CleanTech OC Daily - 6/11/12

Net metering laws may be challenged in California
CA residents in the Central Valley can pay upwards of $200 on their electric bill each month, but some will pay only $200 for the entire year. The local utility is required to buy the excess power from residents who have solar panels at full retail prices and those credits offset purchases from the electric company during cloudy days and at night. This is a great benefit for residents, but not so much for utilities like Pacific Gas and Electric.

Vestas Looks to Latin America as US Wind Energy Expected to Fall 80%

Vestas, the world’s leading wind turbine manufacturer, will now look to Latin American markets to make up for what’s expected to be drastically reduced demand for wind turbines in the US. The reduced demand will likely occur if Congress fails to renew the wind energy production tax credit (PTC).

Getting California to 12,000 Megawatts of Distributed Generation

California Governor Jerry Brown wants 12,000 MW of distributed generation (DG) to be included as part of the 20,000+ MW of renewable capacity the state’s utilities have been ordered to put in place by 2020. In order to reach this capacity and create a road map to do so, Brown compiled a team of experts to tackle the project and reach capacity well before 2020.