Many roofers and construction workers are finding work fitting residential and commercial properties with solar panels.

The Solar Energy Industries Association annual report indicates that the market for solar power nearly doubled last year.  The increased demand created thousands of new jobs and enabled the industry to buck the declining employment trend that many other sectors sustained.

“The solar industry added 17,000 new jobs coast to coast,” Rhone Resch, president and CEO of SEIA told the Mercury News. “Residential installations grew from 78 megawatts in 2008 to 156 megawatts in 2009.”

The report gave a great deal of credit to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) for stimulating the job market and nationwide trend toward solar power. Features of ARRA that were noted in the report include:

• the Treasury Grant Program that allows the commercial tax credit to be taken as a cash grant for a limited time and lifted the $2,000 cap on the residential investment tax credit for solar thermal installations;
• elimination of penalties for subsidized energy financing, encouraging state and local programs that subsidize solar installations without penalizing the customer,
• creation of a 30-percent manufacturing investment tax credit (MITC) for equipment that makes renewable energy components.
• DOE’s funding allotments under the ARRA, including$115 million from the Solar Energy Technologies Program, $1.6 billion from Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs), $2.7 billion went to fund Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants and $3.1 billion was provided for State Energy Program (SEP) grants.

The SEP grants were specifically noted for helping support the deployment of solar energy equipment around the country.

The solar boon had a particular impact on SolarCity, a California based corporation specializing in designing and installing solar panels. They nearly doubled their work force to 600 last year, according to spokesman Jonathan Bass.  In 2010, they expect to add another 250 jobs to help service solar enthusiasts in California, Arizona, Texas, Oregon and Colorado.

“About half of the jobs are installing jobs, and we’ve hired people from the construction and roofing industries. The balance of the jobs are in sales and marketing and engineers. These are full-time jobs with full benefits and 401(k)s.”

Unsurprisingly, California led the way in shifting toward solar power, installing 220 megawatts last year, compared to New Jersey which was a distant second at 57 MW.  The surge pushed California to a cumulative total of 1,102 MW of solar power, nearly nine times as great a capacity as second place New Jersey’s 128 MW.

Comed looks to get stimulus money for Smart Grid pilot program.

The petition takes it a step further and requests that ComEd is allowed to recover the remaining costs of the stimulus projects after receipt of the half from the Department of Energy. ComEd believes that the approval by the ICC will greatly increase the chances that the DOE will give them the money. They feel that it will demonstrate, along with the other 100 letters the DOE has received, that ComEd is a good place to invest federal stimulus funds.

“ICC support will greatly increase the chance that the DOE will select ComEd’s application, as it will demonstrate strong local interest to put federal stimulus funds into action,” said Anne Pramaggiore, president and chief operating officer, ComEd. “By tapping up to $175 million in federal stimulus funds, we can accelerate and multiply Smart Grid benefits to our customers and reduce customer costs.”

If the DOE does approve the request by ComEd, consumers can expect to see their energy bill rise by 35 cents per month starting April 2010. This half a percent increase is based on the average $77 a month bill.

The money for this comes from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) that was put into place by President Barack Obama to try and boost the economy. According to ComEd, if they are able to develop this Smart Grid pilot, it will create around 3,800 jobs in Norther Illinois. They also plan on deploying more Smart Grid meters in their territory as well as advanced pricing and billing operations.

If ComEd is approved, they are likely to receive $175 million, half of the total $350 million they need. This will likely provide the necessary funds to get things rolling.