The City of Angels is planning to up its use of solar electricity in a big way in the coming years, both through a ballot measure to increase the use of solar panels to be installed and owned by the city’s utility, and through a bold new initiative which aims to power the city with rooftop solar and solar electricity generated by large-scale plants in the Mojave Desert.
On March 3, Los Angeles will vote on a ballot measure that will allow the DWP to install and own 400 megawatts of rooftop solar panels by 2014. That amount of new generation would make LA the #1 city for solar electricity internationally.
But not everyone thinks the plan is so bright and shiny, since it was conceived largely by a group with strong ties to the union that represents the utility’s workers. The LA Times said in a recent editorial that the ballot measure “stands the priority list for intelligent solar policy on its head. Increased electrical generation capacity and benefit for ratepayers fall to the bottom. They’re replaced by secondary priorities, such as economic stimulus and job security for DWP workers, or even non-priorities (for L.A. residents, anyway), such as near-exclusive IBEW power [International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers] over awarding solar-panel-installation jobs and union support for elected officials.”
As if the ballot measure wasn’t stirring enough controversy, on November 24, “Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa unveiled an ambitious long-range plan Monday for securing enough solar power to meet one-tenth of the city’s energy needs by 2020, a move aimed at making L.A. a hub of the solar-energy industry.”
This ambitious plan calls for 1,280 megawatts of new solar generation to be built in and around Los Angeles by 2020. To put this in perspective the total capacity of new solar electricity installations worldwide in 2006 was 1744 megawatts.
According to the LA Times, “DWP General Manager and Chief Executive H. David Nahai said his agency will spend the next 90 days developing a financial analysis of the solar plan, including its effect on ratepayers.”
As the news unfolds, we’ll be back with another post. Stay tuned…
