The Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has denied Xcel Energy Inc.’s request for a $100 million interim electricity-rate hike while regulators review the utility’s request for a $141.9 million increase.  The requested increase, if approved, would raise the average residential monthly electric bill by about 6 percent.

Last November Xcel requested a $141.9 million increase, to be effective starting Dec. 23rd.  But since it could be this coming summer before the PUC reaches a decision on the request, Xcel asked for the interim hike.  The PUC rejected that request this past Wednesday, saying the company failed to show it would be adversely impacted by maintaining current rates while the commission reviews the $141.9 million request.

Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz says Xcel officials are disappointed because they feel “regulatory lag” is a growing concern, but they’re looking forward to deliberations on the full request.

Arise Energy Solutions Perspective:

“This is great news for Colorado residents living in Xcel’s service area,” said Jim Bartlett, Arise Energy co-founder and CEO.  “After the sizable rate increases we experienced just 18 months ago, this interim increase seems particularly onerous – thus we were very pleased to see the PUC’s ruling against Xcel in this case.”

“Although we’ve received good news for the time being, it’s very likely that Xcel will receive approval for a sizable portion of the requested rate increase later this year following the PUC’s full review of the request,” said Bartlett.  “This should reinforce the importance of making greater investments in renewable energy solutions — and sooner rather than later.  As electric utility rates go up, our solar energy clients see a corresponding increase in the return-on-investment (ROI) from their systems.  That means faster paybacks, and thus a more compelling reason for investing in solar energy now.”

For more information on how a solar energy system can lock in energy rates, save money, and reduce carbon footprints, contact Arise Energy Systems for a free consultation and site assessment.   Call 720-468-3225 or email .

Last month, a Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association (COSEIA) team received $491,000 in Federal grant funds to develop a system that will cut red tape and cost for solar panel installations.

“Every municipality has been going about trying to set standards in a piecemeal fashion and that has added to cost,” said Neal Lurie, executive director of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association.

Non-hardware costs, such as permitting, installation, design and maintenance account for up to 40 percent of the total cost of installed rooftop system, according to the US Dept. of Energy, which awarded the grant.

A report released last year estimates that local permitting and inspection costs add roughly $2,500 to the average residential solar installation, nation-wide.

The average residential solar installation is now between $12,000 and $18,000 and half the costs are currently for permitting, regulatory, interconnection, customer acquisition, installation, and other similar charges, Lurie said.

The COSEIA team will work with municipalities to develop consistent lists of best practices, on-line tools and other standards, with the goal of cutting application costs by 25 percent, Lurie said.

“The Energy Department is investing in this Colorado project to unleash the community’s solar potential by making it faster, easier, and cheaper to finance and deploy solar power,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement.

The Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association team also includes: the Rocky Mountain Institute, the City of Denver, Boulder County, the city of Fort Collins, the city of Golden, and the American Solar Energy Society.

“We’re proud of the work that COSEIA is doing and the leadership our state’s solar industry organization is providing in this area to help cut red-tape and reduce administrative, permitting and inspection costs associated with the installation of solar energy systems here in Colorado,” said Arise Energy Solutions co-founder and CEO Jim Bartlett.  “Through our experience installing systems in a number of counties and municipalities across this part of Colorado,  we’ve experienced a vast range in terms of the application and permitting requirements placed on renewable-energy contractors, and it doesn’t need to be that way.”

Bartlett reiterated that all of the unique application processes used by various jurisdictions just add unnecessary time and cost to the application, permitting and inspection process, and that these costs ultimately are passed on to the system owner.

“Every additional dollar spent on aspects of the system that don’t have anything to do with actually generating electric energy, (such as application, permitting and inspection costs) just extends the time required to reach the “break-even” point for a solar solution,” said Bartlett.   “Therefore, anything we can do to streamline the process and make it more “standardized” across all jurisdictions will help lower the total cost of all systems, allowing for more rapid pay-back of renewable-energy system investments, and thus provide a more compelling financial scenario for prospective system owners.”

Arise Energy Solutions, LLC is an active member of COSEIA, and designs, integrates and installs solar energy solutions for clients in the greater Denver metro area.  Over the last two years Arise has worked to document some of the unique aspects of the paperwork and application processes used by the dozens of individual municipalities and counties when those jurisdictions are evaluating, permitting, inspecting and approving solar energy solutions.

We often get asked to share our views on why electric energy rates will go up, how fast, and why. The biggest reasons we believe the rates we pay for electric power will continue to go up are related to coal, because most of the electricity used in the US comes from coal fired plants. For as far back as anyone alive can remember, coal has been the dominant source of electric power provided here in the US.  In some places (such as Colorado, up until fairly recently) coal provides as much as 90% of electric power consumed. In other parts of our country coal may only account for 40-50% of electric power production today, but across the country the cost and availability of coal are still tremendous factors in the cost of electric power. 

Here in Colorado, Xcel Energy (the dominant electric utility) has developed and begun executing a plan to migrate almost all of its plants from coal to natural gas, with this migration expected to be complete by 2014.  The migration involves closing some coal-fired plants, re-tooling and converting some coal-fired plants so they can burn natural gas instead, and building new natural-gas-fired plants to replace the capacity lost through closure of older coal-based plants.  All of this is a smart strategy… and in rolling it out here in Colorado, Xcel has put our state in a good position.  Not only will the switch to natural gas be beneficial in terms of air quality, it will also prepare us to avoid the brunt of coal shortages that may be expected within the next 20 years.

Using natural gas as the fuel to generate our electric power is a good change. However, it will translate into higher costs for electric power because:

• The capital investments being made to convert to natural gas are substantial, and Xcel Energy is seeking to have those investments paid back through increased rates. These rate increase requests have already been submitted to the PUC.
• As we begin to use natural gas to generate electric power, doing so will drive up our rates further, because using natural gas is more expensive than using coal, per unit energy produced. Once again, the increased costs will naturally be passed along to rate payers by the utilities.

Coal resources in this country are now thought to be more like 40 years, instead of the 200+ years we’ve been told repeatedly in the past.  Part of the reason electric power has been so inexpensive here in Colorado (compared with many other parts of the country), is that the largest source of coal in the US is Wyoming, and the cost of transporting that coal to plants in Colorado is very modest given the distance involved.  This can be expected to change as we shift to burning natural gas that’s piped in from much further away.

For an interesting view on the larger issue our country faces as we approach the end of of our coal resources, check out this video interview with Leslie Glustrom, Director of Research and Policy at Clean Energy Action (CEA).   Although the interview is from 2009, the message is still very relevant today.   A report available from CEA includes a detailed analysis of the coal situation in the US.

At Arise Energy, we are passionate about the need for greater investment in renewable energy, and particularly in solar energy in areas where that resource is so abundant, as it is here in Colorado.   We continue to work with the governor’s energy office, COSEIA, and other industry leaders to drive for increased investment in solar energy here in our state, and for the required financing and incentives to make solar energy affordable for more Colorado businesses and homeowners.

New legislation agreed upon by the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate on Dec. 22 – which focuses on a payroll tax extension, unemployment insurance benefits and Medicare – does not include an extension of the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Section 1603 cash-grant program, which is scheduled to expire at the end of 2011.

The solar sector and other renewable energy stakeholders had vigorously lobbied for the continuation of this program in recent months.

The final agreement, which has been signed into law by President Obama, includes future work by senators and representatives on reconciling the differences between the chambers. Congress is expected to reconvene the week of January 23, 2012.

Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), said in a letter to members that these negotiations – while controversial and uncertain – may provide a new opportunity for including an extension of the Section 1603 program and other renewable energy tax provisions.

Resch wrote that there is “support in Congress for addressing business and energy tax extenders as part of a longer-term agreement” on payroll taxes and other economic provisions, and that SEIA plans to continue to push for extension of the popular 1603 program.

“Of course this is a big disappointment to all of us in the solar energy industry,” said Jim Bartlett, co-founder and CEO of Arise Energy Solutions. “The impact will be solely on new commercial installations. Existing commercial clients who previously qualified for a 1603 cash grant are unaffected,” said Bartlett. “Furthermore, our residential clients still have the ability to file for the 30% Federal tax credit, which remains uncapped, and expected to be in place until 2016.”

Please contact your senators and ask them to sign the Kerry/Whitehouse/Cantwell/Udall (CO) letter supporting extension of the 1603 Treasury Grant Program

Thank you for supporting the 1603 Coalition’s efforts to extend the 1603 Treasury Program. We have now entered a time-sensitive window of opportunity and we need your immediate help in contacting Senators to extend this important program.

A sign-on letter is currently being circulated by Senators Kerry, Whitehouse, Cantwell and Udall (CO). The letter calls for an extension of the 1603 Treasury Program, the biodiesel tax incentive, the 48C manufacturing credit and the wind production tax credit. Due to the status of negotiations in Congress, the Senate champions of this letter want to finalize the letter as soon as is possible. Thus, we need you to contact your Senators before noon on Thursday December 8, 2011 if at all possible.

Click here to contact your Senators immediately and urge them to add their signatures to this letter.

To extend the Section 1603 Treasury Program before it expires at the end of the year, it is imperative that there be a strong show of support on the Kerry/Whitehouse/Cantwell/Udall (CO) letter. We at Arise Energy Solutions hope that everyone who reads this call for action can take a few minutes to help with this important effort.

Thanks in advance for your help with this issue of vital importance.

Best Regards – Jim

Jim Bartlett, Co-Founder & CEO
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™

Arise Energy Solutions, LLC
The Affordable Renewable Energy Solutions Company
“We Connect You With a Higher Power”
www.AriseEnergy.com
Direct: 720-468-3225

1603 Treasury Grant Set to Expire December 31

The 1603 Treasury Program, a driving force behind the growth of the US solar industry, is currently set to expire Dec. 31st 2011.  The program has created tens of thousands of US jobs, jump started more than 22,000 renewable energy projects and generated $21.5 billion in private sector investment.  An extension of the program would lead to providing enough additional solar to power 400,000 homes.

Arise Energy would appreciate everyone joining us to provide broad support for this extension.  Please contact your members of Congress to encourage them to provide their support as well. The deadline to ink your support is tomorrow! Click here to get started. It only takes a minute!  Thanks!

In response to the International Trade Commission and U.S. Department of Commerce’s ongoing investigation into possible trade violations, China-based solar module manufacturers have begun making plans to move certain production steps out of China.

The anti-dumping complaint and countervailing-duty petition filed last month by SolarWorld and its partners in the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing could result in the implementation of steep tariffs – 50% to 250% – on modules imported from China, according to the New York Times.

Per the advice of their legal counsel, several manufacturers have all but accepted defeat and begun discussions with companies that import nearly complete modules into the U.S. for final assembly. Ocean Yuan, president of Eugene, OR-based importer Grape Solar, told the New York Times that the company is currently in talks with multiple unnamed Chinese manufacturers.

Arise Energy Solutions continues to lead with US-made modules in delivering quality PV solar solutions to its clients in Colorado.  “Although we have access to Asian-made modules, we believe most of our clients are best served with US-manufactured product, which we’re able to obtain at prices close to Asian–made modules, and with superior warranty terms,” said Jim Bartlett, Arise Energy co-founder and CEO.  He listed Schott, Schuco and Sanyo as three brands of modules that Arise Energy most often includes in its designs for clients.

By Arise Energy co-founder, Jim Bartlett

As an avid scuba diver, scuba instructor, and underwater photographer, for many years I’ve been fascinated by the nudibranch.  The term nudibranch literally means naked gills….but it’s used to describe an order of oceanic animals that are essentially snails without external shells.  I have found that Nudibranchs (commonly called sea slugs, although there are many ocean slugs that are not nudibranchs), are fascinating to study and to photograph.  In fact, there are over 1,000 known species of nudibanchs that are found in our planet’s oceans.  Although typically quite small and easily overlooked on dives unless you keep a sharp eye out for them, nudibranchs are nearly always brightly colored…and are amazingly detailed.

One of the most interesting things about nudibranchs is the ability of some species to live off of solar energy.   The “solar-powered” Pteraeolidia ianthina have dorsal and lateral outgrowths (cerata) on the upper surfaces of their bodies that that are designed so that they can contain zooxanthellae (small flagellate protozoa), which continue to utilize solar energy to photosynthesize while inside the nudibranch, and thus provide energy to the nudibranch by converting solar energy into sugars the nudibranch can process and live on.

One of our major distributors has just indicated to us that Chinese modules are no longer “bankable” until the recently filed anti-dumping lawsuit is resolved.  The reason for this concern is that the lawsuit requests a retroactive 100% tariff on all Chinese module imports back to 90 days prior to the lawsuit filing date.  This could mean tariffs retroactive back to shipments that took place starting in mid-July of this year!   While we cannot predict the ultimate outcome of the lawsuit and associated anti-dumping charges against China, we do know that the lawsuit was allowed to proceed this past week.

See this article in full at RenewableEnergyWorld.com.

Comment by Arise Energy co-founder, Jim Bartlett: “Arise Energy proudly delivers US-made photovoltaic solar modules to its clients, including modules from Schott, Schuco and Sanyo, among others.  Although we have access to Chinese-made modules, we recommend US-made modules to most of our clients.  The current political situation regarding import dumping charges makes this AES approach all the more important to our clients.   Regardless of where we or others in our industry stand on the issue of international trade disputes, we should all be striving to ensure we’re able to continue offering our clients (residential or commercial) the choice in products that they require — whether that be driven primarily by quality or by price.”

Arise Energy Solutions is proud to announce that both of its founders, Tim Meisinger and Jim Bartlett, are NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installers.  The company is committed to continuing education and to growing its team of certified installers.   Although the state of Colorado doesn’t currently require certification of solar energy professionals, this will change as of January 2012. In March of 2010, Colorado passed one of the most progressive renewable energy bills — HB-10-1001.  One provision in this new law specifies at least one certified installer must be present for every three non-certified installers present on a job site.  The objective behind this provision is to ensure the quality of Colorado’s Solar Installations going forward.  Thus, by January 1st, 2012 the ratio of NABCEP certified practitioners to other workers shall never fall below 1:3 for any solar photovoltaic installation that is to take advantage of the incentives in HB 10-1001, or on any project with state or federal funding.  For more information, click here.