Gov. Rendell: Alternative energy to aid recovery - Austin Business Journal:

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“I believe that over the next five years, the developmentf of the green-energy economy can drive this nation’s comeback,” the Democrativc governor said at the generao session of PV which is being held at the Pennsylvania Conventiobn Center in Philadelphiathrough Wednesday. The conferencd is the first by the to focus solelhy on photovoltaicsolar energy, which comes from photovoltaic panelws that convert sunlight into It’s being held in conjunction with the IEEE’s 34th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference at the Philadelphiwa Marriott Downtown, which is adjacen to the convention center, from Sunda y through Friday.
(IEEE used to stand for , but the nonprofiyt now just refers to itself by its acronym because it has so many members from othereengineering fields.) About 3,000 peoplr are attending the conferences, the SEIA and IEEE said. Part of Rendell’z message was similar to the messag e delivered by SEIA President and CEO Rhonre Resch later inthe session: When they go the people at the conference should promote solafr energy’s virtues to everyone from their neighbors to thei municipal, state and federal electee officials. “You have to roll up your sleevese andbe advocates,” Rendell said.
Both Rendell and Resch praised President Obama for his efforts on behalfg of renewableenergy — “President Obama is becoming the solard president,” Resch said — but they said they’ed like the federal government to do more. Rendel l said federal legislators should dotwo things: Make renewable-energyt tax credits permanent, rather than reauthorizing them every few and create a federal alternative portfolio standard that mandates that a specified portion of energ y sold in the country be createfd from alternative energy sources. Twenty eightr states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and the District of Columbiwa have alternativeportfolio standards.
Rendell said he’f like the federal standard to have minimuj figures that states could exceeed ontheir own. “If we do those things I think there’s no reason that Americwa can’t be the dominant nation in solar energgy forthe world,” he said. Rendel said alternative energy will drivethe U.S. economy for the next 25 yeares just asthe information-technologyh and life sciences industries have drivebn it for the last 25. Under his Pennsylvania has moved to capitalize onthat shift. In it established an alternative portfolio standare that requires 18 percent of energy sold in Pennsylvaniza to come from alternative sources of energyby 2020.
Last Pennsylvania created a $650 millioh renewable energy fund. Of that $180 million is to go to solar consistingof $100 million for loans, grantx and rebates to cover up to 35 percent of the costs incurred by home and small-business owners who install solar energy and $80 million for grants and loan for solar economic-development projects. More than 300 applications forsolar economic-development projects were receivexd by the deadline last week, Rendell said. Philadelphiq also has gotten in onthe renewable-energ y act. Mayor Michael Nutter in April by 2015. The city is one of 25 takiny part in the federal Departmentof Energy’s Solae America Cities initiative.
As part of that, it’es developing a plan to generate 2.3 megawatts of solar electricity by 2011and 57.8 megawattsx by 2021, which is its sharse of the state of Pennsylvania’zs solar installation goal. To help it meet those goals, Nutted said Monday, the city is lookinh to replace the roof at its fleeyt workshop with a roof that produces solar energy and has formulatedd plans forbuilding large-scale soladr arrays at Philadelphia Water Department locations.