DOE defends spending on wind, solar, says clean energy 'gaining force'

...the U.S. Department of Energy declared in a Sept. 17 report that it has served as a catalyst for "four technology revolutions that are here today."

The report, titled "Revolution Now: The Future Arrives for Four Clean Energy Technologies," focused on onshore wind power, solar photovoltaic installations, LED lighting and electric vehicles. "Although these four technologies still represent a small percentage of their total market (e.g. electricity, cars and lighting), they are growing rapidly," DOE said. And like the hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling technologies that have sparked a domestic oil and gas boom, all four of these clean energy fields have been supported to varying degrees by federal funding, the report said.

The study was released a day before Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is scheduled to attend a high-profile House subcommittee hearing on climate change. Republican leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power are skeptical of climate science and the administration's efforts to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, which the majority of scientists believe are contributing to global warming. The specific findings in the DOE study could be used by Moniz to fend off GOP criticisms of the Obama administration's clean energy spending.

In the case of land-based wind, a combination of technological progress and the 2.3-cents-per-kWh federal production tax credit have helped it become "the first non-hydro renewable energy source to begin to approach the same scale as conventional energy forms like coal, gas and nuclear," DOE said.

In addition to spurring deployment of wind turbines, government research and development funds have helped to lower the cost of wind power by increasing turbine size, scaling up production and increasing operators' understanding of wind patterns, the report said.

DOE suggested that further R&D spending and an extension of the PTC, which expires at the end of 2013, is needed to sustain the wind industry's booming growth. "With continued technology improvements and policy support, the Department of Energy estimates that as much as 20% of projected U.S. electricity demand could be met by wind power by 2030," the report said.

The increasing use of solar photovoltaic-generated power in the U.S. is largely thanks to "advances in technology and increased economies of scale," DOE observed. But, it added, the growing domestic solar industry has also been helped by the 30% federal investment tax credit for rooftop PV systems and other incentives.

There is still significant room to lower the so-called soft costs associated with installing solar PV systems. These permitting and installation fees are about five times higher in the U.S. than in Germany, the report found.

After years of DOE R&D funding, the markets for LED lights and electric vehicles have gone from virtually nonexistent in 2008 to growing exponentially year over year, the report said. Now they, along with wind power and solar PV, "are all on track to transform our economy for the better," it said.

While DOE acknowledged that the growth of these industries is posing problems, for example, to utility business models and the stability of the grid, "those challenges are emblematic of success in these clean energy markets," the report said. "The historic shift to a cleaner, more domestic and more secure energy future is not some far away goal. We are living it and it is gaining force."