SOLAR TODAY - January/February 2012

| clean air regulation advances Ozone Day Massacre

The National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) are the heart of the Clean Air Act. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is charged with setting them. NAAQS are supposed to represent the level of air pollution in our outside air that EPA deems safe for people, plants and animals, and for recreational and economic activities. Once EPA sets a NAAQS for a particular pollutant, it is generally up to state air pollution agencies to devise a plan to reduce and maintain emissions so that air pollution does not exceed the NAAQS.

EPA set the original ozone NAAQS in 1979. The Clean Air Act requires that EPA review NAAQS every five years to determine if current science continues to support the NAAQS or if they need to be changed. Unfortunately, EPA habitually misses legally mandated deadlines under the Clean Air Act. Thus, EPA did not get around to revising the ozone NAAQS until 1997, at which time EPA lowered it to 85 parts per billion (ppb).

In 2008, under the Bush administration, EPA again lowered the NAAQS to 75 ppb. However, EPA’s own independent expert scientific panel said it needed to be lower — between 60 and 70 ppb — in order to protect innocent people from getting sick. The Bush EPA simply ignored its own scientists.

Soon after the Obama administration’s EPA head Lisa Jackson came into office, she said that the 75 ppb standard was legally and scientifically indefensible, and set about reviewing it. The review proceeded slowly. EPA promised to complete the review on several occasions but then missed its own deadlines. Administrator Jackson finally issued a proposed standard of somewhere between 60 and 70 ppb, and took public comment on the proposal.

by ROBERT UKEiLEY

People in the renewable energy and energy-efficiency business should let President Obama know that jobs in polluting industries are not more important than jobs in clean energy industries.

Tragically, on Sept. 2, before EPA could finally issue the more protective ozone NAAQS, President Barack Obama publically instructed Administrator Jackson not to revise the 75 ppb standard. Failure to revise the standard will result in innocent people becoming sick and in some cases even dying from ozone pollution.

President Obama based his cold-hearted decision on the false premise that revising the ozone NAAQS would hurt the economy. However, the opposite is true. At a minimum, the stricter standard would have required dirty fossil fuel power plants to install pollution controls, and those pollution controls would be installed by workers in the United States. In addition, in many cases the cost of installing those pollution controls on old, inefficient fossil fuel plants could not be justified, opening the door for increased installation and utilization of renewable energy and energy-efficiency measures.

People in the renewable energy and energy-efficiency business should let President Obama know that jobs in polluting industries are not more important than jobs in clean energy industries. President Obama should not sacrifice innocent people’s health in a pathetic attempt to gain a few votes.

robert ukeiley (rukeiley @ igc.org) is a lawyer who represents environmental nonprofits in clean air act litigation affecting energy issues.

Jumbo Modules Can Reduce installation Cost

One way to reduce installation costs is to produce more power from fewer modules. that means fewer racking parts, fewer electrical connections and possibly shorter cable runs.
even without a conversion-efficiency breakthrough, more power can be achieved simply by mak-
ing modules bigger. that, in turn, depends on making them from lighter, stronger laminates.
a number of factories are headed in that direction. established silicon-module factories are
bumping the size of production modules to 96 cells (from an industry-standard 72 cells). for
instance, segment leader sunPower offers a 96-cell 300-watt module measuring 1.7 square
meters, compared to its 230-watt module with industry-standard dimensions of 1.25 m2. Weight
increases 20 percent to 18. 6 kg ( 41 lb) from 15 kg ( 33 lb).
meanwhile, solaria is shipping a jumbo 1.9-m2 module rated at 270 watts. the frameless
panel weighs 33 kg (74 lb). its unique ribbed-front glass focuses light onto about 235 thin strips
of crystalline silicon, so it’s not strictly kosher to compare the number of “cells.”
another approach comes from tuliPPs b.v. in the netherlands. the company has prototyped
a 500-watt module with 120 silicon cells. by using a 2-millimeter front glass and automotive-
grade composite backing structure, the company claims the new module weighs no more than
a conventional 72-cell unit. it’s of standard height, so should rack in a normal roof-array footprint,
but it is 60 percent wider.