Tournament: ISU | Round:  | Opponent:  | Judge:
Residential Solar IAC
1: Unleash the Solar Tiger
Unnecessary local permitting and inspection barriers are the bane of the solar industry and hamper the purchase and use of residential solar panels

Gordon, et. al. 2011 (Holly, Vice President, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at Sun Run Home, The Impact of Local Permitting on the Cost of Solar Power, January 2011, sunrunhome.com/permitting)
Plan: The DoE will direct localities to standardize their permitting and inspection processes for the installation of residential solar panels, as per Gordon ‘11.  This standardization will eliminate unnecessary rules and multiple inspections, reduce excessive permit and installation fees, and expedite the submission and processing of permits.
The regulatory morass of thousands of local processes, fees, and diverse timelines increase exponentially regulatory uncertainty and deter the purchase of solar panels.  Standardizing the permit process would eliminate this variability and could be implemented immediately. 

Gordon, et. al. 2011 (Holly, Vice President, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at Sun Run Home, The Impact of Local Permitting on the Cost of Solar Power, January 2011, sunrunhome.com/permitting)

Local regulatory processes levy a 1 billion dollar tax on residential uses of solar energy;  A standardized permit process would end the need for solar subsidies; solar would achieve grid parity for half of American households in five years. 

Gordon, et. al. 2011 (Holly, Vice President, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at Sun Run Home, The Impact of Local Permitting on the Cost of Solar Power, January 2011, sunrunhome.com/permitting)
Grid parity will spark massive demand for solar panels

Clifford, August 28, 2012 (Tony, CEO, Solar Developer and EPC Contractor, Standard Solar, “Grid Parity by 2016: Can We Get There?,” http://www.industryweek.com/blog/grid-parity-2016-can-we-get-there)
Local regulation are the key barrier to residential solar energy production; federal leadership in determining standard practices is key.

Gordon, et. al. 2011 (Holly, Vice President, Legislative and Regulatory Affairs at Sun Run Home, The Impact of Local Permitting on the Cost of Solar Power, January 2011, sunrunhome.com/permitting)

2: Smash the Grid
We are distanced, geographically and emotionally, from the sources of electricity this is a result of the centralized energy system
Pierce 10 James Pierce, Eric Paulos, researcher and Cooper-Siegel Endowed Chair at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University “Materializing energy”,  HYPERLINK  http://www.paulos.net/papers/2010/MaterializingEnergy_DIS2010.pdf
The costs of centralized energy are massive yet unaccounted for; this destroys the environment and makes renewables impossible

Sovacool 9 Benjamin, Energy Governance Program, Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore.  “Rejecting renewables: The socio-technical impediments to renewable electricity in the United States” Energy Policy 37 (2009) 4500–4513
Micro-generation is key to preventing widespread environmental catastrophe and extinction
Rifkin 12 Jeremy Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the bestselling author of nineteen books on the impact of scientific and technological changes on the economy, the workforce, society, and the environment. His books have been translated into more than thirty five languages and are used in hundreds of universities, corporations and government agencies around the world. His most recent books includeThe Third Industrial Revolution, The Empathic Civilization, The Hydrogen Economy, The European Dream, The End of Work, The Age of Access, and The Biotech Century.  Jeremy Rifkin has been an adviser to the European Union for the past decade and is the principle architect of the European Union’s Third Industrial Revolution long-term economic sustainability plan.. “The third Industrial Revolution”. Feb 14th.  HYPERLINK "http://www.makingitmagazine.net/?p=4514" http://www.makingitmagazine.net/?p=4514
We solve in four distinct ways
First, a sharp spike in residential renewables would solve for fossil fuel based emissions immediately by taking ‘peak’ power stations offline – also, it will not be perceived politically
Second, homeowner use of solar panels is the key to sparking widespread societal use – the plan facilitates a grassroots revolution that will spread like wildfire 

Pursley and Wiseman 2011 (Garrick B. Pursley and Hannah J. Wiseman, Assistant Professors of Law, University of Toledo College of Law, “LOCAL ENERGY,” 60 Emory L.J. 877 2011, Lexis Nexis)
Third, developing an affective relationship with household energy is key to sustainability-
Pierce 10 James Pierce, Eric Paulos, researcher and Cooper-Siegel Endowed Chair at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University “Materializing energy”,  HYPERLINK "http://www.paulos.net/papers/2010/MaterializingEnergy_DIS2010.pdf"
The plan encourages a set of technologies that mediates our relationship with energy towards sustainability-the psychological effects of its integration creates cultural change and awareness
Pierce 10 James Pierce, Eric Paulos, researcher and Cooper-Siegel Endowed Chair at the Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University “Materializing energy”,  HYPERLINK "http://www.paulos.net/papers/2010/MaterializingEnergy_DIS2010.pdf"
Finally, our discourse unmasks the contingency of the dominant energy system and opens up agents to the possibility of transitioning to renewables–undermining the taken-for-granted-ness of the system is the precondition for changing it

Sovacool 9 Benjamin, Energy Governance Program, Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, Singapore.  “Rejecting renewables: The socio-technical impediments to renewable electricity in the United States” Energy Policy 37 (2009) 4500–4513