Clean Energy In the News

Rep. Garnet Coleman and Sen. Rodney Ellis have filed legislation – HB 2226 and SB 1357 – to build a solar power market here. The TexSun Solar Energy Rebate Program would create a five-year, half-billion-dollar incentive operation to give solar the jumpstart it needs to get up and running.

The program would provide rebates to make it cost-effective for about 50,000 Texas homeowners and businesses to put solar panels on their roofs.

The rebates would be funded by a surcharge on our electric bills of 65 cents a month, something polls show a strong majority of Texans would gladly pay to help develop solar power. Homeowners using the panels would benefit from dramatically lower electric bills that would save them money over the lifetime of the photovoltaic (PV) system, including immediate savings if they finance the system themselves.

TexSun wouldn't just provide value for people with the solar systems, but for everyone who uses the electricity grid. Solar PV generates the most electricity during long hot summer days, when electricity is the most expensive to produce, reducing the need to build new power plants and transmissions lines.

The state as a whole would benefit by leveraging significant private investments to support our public electricity infrastructure. And with growth in demand, the economies of scale will help make solar affordable for everyone.

TexSun would also be great news for our environment. By reducing demand for fossil fuels, the fund would reduce smog pollution by 5,000 tons and global warming pollution by 3 million tons.

Despite the fact that Texas has the greatest solar energy resource potential in the entire nation, we still generate only a tiny fraction of 1 percent of our electricity from the sun. Yet each year, more than 170,000 homes are built in this state, adding considerable strain to our electric grid.

It has often been said that it is not a question of if, but when solar power becomes cost competitive with traditional electricity sources. By adopting the right programs and policies today, Texas can have a great deal of control over the future cost of solar power and how rapidly it becomes cost-competitive.

By getting in on the ground floor of this new market, Texas can also benefit economically. The TexSun program would bring an estimated $1 billion dollars in investment to the state, creating more than 4,000 job-years in employment.

The best way to ensure that Texas sees a future expansion in solar power capacity is by committing to long-term market development programs that include financial incentives such as TexSun. Experience in California and in other countries, especially Japan, has shown that such government programs can lead to increased demand, lowered prices, and ultimately a robust, self-sufficient solar market in which government incentives are no longer necessary.

We can protect our environment and move to a cleaner energy future by using our technological know-how to put the sun to work.

Through policies passed in 1999 and 2005, the Legislature helped create a boom for wind power in Texas.

Now it's time for them to help Texas go solar by creating incentives for homeowners and businesses to install solar.

Luke Metzger is the Director of Environment Texas, a statewide citizens' advocacy organization based in Austin.