Text of speech by Robert Chew, of SolarWrights, for the Save Solar rally at the R.I. State House on October 26, 2006.

Hello and welcome to the Save Solar in RI Rally. Over 29 years ago, I incorporated a solar contracting company in Rhode Island and in my wildest dreams, I would have believed that we would need a save solar rally to get the administration to include solar energy in all of its forms to be part of an overall energy strategy.

Please be assured that staging this save solar rally wasn’t the first thing in trying to get the administration to see the value of solar energy. I will make it brief but these attempts included repeated meeting with Economic Development, meetings with the Governor and his staff and most importantly, meetings with the Governor’s Chief Energy Policy Advisor. Only after exhausting all of these avenues, did I bring this problem to the public to ask for their help in saving the solar industry in RI.

To the person, when I explain to the public what has happened, they look at me with a strange look and ask why would anyone want to shut down the solar industry? I wish I had an answer but I keep coming up empty. Maybe this rally will get us some answers from those who control the future of solar energy in Rhode Island.

Let’s just examine the facts. In an October 2^nd Op-Ed by Governor Carcieri in the Providence Business News titled “R.I. has plentiful, renewable energy sources to tap, he did not even mention solar energy. In my opinion, he must be getting bad information from his Energy Policy Advisor. I base this on the fact that at a recent talk held at URI on October 1^st, the Commissioner of Energy Resources for the State, Andrew Dzykewick talked about every renewable energy resource except solar energy. When asked why he omitted solar energy, he stated that photovoltaics are too expensive and gave a figure that I don’t think is accurate.

When pleading my case before Saul Kaplan, the newly appointed head of Economic Development and Andrew Dzykewicz, their response was that solar is too expensive. I agree, that if you look quickly at photovoltaics, it appears too expensive. We need to properly compare the cost of all of the available renewable energy systems and here’s how to do it:

We need to be comparing the cost vs. benefits of renewable energy systems. To do this correctly, you need to figure the retail cost minus any incentives. You need to determine how many kW/Hours will be produced over the expected life of the system and what maintenance costs are and any replacement costs will be. Renewable energy system that can always be counted on to be producing electricity during periods of peak demand are the most valuable to society as a whole.

Don’t be fooled by the sudden RFP that just came out this Sunday for photovoltaic projects. This grant will fund maybe only four projects and no one company can get more that 50% of the money for projects. This was to encourage competition. Give me a break, even if one company received all the money and did four projects, that is barely enough to keep even a small solar company going. Choosing who gets the grants by using the lowest cost per watt makes no sense. SolarWrights has gone in at their own expense to fix two renewable energy systems that were improperly done by the low bidder. We did this to protect the industry from getting a bad reputation.

Mr. Dzykewicz cancelled the very successful photovoltaic program in January. This program has been responsible for providing incentives for all types of renewable energy systems and as a result his canceling the program, there have been no new residential or commercial photovoltaic systems that have received any incentives since then. This has caused the photovoltaic industry in Rhode Island to collapse and held back the wind industry. Keep in mind that of the renewable energy systems that have received funding from the RIREF and are currently producing clean electricity, over 95% of those installations are photovoltaic systems.

Many here may remember the booming solar industry that we had in the early 1980’s. This industry also collapsed as a result of the sudden cancellation of the Federal Solar Tax Credits by President Reagan in 1988. Over 90% of the solar companies in the country in the country went out of business within 12 months.

Yes, my company has done most of them and over the last ten months and yes, my business has been hurt as a result of the sudden closure of the solar program. Since we are the only full-time solar energy company in Rhode Island, who else is there to fight for solar energy?

Here is a fact that will explain from an economic development standpoint how important solar energy is and can be once again to Rhode Island. SolarWrights was recently named as the “Fastest Growing Private Business in Rhode Island” by Providence Business News. I was lucky that Connecticut and Massachussetts could not have been more helpful in helping us expand our business into their states, a move that has kept SolarWrights expanding. We have recently installed projects in Danbury, Ct, Bridgeport, Ct, Union, Ct, Woodstock, CT and are working on projects in Ma.

On Monday, November 6^th, I have been invited to a party. Usually I’m excited about going to parties but not this time. This party is a “Turn on the Switch” party for a recently completed photovoltaic system SolarWrights installed in Westerly. The reason that I’m upset about this party is that this will be the last photovoltaic system that was able to get funding from the Energy Office. I hope that this isn’t the case. I have just had to tell my Rhode Island crew that there is no upcoming jobs in RI.

Rhode Island was recently received only 2 stars from INC magazine for how it treats business. One star means that the state frustrates the plans of entrenepeneurs. I’m glad that I wasn’t asked to give the rating!

I am making no bones about it. I am a businessman and my company’s goal is to sell as many solar systems as possible for economic reasons but even more importantly because we have been making a difference with every system that we install.

For those who question my motives, I am not running for political office, and am not endorsing any candidates and haven’t donated any money to anyone running for political office this time. I graduated from college with a degree in Environmental Science and with a focus on energy. I started my solar company in 1977 before there were any incentives for solar. My reason for starting a solar company back then is the same as it is today, to help make our country less dependent on imported oil and to reduce the environmental impact caused by fossil fuels.

It makes no sense not to include solar energy as a substantial part of the strategy to make Rhode Island energy independent. Let me repeat that once again, Energy Independence. The current initiative is to generate 20% of the states electricity from renewable energy by the year 2014. Governor Carcieri should be applauded for this bold initiative. We need more, Rhode Island can never become Energy Independent by the production of even 100% of the electricity that we use from local renewable energy sources.

To make Rhode Island energy independent, we need to also address how we heat our water and our homes. Using electricity for this isn’t the most efficient way to do this. We also need to reduce the amount of fuel that we use for transportation purposes. Focusing our states resources only on the production of electricity will never get us there but here’s how it can be done:

We need to make our existing homes and building use less energy, this includes electricity, and fossil fuels for heating our hot water and our homes.

We need to make our new homes and businesses “Net Zero Energy Homes and Buildings”. This is easily achieved with today’s technology but we subsidies or low interest loans are required.

We need to tax those who still choose to build homes that use more energy than standard sized Energy Star homes. Let’s call it a McMansion Tax.

We need to tax those who continue to purchase vehicles that are gas guzzlers. Let’s call it a Hummer Tax. We don’t need to provide incentives to get us to purchase fuel efficient vehicles. I get an incentive everytime I fill up my Prius that gets 50 miles per gallon.

We also need to close down the underground economy and get those businesses who cheat by dealing with cash to pay their fair share. By looking the other way for so many years, the government has endorses this illegal behavior.

We need to conserve energy whenever possible. How many of you walked, rode a bike, took the bus or train, carpooled or came in a vehicle that got at least 40 mpg? That’s great. We need to conserve energy whenever and however we can.

We need to make the switch from using imported energy (coal, gas, oil) and start replacing it with all types of renewable energy systems. It doesn’t make a difference whether its wind, solar, geothermal, etc., we are going to need all of it.

During the 1973-1974 Arab Oil Embargo, our country was importing 28% of its oil. How many remember how the Embargo hurt our country? This caused the Secretary of State Henery Kissinger to announce Project Independence, a plan that was supposed to make our country energy independent. Sorry, Henry, it never worked. Instead we find ourselves importing over 62% of our country’s oil and OPEC has recently voted to to reduce production by1.2 million barrels a day.

Today, oil is the lifeblood of America and our dependence is an addiction that is killing us. The world consumes 1,490 barrels of oil per second. According to the Boston Globe, the United States has around 5% of the worlds population and consumes 25% of the world’s energy. How many people here think that this is a problem? I sure do. It part of the reason why America is hated in so many parts of the world. How many here think that if we weren’t so dependent on imported oil that we would even be in the Middle East?

How many people saw Al Gore’s movie, An Inconvient Truth. I’m afraid, very afraid and you should be too. Every one of has to reduce our Carbon Footprint now. Global warming may be the biggest challenge mankind has ever faced.

We need to change our attitude toward the consumption of energy. Just because you can afford to consume more than your share of our world’s resources than your neighbor, stop doing it. It’s not fair to our children and their children, the people who are going to have to deal with the consequences of our actions today.

I would like to take a few minutes to clarify some misconceptions about solar energy and wind enegy.

Solar energy is more than just photovoltaics. It includes solar hot water systems, solar space heating systems, solar pool heating systems and passive solar energy.

We are not running out of electricity. We are running out of electricity during periods of peak electric demand which are on those hot, sunny, summer days when everyone is turning on their air conditioners. Four times this summer, the grid almost crashed because the demand was greater than the supply. A house with a photovoltaic system typically is not using any electricity from the grid on those days and most of the time they are actually selling their surplus back to the grid helping the utility company avoid brownouts or blackouts.

Photovoltaic systems are warranteed for 25 years and will last even longer. I don’t want to hear anyone say that solar is too expensive unless they do a fair comparision. A consultant paid by the Energy Office recently stated that wind turbines generate 1,000 times the electricity than photovoltaics. He also told the Westerly Renewable Energy Committee that they should buy turbines from large, out of state companies. What’s going on here?

Residential wind turbines cost around $15,000 installed and will generate over 4,800 kW/Hours of electricity in a fairly windy area.

Commercial wind turbines need incentives. Without the generous support from the Energy Office, the Portsmouth Abbey Project would never have happened. There are plenty of businesses, schools and towns that are ready to purchase turbines now. They should now be kept from going ahead with their projects and need incentives now.

In closing, my only reason for holding this rally is to make sure that the Governor is aware of all the facts. He should talk to Ken Payne, the author of the very comprehensive energy legislation to make sure the legislation is being implemented properly, something I doubt. The legislation needs to be expanded to ensure that Rhode Island will become energy independent.

I would also like to thank Sen. Paiva Weed and…, Senator Jack Reed should also be commended for sponsoring an amendment to the National Energy Act that will make residential wind turbines qualify for the 30% Federal Tax Credits. I can’t leave without thanking Senator David Bates who had the foresight to sponsor the Rhode Island Residential Renewable Energy Tax Credit Legislation before it became a front page issue. He also sponsored the Legislation that exempts renewable energy equipment from our State’s sales tax and did what was required to get it passed. But most importantly, I would like to thank you for coming to the rally to support solar energy.