Solar energy threatened in state known for eco-friendly fuel

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Solar energy threatened in state known for eco-friendly fuel

2019-04-25 22:34 Last Updated At：22:40

When Todd Miller began his two-person solar installation business in a suburb of Des Moines, one of the challenges he faced was keeping up with customer orders, as tax incentives and plunging prices for the boxy roof panels created a booming demand for this form of clean energy.

Four years later, Miller's company has grown to 14 employees, but now he faces a real obstacle: action in the state Legislature that he says could put solar companies out of business.

The threat is coming from an unlikely source, a utility known as an alternative energy champion for its installation of thousands of wind turbines across the landscape. The wind energy darling is pushing lawmakers to tack on an extra cost to future solar customers, even if doing so makes solar energy economically uncompetitive.

"Everything should be lined up for the best year we've ever had," Miller said. "Instead, it's been a lot of sleepless nights."

For years wind and solar were friendly twins in the campaign for green alternatives to fossil fuels, but the relationship is getting ugly in a number of states, especially in Iowa, where more than 4,000 turbines generate 34% of the state's electricity, the second highest rate in the country.

About half of those turbines were installed by Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy, a wind energy leader that proudly notes its towering blades spin enough power to equal its customer demand. The utility has taken aim at a growing solar industry made up of dozens of small companies across the state.

The acrimony comes as alternative energy sources are powering an increasing percentage of the country's needs. Since 1990, the country's wind energy capacity has grown from a tiny 0.2% to 6.5% in 2018, and in the past decade solar capacity has had an average annual growth rate of 50%. About 2 million solar systems have been installed on homes and businesses nationwide, with 3,700 in Iowa.

As alternative energy becomes more popular, the questions are growing about the appropriate level of tax incentives and other rules designed to jumpstart such power sources.

MidAmerican has received billions of dollars in federal tax credits to build its wind farms. With those incentives being phased out, MidAmerican and other utilities are now challenging the special perks that solar receives. The federal tax credits covering solar installation costs will decline in the coming years, ending for residential in 2022 and sticking at 10% for commercial projects.

A key to solar's recent success in Iowa and many states is that when panels produce excess energy, state law requires it be sold to utilities at a premium price. Solar advocates argue that if the price is lowered or other fees added, as MidAmerican has proposed, the foundation of the industry's expansion is threatened.

"At a time when we're being ravaged by extreme weather events that are the result of a warming planet and climate change, we should be thanking people, businesses, farmers and homeowners that have taken it upon themselves to produce some carbon-free energy where they live and work," said state Sen. Joe Bolkcom, a Democrat and advocate for alternative energy. "We should be thanking people for doing more of that, not trying to kill all the jobs and undermine the good work that's gone on across the state."

MidAmerican has pushed hard for the measure in the Legislature that would require a homeowner with an average solar array to pay about $27 a month, cutting deeply into the savings customers see if they install a system at a cost of $30,000 or so.

While energy savings vary regionally, advocates contend that solar systems can roughly pay for themselves over 25 years.

The state Senate has approved the measure, mainly with Republican votes. It's awaiting action in the House, but is opposed by legislators who note farmers are enduring tough times and that new fees would deprive them of an option for saving money.

MidAmerican argues the new fees would go toward maintenance of the electrical grid, which solar customers use when they sell excess power back to the utility.

"It's about customer fairness," MidAmerican spokeswoman Tina Hoffman said. "Paying for the grid if you use the grid is what this policy is about."

Utilities across the U.S. have made similar arguments when they proposed increasing fees to solar customers or paying less for their excess power. While about 20 states have approved rules encouraging solar, Republicans in many states often have been sympathetic to utility arguments that tax breaks simply shift costs to other customers.

MidAmerican is a big contributor to both Republican and Democratic politicians in Iowa, and the state takes pride in the utility's success in making Iowa a wind energy mecca.

In Maine, utilities also lobbied for measures that would make solar less attractive economically. Then-Gov. Paul LePage, a Republican, backed the moves, but new Democratic Gov. Janet Mills reversed his actions this year.

Kansas regulators in 2018 eliminated much of the cost savings for solar users who sell back extra power. In Indiana, utilities gained passage of a bill that reduced the rate solar customers were paid for excess power, prompting a giant drop in panel installations. It was a similar story in Nevada in 2016, but a backlash prompted lawmakers to quickly make a U-turn.

Miller, who operates his solar business in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny, said he thinks the issue is less about fairness and more about a profitable utility eager to limit competition and dominate solar as it now does wind power. Last year, MidAmerican reported a profit of $682 million.

Miller noted that at a legislative hearing, a MidAmerican lobbyist promised that the utility would use the additional fee to invest in large-scale solar projects.

"They're using that as the stepping stone to take over any and all solar," Miller said. "If energy is being produced, they want to produce it."

Nationally, utilities are increasing investment in solar and in 2018 were responsible for more than half of new installations, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association.

Ashley Brown, who leads Harvard University's Electricity Policy Group, said state authorities who oversee private utilities could step in if they believe companies are pushing out smaller competitors. But Brown argues that users shouldn't expect a free ride on infrastructure owned by utilities.

"The people who want to use the system should have to pay for it," he said.

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Venice launches experiment to charge day-trippers an access fee in bid to combat over-tourism

2024-04-25 17:37 Last Updated At：17:41

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Under the gaze of the world’s media, the fragile lagoon city of Venice launched a pilot program Thursday to charge day-trippers a 5-euro (around $5.35) entry fee that authorities hope will discourage visitors from arriving on peak days and make the city more livable for its dwindling residents.

Visitors arriving at Venice's main train station were greeted with large signs listing the 29 dates through July of the plan's test phase, as well as new entrances separating tourists from residents, students and workers.

Stewards were on hand to politely guide anyone unaware of the new requirements through the process of downloading the QR code to pay the fee.

“We need to find a new balance between the tourists and residents,’’ said the city’s top tourism official, Simone Venturini. “We need to safeguard the spaces of the residents, of course, and we need to discourage the arrival of day-trippers on some particular days.”

Arianna Cecilia, who lives in Rome and was visiting Venice for the first time with her boyfriend, said it felt “strange" to have to buy a ticket to enter a city in her native Italy, and then pass through a tourist entrance.

The couple were staying in nearby Treviso, and had paid the fee and downloaded the QR code as required prior to arrival.

Workers in yellow vests carried out random checks at the train station, and anyone caught faces fines of 50 euros to 300 euros — though officials said “common sense” was being applied for the launch.

The requirement applies only for people arriving between 8:30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Outside of those hours, access is free and unchecked.

Venice has long suffered under the pressure of over-tourism, and officials hope the pilot project can help provide more exact figures to better manage the phenomenon.

The city can track the number of hotel visitors — which last year numbered 4.6 million, down 16% from pre-pandemic highs. But the number of day visitors, which make up the majority of the crowds in Venice, could only be estimated until recently.

A Smart Control Room set up during the pandemic has been tracking arrivals from cell phone data, roughly confirming pre-pandemic estimates of 25 million to 30 million arrivals a year, said Michele Zuin, the city’s top economic official. That includes both day-trippers and overnight guests.

But Zuin said the data is incomplete. “It’s clear we will get more reliable data from the contribution” being paid by day-trippers, he said.

Venturini said the city is strained when the number of day-trippers reaches 30,000 to 40,000. Its narrow alleyways are clogged with people and water taxis packed, making it difficult for residents to go about their business.

Not all residents, however, are persuaded of the efficacy of the new system in dissuading mass tourism. Some say more attention needs to be paid to boosting the resident population and services they need.

Venice last year passed a telling milestone when the number of tourist beds exceeded for the first time the number of official residents, which is now below 50,000 in the historic center with its picturesque canals.

“Putting a ticket to enter a city will not decrease not even by one single unit the number of visitors that are coming,’’ said Tommaso Cacciari, an activist who organized a protest Thursday against the measure.

“You pay a ticket to take the metro, to go to a museum, an amusement park; you don’t pay a ticket to enter a city. This is the last symbolic step of a project of an idea of this municipal administration to kick residents out of Venice,” he said.

Venturini said about 6,000 people had already paid to download the QR code, and officials expect paid day-tripper arrivals Thursday to reach some 10,000.

More than 70,000 others have downloaded a QR code denoting an exemption, including to work in Venice or as a resident of the Veneto region. People staying in hotels in Venice, including in mainland districts like Marghera or Mestre, should get a QR code attesting to their stay, which includes a hotel tax.

The tourist official says interest in Venice's pilot program has been keen from other places suffering from mass tourism, including other Italian art cities and cities abroad such as Barcelona and Amsterdam.

Marina Rodino, who has lived in Venice for 30 years, is opposed to the new plan. She was passing out mock EU passports for “Venice, Open City,” underlining the irony of the new system, and challenging its legal standing with citations from the Italian constitution guaranteeing its citizens the right to “move or reside freely in any part of the national territory."

Rodino has seen her local butcher close and families leave her neighborhood near the famed Rialto Bridge as short-term apartment rentals spring up. But she said the new entrance fee requirement will still allow young people to flood the city in the evening for often rowdy gatherings.

“This is not a natural oasis. This is not a museum. It is not Pompeii," she said. “It is a city, where we need to fight so the houses are inhabited by families, and stores reopen. That is what would counter this wild tourism.”