Gulf oil disaster sets peoples minds to renewable energy

The Gulf oil spill may be helping turn public opinion in favour of renewable energies, claims a report on ABC15.com.

University studies of Algae bio-fuels may hold one important source for an alternative energy as ABC15 reports:

Benjamin Grumbles, the Director for Arizona’s Department of Environmental Quality is hoping Arizona will seize on that demand and become the powerhouse for a new era in renewable energy.

“We see Arizona as the potential Saudi Arabia when it comes to algae, algae bio-fuels. Algae can be grown in the desert, in fact the amount of land we have and the intensive sun we have can prompt the development of algae and in algae you have carbon, you have fuels, and those can be used for transportation fuels for jet fuels for military purposes for cosmetics,"

As with all disasters, there is something positive to come out of it. Let's hope the public opinion continues to be favourable, once the clean up operations have passed and the land and wildlife recover.

photo credit: higetiger

How much does the solar energy industry rely on incentives and tariffs?

The money for endless feed in tariff applications and grants towards installing solar energy has to come from somewhere and it's fairly safe to assume that there isn't some magic money pot that fills itself every night.

The problem is that to many solar installation companies, the government incentives to homeowners to install solar energy on their properties is the life-blood of their businesses. If tariffs get cut or incentives reduced, there's an immediate knock-on effect.

Take this story from earlier this April as reported in The Arizona Republic.

It concerns the introduction of smaller rebates for homeowners, many of whom felt they had beat the deadline before the new lower rates were introduced.

There has been such a reaction that the Arizona Public Service Co allowed approx' 230 applications to go through at the old rebates.

However, read further and it becomes clear that the demand on the old rebates would have seen the funds set aside running out well before the scheme's deadlines.

Of course, this story is from one of America's sunnier states but it does highlight the urgency in taking advantage of any solar rebates or tariffs at the earliest opportunity, lest they are withdrawn or cut at a later date due to demand.

If you're thinking of installing solar panels on your property and making use of the Governments feed-in tariffs which started this April, then the first step is to get an online quote to see how much an installation will cost (click here), before going on to read feedback from other homeowners who've used solar panel installation companies near where you live.

photo credit: wolfgang staudt