Renewable energy execs say change comes too slowly

www.reuters.com
Aug 10, 2009

LAS VEGAS, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Renewable energy leaders on Monday said the United States is moving too slowly to turn the economy green, despite support of the administration of President Barack Obama. Executives from companies seeking profits in the ever more popular world of "cleantech" aired their complaints at the National Clean Energy Summit sponsored by Senate Majority Leader and Nevada Democrat Harry Reid.

The conference, which included clean environment advocates and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu and others, was a pitch session of sorts for new technologies from renewable energy chief executives. More often than not, those executives said that they could better deploy the products to help the environment if the government did not make it so hard and provided better incentives. High-tech building supplies and window maker Serious Materials Chairman Marc Porat said his company is retrofitting homes with insulating panes that were five times more effective than traditional ones.

But it wasn't going fast in terms of replacing all the windows in the United States. "We are on a 10,000 year trajectory," he said. BrightSource Energy President and Chief Executive John Woolard said that he was "two and a half years into a one-year process" to get permission to build a California solar thermal plant, which would use heat from the sun to power a turbine. "I'm here to tell you from the front lines, it is not an easy thing," he said, arguing that every project delay backed up the projects behind it. "If you look at the sense of scale, we are losing ground," he said.

Technology transfer of U.S, inventions overseas and lack of investment funds at home also concerned many around the table of more than 20 speakers, who were given a few minutes each. "Most of our materials go offshore," said Stephanie Burns, chief executive of Dow Corning [DOWCR.UL], which makes solar energy system components. Potential factory builders needed cash. "They need access to financing," she said.

The U.S. Southwest is full of deserts and windy mountain passes that are turning the region into a renewables leader, but not fast enough for many, even as the U.S. Congress considers a climate change bill. "The technology is there, scalability is the issue," said Senator Maria Cantwell, a Democrat from Washington, summarizing speeches in the morning.

Clear policy would make building big projects easier, she added, echoing executives whose complaints ranged from red tape stopping large-scale solar energy plants in the desert to the slow roll-out of efficiency products. Gore sparked the only confrontation at a table resoundingly positive about the possibility for change, asking the head of utility Nevada Energy why his company was not capturing waste heat for further use at coal-fired plants.

"We'd keep after a question until it was answered," Gore said, recalling Senate hearings with Reid, after NV Energy (NVE.N) Chief Executive Michael Yackira failed to satisfy him. The executive said he would look into it.