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SolarAccess.com News
Coalition Urges Senate to Restore RE Funding
Washington, D.C. - September 27, 2004 [SolarAccess.com] In a letter delivered to the Subcommittee on Energy & Water, which
is a part of the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee, 25 member groups
from the Sustainable Energy Coalition requested restoration of funding
for key renewable energy programs in the U.S. Department of Energy's
Fiscal Year 2005 (FY05) budget.
Noting that "the Administration budget has proposed cuts or
seriously under-funds programs critical to increased national energy
security and environmental quality," the groups specifically urged
restoration of funding for key renewable energy programs. These include
the Geothermal,
Concentrated Solar Power, Solar Buildings, Biomass, Renewable
Energy Production Incentive, and General Program Direction line items.
Concentrated Solar Power
The coalition said the Concentrated Solar Power program should be
funded at least $10 million dollars in the light of a recent positive
technical due diligence study on the part of DOE, the National Academy
of Sciences and independent consultants, Sargent and Lundy, and the
growing market interest in ongoing projects in Arizona, California, and
Nevada.
Geothermal Energy
The Administration's budget cuts this program by just over $3
million, which the coalition urges the Subcommittee to reverse. The
reduction was reportedly intended to penalize Congress for earmarks in
the program's FY03 funding. (In FY03, the geothermal program was funded
at $29,390,000.) The Administration request of $25,800,000 will force
the DOE geothermal program to make damaging cuts in its baseline
program. This could result in eliminating funding for significant
portions of the program's advanced technology development efforts. The
coalition would like to see the Subcommittee restore the geothermal
program to at least $30 million in FY 2005, equivalent to level funding
compared to FY03.
Renewable Energy Production Incentive
The Department of Energy's Renewable Energy Production Incentive
Program (REPI) was created in 1992's Energy Policy Act (EPAct) as a
counterpart to the renewable energy production tax credits made
available to for-profit utilities. It needs and deserves significantly
more funding than requested, and the coalition is urging the
Subcommittee to consider providing at least $13 million for REPI. EPAct
authorizes the Department to make direct payments to not-for-profit
public power systems and rural electric cooperatives at a rate near 1.8
cents per kWh for electricity generated from solar, wind, geothermal
and biomass projects. In order to fully fund all REPI applicants, $60
million would be needed for FY 2005, yet only $4 million has been
requested. The coalition would like to see the subcommittee provide at
least $13 million. The House passed a $5 million appropriation for the
program and they are hopeful the Senate will pass at least an equal or
greater amount.
Solar Buildings
The Solar Buildings program should grow to $5 million overall to
meet the developing needs of advanced solar hybrid lighting and solar
thermal projects, which could contribute directly to substantial
reductions in US natural gas and electricity consumption in the
immediate future.
Biomass
DOE funding for Biomass, including Biofuels and Biopower/energy,
should be at FY04 levels or higher, and funds for hydrogen, except
those dedicated to renewable hydrogen from biomass, should not be taken
from appropriations intended for the advance of biomass science,
technologies and industries. Biomass is becoming increasingly
attractive to the transportation fuels and power industries as
important additions in the transition from heavy to lighter carbon
fuels. Well directed R, D and D is essential to the success of this
transition.
General Program Direction
The Distributed Energy RD&D program within the DOE Renewable
Energy RD&D program has focused primarily on non-renewable
technologies, according to the coalition. They would prefer that the
program focus on crosscutting technologies that assist the broadest
possible benefits to all renewable applications - including smart
interconnection both at the transmission and customer side of the
meter, energy storage, advanced Combined Heat and Power concepts, and
hybrid systems using multiple energy sources.
While Program Direction has grown to encompass internal activities,
the Program should include a significant subset of activities to
enhance the knowledge of biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar and
wind resources both in the US and globally. The program should also
input this information in a timely manner into the technology RD&D
programs so that they can plan technology improvements on the
particular resource characterizations. Finally, the program should
create and maintain a list of distributed generation and related
products and equipment that have been certified by nationally
recognized testing laboratories so that project developers can use such
equipment in projects interconnected to the grid without having to
retest its performance characteristics.
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