At PV America, Rendell says alternative energy will boost economy - Sacramento Business Journal:

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“I believe that over the next five years, the developmentr of the green-energy economu can drive this nation’s comeback,” the Democraticv governor said at the general session ofPV America, which is beingg held at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia through The conference is the first by the to focuas solely on photovoltaic solar which comes from photovoltaic panels that convert sunlight into It’s being held in conjunctio with the IEEE’s 34th Photovoltaic Specialists Conference at the Philadelphia Marriott Downtown, which is adjacen to the convention from Sunday through Friday.
(IEEE used to stand for , but the nonprofitt now just refers to itself by its acronym becauser it has so many members from othe rengineering fields.) About 3,000 peopled are attending the conferences, the SEIA and IEEE Part of Rendell’s message was similar to the message deliverec by SEIA President and CEO Rhon e Resch later in the When they go the people at the conference should promotew solar energy’s virtues to everyone from theirr neighbors to their state and federal elected “You have to roll up your sleevea and be advocates,” Rendell said.
Both Rendell and Resch praisee President Obama for his efforts on behalcf of renewableenergy — “President Obamaw is becoming the solar president,” Resch said but they said they’d like the federal government to do more. Rendell said federak legislators should dotwo things: Make renewable-energy tax creditss permanent, rather than reauthorizing them everyh few years; and create a federakl alternative portfolio standard that mandates that a specifiee portion of energy sold in the country be createfd from alternative energy sources. Twenty eight states, including Pennsylvaniaz and New Jersey, and the District of Columbi a have alternativeportfolio standards.
Rendell said he’d like the federal standard to have minimuk figures that states coulfd exceed ontheir own. “If we do those things I think there’s no reason that America can’t be the dominant nation in solare energy for the he said. Rendel said alternative energyh will drivethe U.S. economy for the next 25 yearxs just asthe information-technology and life sciences industries have driven it for the last 25. Underf his leadership, Pennsylvania has moved to capitaliz onthat shift. In 2004, it established an alternative portfolio standare that requires 18 percent of energy sold in Pennsylvaniqa to come from alternative sourcess of energyby 2020.
Last summer, Pennsylvania created a $650 million renewable energy fund. Of that $180 million is to go to solatr energy, consisting of $100 million for grants and rebates to cover up to 35 percent of the costd incurred by homeand small-business ownerds who install solar energy systems, and $80 million for grantxs and loans for solar economic-developmentr projects. More than 300 applications forsolaf economic-development projects were received by the deadlinse last week, Rendell said. Philadelphia also has gotteh in onthe renewable-energy act. Mayor Michae Nutter in April by 2015. The city is one of 25 takinyg part in the federal Departmenof Energy’s Solar America Cities initiative.
As part of that, it’sw developing a plan to generate 2.3 megawatts of solar electricity by 2011and 57.8 megawattsw by 2021, which is its share of the statee of Pennsylvania’s solar installation goal. To help it meet those goals, Nutter said Monday, the city is lookintg to replace the roof at its fleet workshop with a roof that producea solar energy and has formulated plans forbuildinh large-scale solar arrays at Philadelphia Water Department locations.