Boulder, CO, April 3, 2013 –  Solar thermal technology is simple, reliable and highly efficient, but it remains the less glamorous stepchild of the solar industry, losing out to more attractive incentives for investing in solar electric systems. In developing countries, solar thermal technology is widespread, often providing the only option for hot-water heating, but the U.S. lags far behind. In some states, Renewable Energy Standards – also known as Renewable Portfolio Standards – don’t even include solar thermal. According to Mike Healy, Chair of the US Solar Heating and Cooling Alliance, there is an urgent need for new mechanisms to finance solar thermal that would provide predictable and stable incentives. Permitting regulations also need to be streamlined.

Compared to photovoltaic systems, which rarely reach more than 17% efficiency, solar thermal systems, which use the sun’s heat directly, can reach efficiencies of up to 80%. They can be used for hot water heating, space heating and cooling, pool and spa heating, and industrial process heating. In a typical residence, solar thermal can handle the hot water and space heating, which can make up roughly 50% of the building’s energy requirements. But, Sandra Lee of Skyline Innovations, a company specializing in solar thermal financing and project development, says metering of solar hot water systems is key to their ability to generate renewable energy credits and to measure the amount of utility energy offset by a solar thermal system.

While natural gas prices are just beginning to rise from an all-time low, it’s hard for residential system owners to see rapid paybacks from their solar thermal systems. That’s why, says Healy, the solar industry can benefit now by selling to businesses that now use large amounts of hot water from central boilers, such as laundries, hotels, hospitals, housing developments, food processing plants and microbreweries. Agricultural systems, including poultry farms and greenhouses, would also help scale the industry more rapidly than a policy focus on residential systems. Customers who heat using electricity, propane, or fuel oil also stand to benefit greatly from solar thermal systems.

Several panels will address solar thermal policy issues at SOLAR 2013. One panel will discuss the synergies between solar PV and solar thermal in several utility portfolios, and present a study that has measured effects on peak-load pricing and solar thermal impact on PV integration. Healy’s panel – Friday, April 19 at 3:15pm – will examine market development for solar thermal, and explore proven policy options and the practical implications of those policies given today’s political environment.

About the American Solar Energy Society:

Established in 1954, the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is the nation’s leading association of solar professionals and advocates. Our mission is to inspire an era of energy innovation and speed the transition to a sustainable energy economy. ASES leads national efforts to increase the use of solar energy and other sustainable technologies through the publication of the award-winning SOLAR TODAY magazine, the ASES National Solar Tour – the largest grassroots solar event in the world, and the the ASES National Solar Conference. For more information about ASES and the SOLAR 2013 conference please visit http://www.ases.org/solar2013.

Theme: Growing the Solar Industry: Challenges, Opportunities, & the View from Germany

Day and Time: Friday, April 19th: 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Come Join us for Friday’s plenary session at SOLAR2013 and have the honor of listening to distinguished speakers Eric Wesoff, David Wedepohl, Rhone Resch, and Tony Clifford!

Moderator
Eric Wesoff: Editor in Chief of Green Tech Media

Eric will be moderating this plenary session.

Solar Industry: The View from Germany
David Wedepohl: Head of Markets & Communications, German Solar Industry Association

David will be speaking from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM. Wedepohl holds a masters degree in Journalism and Public Affairs which he achieved as a Fulbright scholar. His professional experience includes working for the German embassy in Washington, DC as a press officer.

Solar Industry: The View from America
Rhone Resch: President & CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association

Rhone will be speaking from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM.  Representing an industry of over 5,000 companies and 100,000 employees, Rhone is the architect of the association’s strategic priorities. He previously served as the Vice President for the Natural Gas Supply Association and as a Program Manager at the EPA’s Climate Protection Division.

The Industry Perspective
Tony Clifford: CEO of Standard Solar

Tony will be speaking from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM. Since 2007 Mr. Clifford has led Standard Solar’s rapid growth into a nationally known PV developer/ EPC. Throughout his career, Mr. Clifford has served as Chief Executive Officer or Chief Financial Officer of three high growth technology companies that were acquired by major corporations.

Elaine Ulrich, Solar Energy Technologies Program, U.S. Department of Energy

Elaine will be speaking from 10:30-12:00 PM. A former AAAS fellow, Elaine has spent the past few years working on renewable energy in the office of former senator Ken Salazar, the Science & Technology committee in the US house of Representatives, DOE’s office of Strategic Planning and Analysis in EERE, and she recently served as the Sr. Legislative Assistant to Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, where she built a comprehensive solar energy portfolio.

Theme: The Climate Crisis, Extreme Weather & Renewables: Mitigation and Beyond

Day and Time: Thursday, April 18th: 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Come Join us for Thursday’s plenary session at SOLAR2013 and have the honor of listening to distinguished speakers Bill McKibben (Remote), Jochen Flasbarth, Alice LeBlanc, and Patricia Hoffman!

Creating movements around Fossil Fuel Divestment
Bill McKibben: President and Co-Founder of 350.org

Bill will be speaking from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM. He is a well known environmental author and activist, and the c0-founder 350.org, an international climate change campaign. When he’s not busy organizing, Bill is an active writer on the climate crisis and other environmental issues. In late summer 2006, Bill helped lead a five-day walk across Vermont to demand action on global warming that some newspaper accounts called the largest demonstration to date in America about climate change.

Photo Credit: Marcus Gloger

The German Approach to Climate & Resiliency 
Jochen Flasbarth: President of the German Federal Environmental Agency

Jochen will be speaking from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM. Flasbarth has led Germany’s largest national environmental authority since September 2009.  His last post was as head of the Nature Conservation and Sustainable Use of Natural Resources Directorate at the Federal Ministry for Environment (BMU). Prior to that he served as director of the NABU (Nature and Biodiversity Conservation Union) for eleven years, an association which he modernized.

Insurance and Real Estate: Partners in Solar Energy Resiliency
Alice LeBlanc: Former Director, Office of Environment and Climate Change – AIG

Alice will be speaking from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM. LeBlanc is an economist and an independent consultant who has worked for the past twenty years to promote market mechanisms as tools to address climate change and sustainable development.

Renewables, Reliability & The Grid
Patricia Hoffman: Assistant Secretary, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability – US DOE

Patricia will be speaking from 10:30 AM-12:00 PM. Hoffman is responsible for developing and implementing a long-term research strategy for modernizing and improving the resiliency of the electric grid. She directs research on visualization and controls, energy storage and power electronics, high temperature superconductivity and renewable/distributed systems integration.

A nationwide misinformation campaign is underway to dismantle state-level policies critical to the growth of wind and solar. Panelists at the American Solar Energy Society (ASES) National Solar Conference, taking place in Baltimore April 16-20, will unveil the misinformation at the heart of these efforts, and address ways to counter the opposition.

Boulder, CO, March 21, 2013 — Special interest groups opposed to renewable energy and funded by fossil fuel interests, including the billionaire Koch brothers, are stepping up their misinformation campaign to repeal or weaken bipartisan Renewable Electricity Standards (RES) – also known as Renewable Portfolio Standards – in states across the US this year.

The nationwide effort to prevent adoption of renewable energy technologies is spearheaded by the Washington, DC-based American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a source of policy templates crafted by special interest groups and corporations and distributed to ALEC members in state legislatures nationwide. Sample legislation proffered by ALEC – such as the “Electricity Freedom Act” – has resulted in copycat bills to repeal or weaken existing renewable electricity standards sponsored by ALEC members in states like Kansas, North Carolina and Ohio this year.

The language found in ALEC’s legislative template makes no mention of the external costs imposed by fossil fuels, such as volatile fuel prices, air pollution, climate change and environmental degradation. Additionally, the legislation does not account for the benefits of job creation and risk mitigation.

Renewable electricity standards now in place in 29 states and the District of Columbia, require utilities to generate a certain percentage of their electricity using renewable energy 
technologies. While the standards vary from state to state, they have contributed to a doubling of the electricity generated by non-hydro renewable energy in the last five years. And that rate of growth is increasing, adding tens of thousands of jobs and creating the fastest-growing sector of the US economy in the process.

The panel discussion of political attacks on renewable energy includes:

• Jeffery Wolfe (Moderator), Founder and Chairman, groSolar
• Emily Duncan, Director of Government Affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA)
• Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy
• Gabe Elsner, Director of the Checks & Balances Project
• David Anderson, Outreach Coordinator for Climate and Energy Program at the Union of Concerned Scientists

About the American Solar Energy Society

Established in 1954, the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is the nation’s leading association of solar professionals and advocates. Our mission is to inspire an era of energy innovation and speed the transition to a sustainable energy economy. ASES leads national efforts to increase the use of solar energy and other sustainable technologies through the publication of the award-winning SOLAR TODAY magazine, the ASES National Solar Tour – the largest grassroots solar event in the world, and the the ASES National Solar Conference. For more information about ASES and the SOLAR 2013 conference please visit http://www.ases.org/solar2013.
# # #

Contact:
Seth Masia
smasia@ases.org
303.443.3130 x109

Lili Francklyn
lfrancklyn@ases.org
303-443-3130 x 107

Theme: The Renewable Energy Landscape in 2013

Day and Time: Wednesday, April 17th: 10:30 am-12:00 pm

Come Join us for Wednesday’s plenary session at SOLAR2013 and have the honor of listening to distinguished speakers Kevin Knobloch, Eric Martinot, and John Byrne!

Economics & Politics of Clean Energy & Climate Science
Kevin Knobloch: President, Union of Concerned Scientists

Kevin will be speaking from 10:30-12:30 pm. He is knowledgable about a range of environmental and national security issues and brings 32 years of experience in public policy, government, advocacy, and media to his job as president of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

The Road Forward: The REN21 Global Futures Report
Eric Martinot: Report Author, The REN21 Global Futures Report

Eric will be speaking from 10:30-12:30 pm. Dr. Martinot has worked in renewable energy for 25 years and is an internationally recognized scholar, writer, and teacher on the subject. He is report author of the pioneering REN21 Renewables Global Futures Report, and was lead author from 2005-2010 of the REN21 Renewables Global Status Report, an annual synthesis of markets and policies.

New Energy For a New Climate: Risks & Progress
John Byrne: Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy, University of Deleware

John will be speaking from 10:30-12:30 pm. Dr.Byrne is the distinguished Professor of Energy and Climate Policy and Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy (CEEP) at the University of Delaware. He is also Chairman and CEO of the Foundation for Renewable Energy & Environment (FREE).

Boulder, CO, March 14, 2013 — The American Solar Energy Society (ASES) welcomes Jochen Flasbarth, President, German Federal Environment Agency, and David Wedepohl, Markets & Communications Director of German Solar Industry Association at its annual National Solar Conference, SOLAR 2013, in Baltimore, April 16-20. ASES will explore the German policies and financial incentives that have led to rapid growth in the country’s renewable energy installations, exceeding the expectations of policy analysts and investors around the world.

On Thursday, April 18, Jochen Flasbarth will join Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, in a plenary session on Climate & Resiliency. Other speakers include Alice LeBlanc, former head of the Office of Environment and Climate Change at American International Group (AIG) and Patricia Hoffman of the Department of Energy, Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability. Behind Germany’s rapid development of renewable energy is a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% by 2020. That goal is linked to producing 35% of electricity from renewable sources by 2020 and 80% by 2050. German goals also include reduction in fossil fuel imports and sustainable economic growth.

David Wedepohl will speak on “Building the Solar Industry” on Friday, April 19, along with Rhone Resch, head of the Solar Energy Industries Association; Tony Clifford,  CEO of Standard Solar; and Laura Jones, a partner at Hunton & Williams and an expert on tax incentives for renewable energy. Wedepohl will also participate in a panel session that explores which German policies might be appropriate in the United States.

The key driver behind the rapid expansion of renewable energy in Germany has been the Feed-In-Tariff (FIT), a long-term contract guaranteeing revenue for solar producers over a twenty-year time-period. The FIT, which pays more than the retail cost of electricity, has encouraged hundreds of thousands of German farmers and homeowners to earn income by owning grid-tied solar. Germany encourages the development of distributed energy, as opposed to central power production, a policy which has boosted economic development in rural areas and made them into net energy exporters. Because the country has focused on eliminating red tape and cumbersome permitting requirements, the cost of a PV system in Germany is half what it is in the United States. Germany’s solar industry now employs upwards of 300,000 people, more than its auto industry.

About the American Solar Energy Society:

Established in 1954, the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) is the nation’s leading association of solar professionals and advocates. Our mission is to inspire an era of energy innovation and speed the transition to a sustainable energy economy. ASES leads national efforts to increase the use of solar energy and other sustainable technologies through the publication of the award-winning SOLAR TODAY magazine, the ASES National Solar Tour – the largest grassroots solar event in the world, and the the ASES National Solar Conference. For more information about ASES and the SOLAR 2013 conference please visit http://www.ases.org/solar2013.

Learn more about the German speakers here.

Contact:
Seth Masia
smasia@ases.org
303.443.3130 x109

Lili Francklyn
lfrancklyn@ases.org
303-443-3130 x 107