Subject: SEIA Press Release

From: "Solar Energy Industries Assoc." <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 3 May 1995 23:02:01 GMT

For Immediate Release   For Further Information Contact
        Scott Sklar, Executive Director
        (202) 383-2600

SOLAR INDUSTRY CALLS COAL INDUSTRY'S
REPORT "SHEER NONSENSE"

Washington, D.C.  (April 27, 1995) The Solar Energy Industries Association
(SEIA), the national trade organization of the photovoltaics and solar
thermal manufacturers, distributors, contractors, and component suppliers,
blasted the April 24th report by the coal industry's front organizations,
the Center for Energy and Economic Development (CEED) and Resource Data
International (RDI), as preposterous and unsupported propaganda.

Said SEIA Executive Director Scott Sklar, "It is unbelievable that the
coal industry, which receives nearly $8 billion in federal subsidies and
tax benefits in a single year, compared to less than $500 million in R&D
and tax incentives for the combined solar, wind, biomass, geothermal,
hydropower, and hydrogen energy industries, would make claims that it
would cost $52 billion to double the use of renewables by 2010."

O According to the April, 1993 study by the Alliance to Save Energy,
"Federal Energy Subsidies: Environmental and Fiscal Impacts," coal
subsidies per year totalled $8 billion (1989 reference year).

O A November, 1992 study by the Department of Energy's Energy Information
Administration, entitled, "Federal Energy Subsidies: Direct and Indirect
Interventions in Energy Markets," illustrated $1.1 billion in subsidies
and tax benefits for the coal industry (FY1992 reference year).  This
estimate, while more conservative, is still more than double the FY1996
request for the entire DOE renewable energy R&D budget.

These studies indicate that by the year 2010, the coal industry will have
reaped between $16.5 and $120 billion in federal taxpayer support (2 to 16
times greater than support for all renewables combined) for a mature
technology that has been in mainstream commercial use for over a hundred
years.  Solar technologies, most less than 20 years old, are only now
emerging in the commercial marketplace, with market growth of 35-40
percent a year over the last five years, and over 65 percent of new
product being exported overseas.

In contrast to the CEED study, Sklar highlighted the April, 1992 study jointly i
ssued by the American Gas Association, the Alliance to Save Energy, and SEIA, en
titled, "An Alternative Energy Future," which concluded that at current levels o
f support, the use of solar and renewables would double by 2010, natural gas wou
ld increase by 30 percent, and coal would decrease by 15 percent.  Furthermore,
over 350,000 net new jobs, as many as employed by the nation's largest automaker
, would be created in the solar and renewables, energy efficiency, and natural g
as industries.  The premise of the study was to show that by using the existing
incentives passed as part of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, the U.S. could meet
the greenhouse gas targets proposed under the UN climate change accords signed i
n Rio.

Sklar attributed the misguided CEED/RDI study to a desperate attack by
some in the coal industry in response to the recent public opinion survey
findings by Republican pollster Vince Breglio.  The telephone interview
questioned 1000 registered voters nation-wide in December, 1994.

O 85 percent of respondents agreed that the federal government should
continue to support public-private partnerships with American business to
promote the sale of renewable energy and efficiency technologies,
including programs to open new domestic and international markets.

O 42 percent ranked renewable energy technologies, including solar, as
their number one funding priority, as compared to 9 percent for nuclear, 7
percent for fossil fuels such as oil and coal, and 15 percent for natural
gas.

O 75 percent of respondents agreed that, while the overall Department of
Energy budget should be reduced, resources should be directed toward
renewable energy and efficiency and away from coal and other conventional
fuel technologies.

Solar technologies are bolstering the U.S. economy in key areas, including
exports and employment.  Over 65 percent of photovoltaics manufactured in
the U.S. are exported to developing countries.  And in contrast to coal,
60 to 80 percent of the solar technology produced in the next 15 years
would be exported overseas, offsetting oil imports which account for the
single largest component of our trade debt.

The solar industries directly employ nearly 20,000 people and support over
150,000 jobs in diverse areas such as glass and steel manufacturing,
electrical and plumbing contracting, architecture and system design,
battery and electrical equipment development, as well as general solar
system manufacturing.  Furthermore, as many as seven new, major
manufacturing plants, some with foreign investment dollars being poured
into the U.S. economy, are being built or are on the cusp of construction.
In comparison, although there currently are approximately 123 million jobs
in the United States, only about 1.4 million, or one percent, are
supported by the conventional energy industry.  Recent studies show a
trend toward even fewer jobs; for example, coal mining employment in the
United States fell by almost 40 percent between 1980 and 1988, even though
coal production grew by 14 percent.  With new methods of automation and
better production methods, the number of coal miners is predicted to
decline even further.

Solar technologies, besides providing good jobs, produce clean,
pollution-free energy.  Conversely, although fossil fuel industries
provide an extraordinarily small number of jobs for American workers, they
contribute most of the carbon emissions that threaten our atmosphere--70%
of the carbon emissions worldwide stem from fossil fuel combustion.  In
1992, United States industries emitted 5.4 tons of carbon in the form of
carbon dioxide per person.  Any new limitations on allowable carbon
emissions also will affect employment in fossil fuel-related occupations,
another reason for us to begin investing in solar energy.  A solar water
heating system, for example, will displace 71.5 tons of carbon dioxide
(CO2) when replacing an electric system, most of which get their
electricity from coal-fired plants.

In regard to the coal group's claim that no solar industry exists today or
will develop in the future because of utility restructuring, Sklar pointed
to signs abound that solar energy being accepted as an integral part of
utility business in a competitive power generation and service
marketplace:

O Over 31 trillion BTUs -- enough to satisfy the water heating needs of
nearly 1.8 million households -- are currently produced in the U.S. by
solar thermal systems, many of which are leased by utilities to consumers;

O Utilities currently use over 355 MW of solar thermal power in the U.S.
to produce more than 1,000 GWh/year -- equivalent to the electricity needs
of 100,000 American households;

O The solar thermal power industry has vowed to raise private capital to
finance a 1000 megawatt Solar Enterprise Zone in Nevada as the first new
wave of commercialization of central receiver, solar/dish engine, solar
trough and photovoltaics technologies.  Also, Solar Two, the first U.S.
baseload solar powerplant is on schedule to open in February 1996.

O Nearly 15 MW of electricity is produced in 36 states by utility-owned or
sponsored, grid-connected photovoltaics (PV).  Thousands of GW of
non-grid-connected applications exist in the U.S. and abroad, which
continue to be a lead market for PV technologies;

O PV-COMPACT, a 5 year pledge of $368 million by over 90 US electric
utilities, the largest renewable energy private sector leveraged program
ever, to help bring on the next generation of photovoltaics plants in the
United States.  The participants represent over 50 percent of the
electricity generating capacity in the U.S.

Sklar stated that solar energy could easily and economically supply 20
percent of the U.S. energy need over the next 30 years if current federal,
state and local programs to promote energy efficiency, renewable energy
development, pollution prevention and fuel diversity are maintained.  The
utilization of solar technology will double over the next 15 years with a
total of $2 billion in federal support -- approximately one quarter of the
coal industry's annual support.  The solar industries would create over
100,000 new, U.S.-based jobs without the pollution; negative environmental
impacts on land, water, and climate change; or black lung and mining
accident related health costs.  For example, according to a 1991 report by
the Mine Safety and Health Administration, nearly 14,000 coal miners are
seriously injured in accidents each year.

The Solar Energy Industries Association called the CEED/RDI study a flawed
and gross attempt to scare the American public with half-baked statistics
of their own invention.  Said Sklar, "the study was ridiculous not only
because it so poorly tried to distort reality, but also because it showed
the coal industry believes that it can aid our country's energy policy
debate by casting aspersions on other technologies.  In fact, the country
needs a diverse supply of energy resources."  Sklar called on the coal
industry and its front groups to stop the negative campaigning and become
a positive player in America's future.

RIGHT ON!!!

SEIA Press Release