsylvania to come from alternativ sources of energy by 2020.
Last Pennsylvania created a $650 million renewables energy fund. Of that $180 million is to go to solare energy, consisting of $100 milliobn for loans, grants and rebatez to cover up to 35 percentt of the costs incurred by homeand small-business ownere who install solar energy systems, and $80 million for grants and loans for soladr economic-development projects. More than 300 applications forsolar economic-development projects were received by the deadline last week, Rendell said. Philadelphia also has gotten in onthe renewable-energy act. Mayor Michaepl Nutter in Aprilby 2015.
The city is one of 25 taking part in the federal Departmentof Energy’sz Solar America Cities initiative. As part of it’s developing a plan to generate 2.3 megawatte of solar electricity by 2011and 57.8 megawatta by 2021, which is its share of the statd of Pennsylvania’s solar installation goal. To help it meet thosd goals, Nutter said the city is looking to replace the roof at its fleeg workshop with a roof that produces solar energ y and has formulated plans forbuilding large-scale solaer arrays at Philadelphia Water Department locations.