SOLAR COMING ON IN OHIO

Solar energy is rising star in Ohio
Dan Gearino, July 18, 2010 (Columbus Dispatch)

"…[An 80 acre 12 megawatt solar] project was completed last month in Wyandot County…[I]t is by far the largest of its kind in Ohio history…Solar power is on the rise in Ohio, as utilities work to meet the benchmarks of a 2008 state energy law…[ American Municipal Power (AMP)] will build capacity of 300 megawatts in a series of projects across several states and over several years, with plans to break ground on the first segment this year…Marc Gerken, AMP's chief executive…sees solar power as "peak" capacity…when power demand is at its highest and the sun is shining brightest….

"…[The U.S.] had 429 megawatts of solar power installed last year…85 percent was from small systems installed on homes and businesses. Only 15 percent, or 66 megawatts, was from utility companies…[A] series of big projects…[is] scheduled…The largest is a 550-megawatt project being developed in California for use by Pacific Gas and Electric Co…to be done by 2014…Three other projects would be 300 megawatts each: two in California and one in New Mexico…to be complete by 2015…They are all photovoltaic projects, meaning they use solar panels…"

From WCQEDvideos via YouTube

"One of the most important variables is the cost of solar panels. Lately, those costs have dropped because of an oversupply. Prices might rise in the short term, but developers of solar projects expect costs to fall in the long term…[Ohio] is already a leader in manufacturing the components. Companies such as First Solar and Xunlight, both in the Toledo area, produce thin-film photovoltaic panels…

"Senate Bill 221… requires utilities to produce 25 percent of their electricity from so-called advanced sources by 2025…[It] applies only to investor-owned utilities, a group that includes American Electric Power, FirstEnergy, Duke Energy and Dayton Power and Light. Rural electric cooperatives and municipal utilities, such as AMP's clients, are exempt…So far, AEP has made the largest investment…[Besides] the Wyandot project…AEP now has enough solar capacity to meet the benchmarks for 2010 through 2012…AEP plans to commission a series of solar arrays that would produce about 12 megawatts each…"

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"The top reason for [other utilities’] inaction is cost. On a per-megawatt basis, a solar array costs up to six times as much as a coal-fired power plant to develop…[O]nce the plants are built, solar-power output varies…There is also an issue of scale. AEP's smallest coal-fired plant…has more than 10 times the capacity of the Wyandot solar array…

"Ohio's weather is not an asset for solar power…[T]he sun shines more than 50 percent brighter in the southwestern United States than in the Great Lakes region and the Northeast…Solar advocates like to rebut that with one word: Germany. That country has the most solar development in the world, even though it gets less sunlight than Ohio…"