Solar Energy

Utility regulators have approved $350 million in rebates to encourage Californians to install water-heating systems powered by solar energy. The state Public Utilities Commission on Thursday established the California Solar Initiative Thermal Program, which will be funded using $250 million to replace natural-gas-powered water heaters, with $25 million set aside for low-income customers. An additional $100.8 million will be used to swap out water heaters powered by electricity. The rebates could reduce the cost of a solar water heater by 15% to 25%, industry experts said.

Re "Sci-fi worthy of Malthus," Opinion, April 30 So, does "human imagination" to find new sources of energy apply only to fossil fuels? Doesn't it also extend to the ingenuity needed to develop clean, sustainable energy from the sun and other alternative sources? Maybe before Jonah Goldberg promotes fracking and asteroid mining (did I read that correctly?), he might first consider supporting solar energy. That's not pessimism because we think we are depleting our source of energy (fossil fuels)

Hawaii's love affair with rooftop solar energy has turned into a gold rush. In 2012, as many permits for new solar units were issued on the island of Oahu alone as in the entire state over the last decade. That, inevitably, has led to gridlock. Homeowners and businesses in some areas have been required to conduct expensive studies before hooking up new solar power to the electrical grid, which utility operators fear could become saturated with unpredictable do-it-yourself power.

Hawaii's love affair with rooftop solar energy has turned into a gold rush. In 2012, as many permits for new solar units were issued on the island of Oahu alone as in the entire state over the last decade. That, inevitably, has led to gridlock. Homeowners and businesses in some areas have been required to conduct expensive studies before hooking up new solar power to the electrical grid, which utility operators fear could become saturated with unpredictable do-it-yourself power.

The Delta Energy Center, a power plant about an hour outside San Francisco, was roaring at nearly full bore one day last month, its four gas and steam turbines churning out 880 megawatts of electricity to the California grid. On the horizon, across an industrial shipping channel on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, scores of wind turbines stood dead still. The air was too calm to turn their blades - or many others across the state that day. Wind provided just 33 megawatts of power statewide in the midafternoon, less than 1% of the potential from wind farms capable of producing 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

Everyone knows solar power can heat homes and generate electricity. But on a rooftop in Downey, Southern California Gas Co. engineers are using solar mirrors to cool down their offices. Engineers are testing two technologies that use mirrors to concentrate sunlight onto pipes with water running through them. The heated water powers a thermal process in a chiller that cools the cold water used in air conditioning units. "When we tell people we heat water up only to cool it down, they don't get it at first," said David Berokoff, a technology development manager at SoCal Gas. "But all this technology has been around for a while.

It appears that The Times intends to do for the solar energy business what it is doing for the electric auto business: trumpet the overblown promises of heavily subsidized, politically correct but, realistically, doomed industries. "A Fresh Jolt" (Heard on the Beat, May 28) parrots the ridiculous claim that 40 megawatts of solar power will light 1,000 homes. Well those 40 megawatts are available only a few minutes a day. The average is much less--none at night and very little on cloudy days.

Should the city of Los Angeles become a national leader in the generation of renewable solar energy, as a March 3 ballot measure proposes? Or would it be too costly to put 400 megawatts' worth of photovoltaic cells on roofs and parking lots across town? Times editors recently asked the 10 mayoral candidates about the solar energy charter amendment, Measure B. Here are excerpts of their responses. Do you support Measure B, the city's proposed solar power initiative? Why?

The huge car carrier ship called the M/V Auriga Leader idled at the Port of Long Beach, burning through enough electricity to power 100 homes as workers loaded and unloaded a fleet of Toyotas. But unlike any of the diesel-spewing, power-draining vessels that travel here, the Auriga Leader sports 328 solar panels on its top deck -- a small array that provides 10% of the energy used by the giant ship while she is docked.

Re "DWP will buy excess solar energy," Jan. 12 Well it's about time. But why should the L.A. Department of Water and Power limit the amount of solar energy it will buy from customers through 2016 to 100 megawatts? Why not buy all the solar power available? Why can't residential customers sell all the power they generate? Residential customers' meters should simply run backward when they generate more power than they are using, essentially selling it back at the same rate they pay. We would end up with a broad-based system less reliant on large, centralized facilities with all the large liabilities (think San Onofre)

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers for the first time will be able to sell back excess solar energy created on rooftops and parking lots under a new program approved Friday by the city utility's board of commissioners. Described as the largest urban rooftop solar program of its kind in the nation, the so-called feed-in-tariff program would pay customers 17 cents per kilowatt hour for energy produced on their own equipment. The DWP has already accepted more than a dozen applicants and will be taking dozens more as it accepts contracts for up to 100 megawatts of solar power through 2016.

Bay Area clean-tech company SolarCity Corp. had an uncertain path to its initial public offering, delaying and adjusting the size of its debut this week, but the stock was off to a running start Thursday in its first day of trading. The share price has boomed as much as 58.7% in trading so far on Nasdaq, hitting $12.70 after opening at $9.25. The San Mateo-based company sold 11.5 million shares at $8 each, raising $92 million total. The price values SolarCity at $584.6 million.

The Delta Energy Center, a power plant about an hour outside San Francisco, was roaring at nearly full bore one day last month, its four gas and steam turbines churning out 880 megawatts of electricity to the California grid. On the horizon, across an industrial shipping channel on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, scores of wind turbines stood dead still. The air was too calm to turn their blades - or many others across the state that day. Wind provided just 33 megawatts of power statewide in the midafternoon, less than 1% of the potential from wind farms capable of producing 4,000 megawatts of electricity.

A report by the Little Hoover Commission released Monday suggested that state lawmakers could face consumer blowback if they don't get their renewable energy house in order. The bipartisan panel that advises state lawmakers warned that if California doesn't streamline its varied energy policies -- from reforming the cooling process for coastal power plants to mandating a third of the state's energy come from renewable sources by 2020 -- rates could spike and customers would revolt.

Bay Area solar energy company SolarCity Corp. is looking to raise as much as $151 million in its highly anticipated initial public stock offering. The San Mateo business - which helps residential, commercial and government clients such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., EBay and the U.S. military set up solar power-generating systems - said it expects its shares to sell for $13 to $15 each. The company plans to sell 10 million shares, while shareholders will offer 65,012 shares, SolarCity said in an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

SolarCity Corp., a Bay Area solar energy company, is looking to raise as much as $151 million in its initial public offering, widely considered to be the most anticipated renewable-power IPO coming down the pike. The San Mateo business - which helps residential, commercial and government customers including Wal-Mart, eBay and the U.S. military set up solar power-generating systems - said it expects its shares to price between $13 and $15 each. The company is selling 10 million shares, and current shareholders are offering 65,012 shares, SolarCity said in an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Obama administration has formally adopted a plan to help create large-scale solar energy plants, offering incentives for solar developers to cluster projects on 285,000 acres of federal land in the western U.S and opening an additional 19 million acres of the Mojave Desert for new power plants. The plan places 445 square miles of public land in play for utility-scale solar facilities. The program, announced Friday by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar at an event in Las Vegas, will apply to new projects only and not the 17 solar facilities already awarded permits or the 78 currently in the approval pipeline.