Campfield said a confluence of forces — federal and state government incentives, the decreasing cost of technology and consumers who “want to leave something behind, a better planet” — are making solar power come on strong. He and Harley both said it’s important to maintain those government incentives, which include a federal tax credit for solar energy, and a state sales tax exemption and production incentive.
“We go where the state incentives are,” Harley said.
‘Reduction targets’
The release of the “Lighting the Way” report comes as the Obama administration made public last month its Clean Power Plan. That plan uses state-by-state targets to cut heat-trapping emissions 32 percent by 2030 from levels recorded in 2005.
The Environmental Protection Agency says the plan will save about $45 billion a year by both reducing energy use and cutting health costs for asthma, lung cancer and other illnesses triggered by air pollution, according to a report by U.S. News & World Report. The EPA also says the plan will cut roughly $85 a year from the average American’s utility bill.
However, backers of fossil fuels and some utilities have blasted the measure. As reported by U.S. News & World Report, Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican representing the coal-heavy state of Kentucky, has urged state leaders to reject the plan, arguing it will undermine reliability and increase electricity rates.
In a news release issued Thursday by Environment Washington, the group said its research shows that “solar power could easily meet about half the pollution-reduction targets” required by the Obama administration’s plan.
In 2014, Hawaii was the top state for cumulative solar electricity capacity per capita (312 watts per resident), according to the “Lighting the Way” report. By another measurement — total solar electricity capacity — California “led the nation with nearly 10 gigawatts,” the report said.
Pro-solar policies adopted by most or many of the leading states include minimum renewable energy requirements for utilities, according to the report, and net metering, in which solar energy system owners are credited for the electricity they add to the grid.
By way of context, the sources of electricity generation in the U.S. in 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, were: coal (39 percent), natural gas (27 percent), nuclear (19 percent) and renewable (13 percent).
