Foreign Solar Firms Occupying U.S. Deserts
Photo credit: solveclimate.com
Albiasa Solar, a Spanish company, has announced plans to build a $1 billion, 200 Megawatt concentrating solar power (CSP) plant in the Arizona Desert, covering 1,400 acres of desert with parabolic trough collectors. As this and other CSP plants begin to take shape in the desert southwest states (California, New Mexico, Nevada, Arizona, etc.), controversies regarding land, water, and transmission concerns are following as well.
A less talked about but potentially controversial fact is the number of foreign solar firms designing, funding, and implementing these solar plants in the United States. The issue raised here is not so much about foreign companies on U.S. soil — indeed the bigger problem there is U.S. companies sending work and money overseas — but rather the question: Where are all the American companies? The answer to that question is actually rather simple, the implications of which are beginning to get attention under a new administration.
Albiasa, Acciona, Abengoa: these are all companies with vested interests in the desert southwest and CSP technology. They all originate in Spain as well. Abengoa has even received funding from the Department of Energy to research and develop more advanced solar thermal technology.
Photo credit: Prime Solar Company
To explain why foreign firms, Spain being most specific to CSP, are dominating stateside, one need only look at Spanish solar subsidies over the last several years. In 2002 the Spanish government adopted a feed-in tariff designed specifically for concentrating solar power. That law has helped propel Spanish companies to the forefront of the commercial solar thermal industry, leading Spain to the #2 spot in solar production as of 2008.
In the United States no such feed-in tariff exists. We still do not even have a national renewable energy standard as of yet. The extension of federal solar tax credits have certainly increased the appeal of sunny southwest deserts, but foreign firms are often better suited to jump on the opportunity because they have established themselves (monetarily and experientially) in the industry over the last several years. In other words, they get a jump because they got a jump.
The implications of foreign solar firms operating in the U.S — including manufacturers, German PV companies, and others — are tantamount to a dominant American solar industry. Without exception it boils down to government subsidies: We lack vital incentives for manufacturers (even U.S. companies are opening manufacturing plants overseas), national net metering/feed-in tariff rules, and a national RPS to motivate utilities and encourage renewable energy investment.
The American solar energy industry is ramping up for big advances over the next eight years. Whether or not foreign solar firms will continue to dominate Big Solar remains to be seen. The aforementioned incentives, as well as those to encourage domestic involvement in all areas of solar energy production (at least get these foreign firms to open manufacturing plants stateside), will be necessary to move the United States into competition with other world leaders. We most certainly have the climate and resources to do it, now all we need is the motivation.
Posted on May 11th in Solar Politics by Dan.