The days are getting shorter, but it's still bright and sunny in the solar realm. Both the City and County of Santa Barbara are working to make it easier for residents to get permits for rooftop solar arrays.

As with any construction project, solar permits are required for homeowners and businesses that want to install solar panels on their roofs. Processing time varies widely depending on the city or county where the permit is granted.

A new, expedited solar permitting process makes solar installations go more smoothly for all parties involved. This improved system lowers regulatory barriers for local businesses and simplifies the process for homeowners. It reduces the amount of municipal staff time needed to process the permits. It also cuts the amount of time solar companies spend on the process, which brings down the cost of solar overall. Solar that costs less, paired with a hassle-free process, makes it easier for Santa Barbarans to generate clean, local and renewable energy for our region. It's a good deal for our local environmental and economic health.

The City of Santa Barbara has lead the way for years with an over-the-counter permitting process that is quicker than most other cities. The City has recently revised their guidelines to make them even more user-friendly. With a little nudging from CEC, the County of Santa Barbara recently stepped up as well. They rewrote their guidelines for residential rooftop solar permitting to expedite the process (read the new County process). A process that used to take 2 to 6 weeks will now only take 2 days. We applaud the elected officials and dedicated staff who made these changes possible.

Now, CEC is working with the other cities in Santa Barbara County to take a second look at their permitting processes, as well as encourage expedited permitting for commercial projects.

As so many of us have hoped for years, solar is finally front page news. Unfortunately, not all the news is good; some is downright troubling and leads to more questions than answers.

Let's start with the good news.

The cost of solar is down.
The cost of solar for commercial and residential buildings dropped 17 percent from 2009 to 2010 and an additional 11 percent in the first six months of 2011 according DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Utility scale projects (very large projects that sell energy to the electricity grid) have also seen a dramatic decrease in price. This means cheaper electricity for all. It also means cleaner electricity as more utilities, businesses and homes install solar. The U.S. currently has 2.7 gigawatts (GW) of solar installed, which is equal to the capacity of almost three nuclear power plants.

There are two main reasons for the decrease in cost of solar. The first is a drastic change in subsidies in Italy. In anticipation of a huge Italian market, solar integrators demanded more panels from manufacturers. When Italy unexpectedly ended its subsidy program, integrators were left holding more panels than they knew what to do with. The law of supply and demand went to work and we have seen a decrease in the cost of solar.

The low cost of solar is spurring industry growth.
According to the 2011 Solar Jobs Census the solar industry is employing 6.8 percent more workers than last year. The industry now supports over 100,000 people. That is great news in a slow economy.

Unfortunately that's not the full picture.

Irresponsible solar manufacturing in China
Some of the low cost solar panels are not from increased supply, but from decreased quality. In those cases, cost savings are coming from decreased quality of the panels (less efficiency) and decreased quality of the manufacturing process. Less efficient panels aren't always a bad thing, but typically these panels are coming from unregulated manufacturing companies that are spewing pollution into our air and water. Stereotypically, these polluting companies are from China, and while there are some responsible companies manufacturing solar in China, there is some truth to the stereotype. Just this week China closed a solar power plant and fined the company after four days of protest by local villagers over dirty air and water. As with most products, cheaper is not always better, so we as consumers must buy our solar from responsible companies.

U.S. renewable energy policy
There is also a lot of noise about the fall and major scale-back of several big solar companies in the U.S. What this will mean to the larger market is yet to be determined, but given the grumblings about Solyndra, a company that received loan guarantees from the federal stimulus, we should take a moment to examine our federal policies on renewable energy.

First and foremost, any investor (including the government) should be careful about how it invests, and CEC supports thorough oversight. At the same time, investing involves some level of risk and we need stimulus on the research and development (R&D) efforts for renewable energy. Government supported R&D is required to keep pace with other countries who are actively trying to catch up to us in the solar market. The U.S. currently has a trade surplus from solar technologies. It will be difficult to maintain this surplus if we depend solely on manufacturing, given the low cost of labor in other countries. To keep the U.S. competitive, there must be continuous development of new technologies and consumers support of responsible manufacturing and development processes.

More importantly, government needs to set a long term price signal for carbon. Renewable energy companies will continue to fail if they do not get to play on an even playing field. Right now fossil fuel companies have direct subsidies from the federal government and indirect subsidies from society. By allowing them to pollute for free, we are lowering the costs of fossil fuels; (this is also applicable to the polluting solar plant mentioned above).

The true cost of fossil fuel dependence

What we aren't paying at the pump or plug, we're paying in disaster relief. We have had ten $1billion natural disasters in the U.S. this year. Most of them can be associated with the changing climate. Society is paying for our dependence on fossil fuels, only it is not directly associated with the fuels themselves, which leads to a false price. If we set a price on carbon either through a carbon tax or a cap and trade system, it will help the price of fossil fuels reflect the true cost. Only when we pay true costs will renewable energy will be able to compete with fossil fuels on an even playing field.

Last week the County of San Luis Obispo took a huge step toward energy independence by approving a 250 megawatt solar pv farm, also known as the California Valley Solar Ranch.  We’re excited about this news. Here’s why:

When it’s up and running, this solar farm will produce enough energy to power over 55,000 homes.

While that’s impressive, it is not the only reason that we like this project.  At CEC we are careful about the projects we endorse. We thoroughly review the full environmental impact report and ensure that the project mitigates the impacts to the greatest extent possible. Here’s a little insight into our process.

First, we check out where they are planning to build the project. The location of the project is the most important way to minimize impacts. We support projects that are:

1. On previously disturbed land – Most of this particular site is grazing land.  Parts are zoned for agriculture and parts were for a development project that never went forward.
2. Near existing transmission lines – The transmission line for this project is 3.6 miles from a substation. This is very close! Check out the map below.
3. Near existing load centers – This project is near load centers in both San Luis Obispo and King Counties.

Next, we investigate how they are minimizing their impact on the environment. In this project, SunPower plans to (among other things):

1. Avoid the most critical of habitat for species of special concern, namely the giant kangaroo rat.
2. Acquire conservation lands at a 4:1 ratio. This means that for every acre they disturb, they will put four acres into permanent conservation easements.
3. Participate in Regional Recovery Plans for species on the Carrizo Plain.

This SunPower project meets all of our requirements. We are proud to support this transition to safer, cleaner sources of electricity.

The decisions we make often have far reaching consequences.  The most recent version of the Santa Barbara Independent, featured "It Ain't Easy Being Green" as the cover story. Writer Brandon Fastman grapples with the decisions we must make regarding our energy use and our expectations of energy generation.  He accurately portrays some of the barriers to renewable energy, as well as some of the opportunities we have locally.

We at CEC strongly believe that we can find a balance between the local impacts, and the global and local benefits of renewable energy development.  To get there, we’ve got to work together to find solutions to those barriers and set safeguards in place.  Only then can we truly have sustainable development that protects the environment, promotes a healthy economy, and creates a more equitable earth.

While you’re poking around this week’s issue of the Independent make sure to check out our Festival Guide. It’s absolutely jam packed with highlights and activities at the Earth Day Festival this weekend. We hope to see you there!

In a recent vote, California lawmakers voted to pass a bill that would require a third of our state’s electricity to come from clean energy sources, such as solar power and wind energy, by 2020.

If passed by Governor Jerry Brown, this innovative bill would place California as a national leader for increasing the use of renewable energy – within this decade. The bill gives California a significant boost to the clean energy and green technology market – and their investors. Proponents of the bill, penned by state Senator Joe Simitian of Palo Alto, estimate the approach could mean creating as many as 100,000 jobs.

The bill comes at a time when some federal legislators have taken aim at banning EPA spending to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

On a local Santa Barbara level, CEC has been working to support renewable energy projects with the vision that 100% of our electricity comes from renewable energy sources within one generation. We want to see our homes, businesses and cars powered by clean, renewable and local sources of power. Read what CEC is doing and how you can help.