Yesterday, local political leaders, including Mayor Kevin Johnson, announced the launch of Clean Energy Sacramento, a property assessed clean energy (PACE) program operated by Ygrene Energy Fund.
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Enter the stimulus-funded Section 1603 clean energy cash grant program.
FORBES: Critics of Clean Energy Stimulus Program Miss The Point
Cutting the DOE program would "kill all clean energy projects with pending DOE loan guarantee applications, causing the loss of tens of thousands of jobs and many other benefits, " the Solar Energy Industries Association said in a statement.
The argument that providing grants to clean energy projects already under construction when the stimulus program began is some kind of boondoggle misses the point at both the level of an individual project, and the clean energy sector as a whole.
FORBES: Critics of Clean Energy Stimulus Program Miss The Point
The President could get even more aggressive by proposing new clean energy deployment policies that explicitly tie research to market outcomes, such as through a Race to the Top energy program, or the creation of regional energy innovation consortia.
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At the scale of the clean energy sector as a whole the effects of the cash grant program have been substantial and positive.
FORBES: Critics of Clean Energy Stimulus Program Miss The Point
According to Lighting Africa, a joint World Bank - International Finance Corporation program developed to increase access to clean sources of energy for lighting, 589 million people in the continent live without access to a public electricity facility.
As we argued previously, while the stimulus was hastily constructed and not particularly well optimized, the program ultimately helped forestall the collapse of the domestic clean energy industry.
FORBES: Media Controversy Over Stimulus-Funded Clean Energy Grant Program Lacks Substance
"Without the federal loan guarantee program, private-sector capital earmarked for this and other clean-energy projects will stay on the sidelines, " NRG Chief Financial Officer Christian Schade said by email.
Given the decades-long absence of a national clean energy strategy in the United States, the fact that foreign companies are benefiting most from the stimulus grant program should come as no surprise.
FORBES: Beyond 'Buy American': The U.S. Needs a Clean Energy Strategy
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