Tournament: Pepperdine  | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Currently, large-scale solar projects have a significant advantage over distributed solar because of the imbalance of incentives they receive
Bowers ’12 (Sheila, Bill Powers.  Bowers is a citizen activist with solardoneright.org, has researched the economic, political, and legal biases that promote industrial-scale energy.  Powers is the principle of Powers Engineering, an air-quality-consulting engineering firm.  “Distributed Renewable Generation” Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth. Post Carbon Institute.  2012)

Large-scale remote solar projects...many types of costs onto local communities, ratepayers, and ecosystems.

And the types of incentives that specifically spur distributed solar projects are lacking in America
Nelder ’11 (Chris, “Why America needs a feed-in tariff” Smart Planet.  November 9, 2011. http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/energy-futurist/why-america-needs-a-feed-in-tariff/174)

The absence of a FiT has spawned a renewables...industry instead of adding new capacity.
Plan
The United States Federal Government should implement feed-in tariffs for solar energy production in the United States.
FiTs are the most sound policy options for allowing communities to quickly transition to renewable energy
Block ’12 (Ben, World Watch Institute, “North American Feed-in Tariff Policies Take Off” 2012.  http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6221)
Clean energy advocates in Europe have long...and Ontario as examples that North America should follow

FITs effectively lower the cost of solar PV systems, making them more attractive than large-scale installation
Bowers ’12 (Sheila, Bill Powers.  Bowers is a citizen activist with solardoneright.org, has researched the economic, political, and legal biases that promote industrial-scale energy.  Powers is the principle of Powers Engineering, an air-quality-consulting engineering firm.  “Distributed Renewable Generation” Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth. Post Carbon Institute.  2012)

Distributed generation, supported through feed-in tariffs are implemented faster than large-scale operations
Bowers ’12 (Sheila, Bill Powers.  Bowers is a citizen activist with solardoneright.org, has researched the economic, political, and legal biases that promote industrial-scale energy.  Powers is the principle of Powers Engineering, an air-quality-consulting engineering firm.  “Distributed Renewable Generation” Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth. Post Carbon Institute.  2012)

Large-scale remote solar...half times as large.

Climate Change is a short and long term threat to everything on Earth.  If we do not transition away from fossil fuels, then an irreversible cycle of feedbacks will melt the ice caps, raise sea levels and eventually result in the extinction of multiple species.
Hansen ’12 (James, director of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space studies in New York and a leading atmospheric scientist.  Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, “Coal: The Greatest Threat to Civilization” 2012, Post Carbon Institute)

The climate is nearing tipping points...destroying more species.

cont.

Those who lead us have no...the world we inherited from our elders.
Distributed generation can mitigate GHGs faster and more effectively than large, industrial solar
Bowers ’12 (Sheila, Bill Powers.  Bowers is a citizen activist with solardoneright.org, has researched the economic, political, and legal biases that promote industrial-scale energy.  Powers is the principle of Powers Engineering, an air-quality-consulting engineering firm.  “Distributed Renewable Generation” Energy: Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth. Post Carbon Institute.  2012)

Unlike energy systems in the “concrete jungle” ecosystem...which is the case with distributed generation.

Our large, centralized  grid is vulnerable to threats ranging from terrorist attacks all the way to simply pressing the wrong button.  Any of these scenarios can result in a massive blackout at any time.
Severson ’12 (Deb, a writer for StopPath a registered 501(c)4 social justice grassroots organization.  This specific article references studies by the DOE, NERC, etc. “Learning from the Cascading Power Failures that Brought Down the Power Grid in India” StopPath. 8/6/12. http://stoppathwv.com/1/post/2012/8/learning-from-the-cascading-power-failures-that-brought-down-the-power-grid-in-india.html) 

On Tuesday July 31, 2012, India’s interconnected power...increase the likelihood of systems collapse.”

Electricity is necessary for everyday life.  Blackouts put humanity at risk of being unable to live safely.
CRO Forum 2011
(“Power Black Out Risks” The CRO Forum was formed in 2004 to advance risk management practice in the insurance industry. The CRO Forum member companies are large multi-national insurance companies. Our members are headquartered across the world with a concentration in Europe. https://www.allianz.com/v_1339677769000/media/responsibility/documents/position_paper_power_blackout_risks.pdf)

Most critical systems such as hospitals...no water for emergency response teams.

A terrorist attack on the...insurance during the second quarter.
Distributed energy systems come into existence quickly, are more resilient to disruptions, and reduce the demand for new grid infrastructure.
Farrell ’11 (John, member of the New World Project “Democratizing the Electricity System A Vision for the 21st Century Grid” June 2011. http://atcscam.homestead.com/democratizing-electricity-system.pdf)

There are a number of benefits to a democratized...Rocky Mountain Institute’s Small is Profitable.