Subsidies? We Don’t Need No Subsidies!

By James McCusker on March 25th, 2009

Back to reality. That seemed to be the overwhelming sentiment at the recent Merrill Lynch Cleantech Leaders Conference in New York. The heady boom time days of the last few years that were still present only five months ago at the Solar Power International Show were over, replaced by a new pragmatism. It was interesting to see how clean tech industry giants like Suntech, Raser, First Solar, General Electric and ICR client Clean Energy Fuels were changing their business strategy in an unprecedented market environment that is changing so rapidly. The emphasis was all about how close each company’s technology was to grid parity. Deep down companies know that they can’t count on government subsidies and tax cuts forever, renewables need to get to a point where the cost of energy generated by solar, wind, geothermal and biofuels is the same as electricity from the traditional utilities and it seems that time is coming sooner rather than later.

The highlight or the “Wow, that’s kinda cool” moment for me from the conference was Akeena Solar CEO Barry Cinnamon’s presentation where he talked about how the company is taking residential solar rooftops retail in the next six months by offering do-it-yourself home solar kits that can be sold and installed by homeowners and will be available in retail chain outlets such as Home Depot. This is made possible by Akeena putting a mini power inverter on each solar panel which allows the panels to plug together like Legos and then feed directly into your home power supply. Until now a main power inverter box needs to be installed on all homes with rooftop solar and that creates the need for an electrician and boosts the cost. When I asked Cinnamon if he planned to offer a BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaic) version at some point he told me that he essentially thinks BIPV is a pipe dream, “It looks pretty but the cost and efficiency just aren’t there.”