future clean tech

Green Inc reports that New Jersey will double its solar power through small-scale, telegraph pole-mounted solar PV installations. This will “maintain New Jersey’s position as the nation’s second-ranked state for solar photovoltaic installations, behind only California.”

$515 million for 80 megawatts, however, sounds a bit rich to me. I mean, seriously? The peak power output of this project is likely to be more like 24 megawatts. $515 million? Surely there are better things to do with ratepayers’ hard-earned cash, particularly during this downturn.

The Wall Street Journal reports that California is “spending $3.3 billion on subsidies, hoping to get 3,000 megawatts installed.” Now that’s more like it. Of course, that means that Sacramento isn’t footing the bill for every megawatt.

Still, the NJ utility’s chief executive, Ralph Izzo, makes a good point: “We’ve got to stop pretending solar power will lower the cost of energy. It’s going to increase the cost, and people have got to understand why it’s worth more.” The WSJ continues: “He listed the names of pollutants produced by coal or gas incineration that don’t occur with solar technology.”