Solar Energy In L.A.-- And Japan

Monday night I was at the Hammer Museum for a screening of Shaun Kadlec's and Deb Tullmann's fantastic new film, Born This Way, a documentary on the gay and lesbian underground in Cameroon. Afterwards I ran into Mayor-elect Eric Garcetti. Eric's an old friend and one of the smartest politicians I've ever met. He was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford and he studied Urban Planning at Columbia. I doubt L.A. has ever elected anyone as qualified to be mayor in its entire history. I hadn't talked to Eric since he beat out the DWP shill he ran against in the runoff. I've been dying to talk with him about how the DWP systematically rips off solar energy users in L.A.-- but I restrained myself... for now.

The DWP is going to be one of many tough problems Eric is going to face as mayor. I know he already knows what crooks they are and I figured I don't have anything substantive add anyway. My home solar system was designed to eliminate my electric bill and it did but after nearly a year it started creeping back up again and is now at around 50% of it was before I covered my roof in solar panels, I can never get a straight answer out of the DWP crooks. Lucky for Cambridge, Massachusetts they have MIT on hand to make sure ratepayers there don't get the DWP treatment. They've developed a new tool to assess a city's solar power potential. “In this project we developed a new simulation-based technique to reliably predict the annual electricity yield from an arbitrarily oriented and obstructed photovoltaic (PV) array located anywhere on the planet.”

SA+P researchers have developed a new interactive map to show a city’s property owners how much electricity can be produced on their rooftops from solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, how the financial investment will pay off and how much pollution will be reduced.

The new tool shows that if photovoltaic panels were installed on all good and excellent locations in MIT’s hometown of Cambridge, the city could generate about a third of its electricity needs via PV for about $2.8 billion. The technology has been found to predict electricity yield to within 4 – 10% of actual measured results.

So far the biggest solar power generation stars have been Germany and China. But now Japan, transitioning away from nuclear, has started making a dent-- a big one. Before Fukushima only 1% of Japan's energy needs came from solar. By next year Japan will be the world's second largest solar market after China.

According to a report by energy analyst IHS on Japan's energy mix, Japan's solar installations jumped by "a stunning 270% (in gigawatts) in the first quarter of 2013." That means by the end of 2013 there will be enough new solar panels equal to the capacity of seven nuclear reactors. Such massive growth will allow Japan to surpass Germany and become the world's largest photovoltaics (PV) market in terms of revenue this year.

"Japan is forecast to install $20 billion worth of PV systems in 2013, up 82% from $11 billion in 2012," IHS said. "In contrast, the global market is set for tepid 4% growth. The strong revenue performance for Japan this year is partly driven by the high solar prices in the country." Germany still leads with the total number of units and capacity, however, with its 32,192 megawatts. Japan is now closer to the U.S.'s 8,069 megawatts at 7,429 megawatts, according to London-based BNEF.

Solar energy in Japan has come to dominate thanks to government incentives now offered to the producers of renewables and rules which require public power utilities to buy alternative power at above-market rates. A deal forged by the last government desperate to wean Japan from its addiction to oil and nuclear power led to the implementation of a very generous feed-in tariff (FIT) for renewable power generators.

Starting at 42 yen per kilowatt hour last July and now reduced in April to 37.8 yen (39 cents) the FIT is more than twice those of Chinese and German offerings.

...The provenance of the hardware has also seen a sea change with domestic panels now outselling cheap imports. Japan has a strong solar panel manufacturing industry and companies like Sharp, Kyocera, Sanyo, and Mitsubishi Electric would benefit from the new energy polices and emphasis on solar power, according to IHS.

Those same failing companies are now banking on a technological edge to push the quality up of made-in-Japan solar panels while keeping prices down. Doing so could make solar one the few bright points of the Japanese electronics industry. Sharp recently unveiled new solar panels that it claims not only use just 1% of the expensive silicon used in conventional models but are thin enough and clear enough to replace windows.

Others are focusing on efficiency. To make solar electricity affordable on a large scale, researchers have long been trying to develop a low-cost solar cell, which is both highly efficient and easy to manufacture with high output-- silicon-based solar cells typically have an efficiency of around 21% for converting sunlight into electricity.

According to Panasonic its prototype solar cell has achieved the world's highest conversion efficiency at 24.7%, verified by tests performed at Japan's National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology.

"How long the boom in solar can last in Japan is hard to tell, but as land runs out, there will be slowdown," says Hoshi. "Of course there are still the rooftops to exploit as mobile carrier Softbank is doing. It's renting rooftops for solar-- a very smart and interesting business model. Perhaps, unlike previous attempts to deregulate Japan's electric utility industry, this should be a success."

Meanwhile, The U.S. generated 730 million kilowatt hours of solar electricity in the first two months of 2013-- so not the sunniest months anywhere-- 227% more than the same period in 2012, according to new EIA data. That's already 10% of the total amount generated for all of 2012.

Read More

Election Day In L.A.: Eric Garcetti Is The Better Candidate... By A Mile

I don't recall any L.A. Mayor going on to be President of the United States. Eric Garcetti could be the first. Today's the day that will be decided. His opponent, "former" (technically-speaking) Republican Wendy Greuel, a shill for the DWP (Department of Water and Power), is a dead end hack with a lot of endorsements from a lot of people who instinctively pick a corrupt conservative Democrat over a progressive reformer. Bill Clinton is backing Greuel of course. He never backs progressives over ConservaDems and EMILY's List... well, they can always be counted on to play the filthy politics they play against progressive men on behalf of conservatives.

Eric started out with a massive lead and EMILY's List immediately had Greuel go negative and vicious. Garcetti stayed on the high road, running a grassroots campaign and strictly positive ad. But Greuel started gaining as her attacks went unanswered. I suspect when she ran ads claiming he isn't half Latino-- his father is Mexican-American-- he had had enough of her lies. He came out with a series of devastating TV spots tying her to the ugly corruption of the universally hated DWP, her #1 campaign donor. I hope it wasn't too late. We'll find out tonight.

While Greuel cast herself as the underdog in Tuesday's runoff, her rival, Eric Garcetti, warned volunteers in Westchester not to take victory for granted in a contest that remains fluid to the end.

"We're ahead, but we're not winning," the city councilman told them on a break from making phone calls to voters who might need some prodding. "Most people have not voted."

With the mayor's race drawing to a close, the two rivals dashed across Los Angeles on Saturday in a race to pick up support, with stops in Wilmington, Granada Hills, Venice Beach, Boyle Heights and points between.

After the release of a USC Price/Times poll showing Garcetti leading by 48% to 41%, Greuel tried to assure backers she could pull off a win, while Garcetti sought to guard against overconfidence, which could cost him the election.

But there was no escaping the mood of cautious optimism in Garcetti's camp and anxiety in Greuel's. At a Mexican seafood restaurant in Wilmington, Garcetti told dock worker Joe Cortez that he hoped Cortez would "be there July 1st for the swearing-in."

Later, Garcetti stepped outside and approached Arthur "Oldskool" Medina's glistening white 1968 Chevrolet Caprice low-rider sedan in the parking lot. He admired the hood's chrome engravings.

"I'm going to need an official mayor's car, you know?" Garcetti joked to the group of car enthusiasts who dropped by the event at Mariscos Agua Verde to urge him to open a racing strip on Terminal Island.

"I got one for you-- 62 Impala convertible-- ready to go, Eric," a bystander told him. "I love it baby," Garcetti replied. "Certainly for the parades-- we'll pull that one out."

Garcetti, whose paternal lineage is Mexican, is counting on strong Latino support in Wilmington, where he campaigned with former mayoral rival Emanuel Pleitez and ex-state Democratic Party Chairman Art Torres.

The L.A. Times which has watched both candidate sin action for years endorsed Eric, both in the primary and for today's run-off.

That's based in large part on the records both candidates have compiled in city government over more than a decade, and less on the statements, charges, claims, counterclaims, missteps, outrageous mailers, misleading ads, high-profile endorsements and spending reports that have emerged in the course of the campaign.

...Greuel disappointed as city controller. It's not that she didn't do her job; she did, performing audits, unmasking some problems on her own, responding to others as they emerged, offering appropriately conservative estimates of revenue and careful critiques of spending. As a city employee, she earned a grade of "meets expectations."

But she didn't earn a promotion. Controller is a poorly named and loosely defined job in city government that nevertheless allows the woman or man holding the office to propose far-reaching revamps of policies and processes. In a government without political parties, the controller could and should be the loyal opposition, the gadfly in chief, the public advocate. Greuel always seemed to grasp the political value of purporting to find waste, fraud and abuse in City Hall but never was able to outline for Angelenos the larger narrative of what was going wrong or how things could be better. She found a contract that she believed should be renegotiated or a program that should be better supervised, but she didn't tell the city, in essence, "Here is why building inspectors are being indicted, this is the reason the Housing Authority gets away with wasting money, here is how the mayor is mismanaging city departments and how the council members are failing in their oversight duties, and here's what can be done about it."

Garcetti, as council president, had a different role, but he did a better job with it. He was late to deal with the budget crisis, but he got there and, importantly, he then got his reluctant colleagues there as well, overseeing difficult budget cuts and taking the first tentative steps toward resolving the city's pension problem. At the same time, he remade his district with innovative programs to deter gang crime, erase graffiti, house the homeless and provide shelter for the addicted and those in need of mental health services. He guided Hollywood to a renaissance and helped make it, once again, a geographic destination rather than merely the description of an industry headquartered across the city limits in Burbank.

Perhaps most important, Garcetti has demonstrated the capacity to grow, learn and improve his performance. He admits mistakes, such as his vote in favor of a settlement allowing, for a time, virtually unregulated digital billboards. Neither candidate has the executive experience one would like to see in a mayoral candidate. Greuel's response, tellingly, is to cite her role helping to manage a small family construction business and to assert, and perhaps to believe, that it is sufficient.

Selecting a mayor may sometimes seem just as random as (and a lot less fun than) picking a winner on "American Idol," but in the end it's a hiring decision. Of the applicants, who is best suited to the job? Neither candidate is ready, but Greuel seems like a completed project that falls short of what's needed, while Garcetti comes off as a creative work in progress with potential to meet the challenge. That makes the choice easy. It's Garcetti.

I've known Eric for almost a decade. I have faith in his abilities, his integrity and his aspirations for L.A. And he's got a great wife. The final poll, released this morning, shows him ahead 49-44%. (I was polled by Survey USA for this one a couple of days ago.)

Read More

EMILY's List Up To No Good Again-- In L.A... And In Hawaii?

Sen. Brian Schatz, City Councilman Eric Garcetti-- too progressive for EMILY's List

On election day eve, late summer 2008, long after mail-in ballots had been sent in, EMILY's List sent out a bizarre message to its members in Tennessee. They withdrew their endorsement from the corrupt, conservative Democratic woman they had recruited and backed all year, Nikki Tinker, a cog in the Harold Ford political machine who was taking on progressive incumbent Steve Cohen, a 100% pro-choice ally. Tinker, was the quintessential candidate of the new EMILY's List: conservative, Blue Dog, corrupt to the bone, allied to Big Business... but she stepped over the line as her campaign turned more and more virulently anti-Semitic and upset EMILY's List's Jewish donor base in the Northeast and on the West Coast. Cohen, meanwhile had been endorsed by progressive women's groups like the National Organization for Women (NOW) and by Planned Parenthood and was way ahead in the polls.

EMILY's List's unendorsement of their candidate had no impact. But Tinker's vile ads did. Cohen won with 79.34% against Tinker's 18.64%. Before Tinker let loose with her barrage of vicious, racist, Republican-like negative ads Cohen was only leading with 65%. Negative ads work with Republican voters, not so much with Democratic voters. "It says Memphis has come a long, long way and that people who were counting on racial voting to prevail are thinking of a Memphis that doesn't exist anymore," Cohen said. "The people of Memphis are more sophisticated voters that deal with issues and someone's record and not simply race."

In the race for L.A. mayor, EMILY's List, predictably, picked the more conservative and sleazy candidate, ex-Republican Wendy Greuel, while progressive women's groups like NOW are backing proven ally and pro-Choice stalwart Eric Garcetti. No one expects anything more from EMILY's List. They back conservative, pro-choice women. But what people do expect is that they refrain from the gutter politics that have gotten them in trouble in the past. Yesterday many of us found this shady mailer from EMILY's List attacking Garcetti by objectifying women:

As Wendy Greuel and her allies unleash unwarranted attack after unwarranted attack on Garcetti, Los Angelenos have grown more and more angry, angry at Greuel and angry at EMILY's List. Garcetti, who was in a dead heat with Greuel after the first round primary has now pulled ahead by double digits. EMILY's List never learns that the Republican strategies it uses in Democratic primaries don't work among Democrats. They didn't work for Nikki Tinker and they're failing to work for Wendy Greuel. And they won't work for EMILY's List's latest conservative recruit, New Dem Colleen Hanabusa, who's running against progressive Senator Brian Schatz.

Hanabusa, an opportunist burning with ambition, was first elected to the House in 2010. She joined the conservative, Big Business-aligned New Dems and ran up a mediocre record as a backbencher with little to no influence. Rather than follow the trail being blazed by fellow congresswoman Mazie Hirono, a progressive champion, Hanabusa stuck to a path to nowhere started by much-disliked right-wing former Democratic Congressman Ed Case. Yesterday she announced she will give up her House seat to run for Brian Schatz's seat in the Senate.

Hanabusa had been considering primary challenges to either Schatz or Abercrombie. A source close to her campaign said Monday that Hanabusa had decided on a Senate campaign and was informing close allies.

A primary between Schatz, 40, and Hanabusa, 61, would evoke generational as well as political fault lines within the Democratic Party. Schatz, a progressive, has the potential to build seniority in the Senate over a generation. Hanabusa, a more traditional liberal, will contend that her experience prepares her to have an immediate impact.

By "traditional liberal," they mean corrupt conservative. The only mark Hanabusa has made in Congress, other than being a lap dog for K Street and a predictable New Dem, was pioneering a way around ethics rules to make money personally from her campaign. Hanabusa "collected significant amounts of money in interest from personal loans she made to her campaign. In addition, her campaign reimbursed her husband thousands of dollars in expenses."

“With the interest rates Rep. Hanabusa is charging for loaning her own campaign money, she could be confused for a loan shark,” said CREW Executive Director Melanie Sloan. “Most Americans open a savings account when they want to earn a little interest on their money. Instead, Rep. Hanabusa is making a killing by investing in her own campaign.”

Campaign records show Rep. Hanabusa made two loans to her campaign committee, totaling $125,000, in 2006. Since then, she has charged more than 9% interest on these loans, resulting in over $30,000 in interest payments. At the end of the 2010 election cycle, less than $3,000 of the principal on these loans had been repaid. Additionally, campaign records show that Rep. Hanabusa’s campaign committee reimbursed her husband, John Souza, almost $9,000 for food and other expenses during the 2010 cycle.

A few weeks ago, I called Honolulu City Councilman Stanley Chang when I saw he had filed the paperwork to run for Hanabusa's 1st district seat. I was excited that someone was going to offer her a primary challenge. He told me that it was an open secret in Hawaii that Hanabusa would not be running for reelection but would try to climb the political greasy pole, either by running against Governor Neil Abercrombie or against Senator Brian Schatz, both progressives. Since being appointed to Congress, Schatz has run up a 94.12 ProgressivePunch crucial vote score, the 11th best in the Senate, almost as good as Mazie Hirono's 96.30. Schatz and Hirono are both co-sponsors of Tom Harkin's bill to take Chained CPI off the table. Hanabusa is keeping her mouth shut on where she stands on Chained CPI. Schatz is exactly the kind of Democrat EMILY's List thrives on attacking and smearing. We'll be watching.

Read More