Washington (Platts)--18Mar2010/514 pm EDT/2114 GMT

The solar energy industry is in no mood to compromise with those who would favor placing nuclear and clean coal with carbon capture and storage on equal footing with solar and wind as part of a federal generation mandate.

As the US Senate deliberates how to best move an energy and climate change bill forward, some are advocating a federal clean electricity standard that might even encompass natural gas, as opposed to the renewable electricity standard in a bill the House of Representatives passed last year and a bill that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved.

Advocates of a CES believe its broader terms could attract the votes needed to pass a bill, particularly from lawmakers from the South and Midwest.

The House bill RPS calls for 20% of generation to be renewable by 2020, while the Senate bill calls for 25% by 2021.

Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association, gave no ground Thursday during a news conference.

"I think what's critical is that Congress continues to focus on creating a renewable electricity standard that encourages all renewables sources to be deployed," Resch said. "The bottom line is, nukes are going to go forward, natural gas plants are going to be built in this country. We need all sources of energy going forward, but I think, most importantly, we need renewables. When you look at the statistics, renewables are a very small part of out energy mix."

Asked if adoption of a CES instead of an RES would slow the deployment of solar power, Resch said "We haven't analyzed that in any great detail.

"We still think there is strong support for an national RES and, even then, our perspective is that the standard has to be aggressive; it has to go way beyond what is considered business as usual. The provisions in both the House and the Senate bill were, at least in the near term, were not pushing the envelope with respect to deployment of solar, wind and other technologies," Resch said, noting the provisions were less demanding than "what we've seen at the state level," he said.

"If you do have a clean electricity standard that's developed, I think it does send a signal overall to the utility community that we need to be investing in low-carbon technologies," Resch said. "I think that's ultimately a positive thing, but the impact between one piece of legislation and another specifically to solar is unclear at this time."

He disputed the notion that it is difficult to deploy solar projects in the Southeast because of atmospheric or other weather conditions, noting that solar conditions are better than in Germany or Spain, where solar deployment is widespread.

Resch said that in the 32 states that have renewable standards, the projects "that are being developed have been driven by state policies. . . There are very few [policies] in the Southeast. So ultimately, policy drivers have gotten us to the point where we are today. There's no doubt we have the resources down there," Resch said, adding "we're probably lacking the political will more than anything."

SEIA on Thursday released the results of a national poll on utility-scale solar projects that showed 75% of those surveyed support the development of solar energy on public lands not set aside for national parks or nature preserves.

"This polling data confirms what we already knew," Resch said. "The American public overwhelmingly supports the development of solar energy. It is time for our elected officials to respond to this high public demand and enact policies that allow solar to compete with other energy sources on a level playing field."

New York-based Gotham Research Group conducted the poll of 500 adults in late February.

The survey also revealed that solar power was the top choice (38%) as the best use of public land. Respondents also selected solar farms and wind power (22% each) as the top energy sources that the government should support, beating out natural gas (16%), nuclear (16%), oil (11 %) and coal (4%).

Five utility-scale solar projects totaling 58 MW came online in 2009 and more than 200 MW are expected to come online this year, Resch said.

--Rod Kuckro, rod_kuckro@platts.com