Solar Powered Aircraft Takes to the Skies

Published on May 23, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Technology, Solar Trends.

Leave it to the Swiss to come up with some incredible new challenge. A few weeks ago there was a guy that strapped wings and rockets to himself and actually flew around pretty fast without killing himself. Now, there are people that are coming close to realizing the close to impossible. Direct from solarimpulse:

In a world depending on fossil energies, the Solar Impulse project is a paradox, almost a provocation: it aims to have an airplane take off and fly autonomously, day and night, propelled uniquely by solar energy, right round the world without fuel or pollution. An unachievable goal without pushing back the current technological limits in all fields…

Solar Action Half Day

Published on May 21, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

The message below is from VoteSolar.org. They had an action day to pressure senators to go to town on this renewable energy tax credit extension goodness. It’s important. Actually it’s more than important, it makes or breaks our solar industry.

I thought it would be cool to, a few days later, have a “half-day of action,” to continue the pressure, on a much less grand scheme.

Let’s do this tomorrow. I’ll do it with you. Here is how it works. Follow then instructions below, and then reward yourself by skipping out on work early and making a margarita or 4.

Friends-

At a time when we should be throwing everything we have into clean energy, Congress is at a stalemate. The House and Senate have each passed versions of a bill to extend clean energy tax credits that the other side finds distasteful. And now here we are, with renewable energy projects being put on hold, jobs being lost, and investment dollars moving overseas.

There’s a compromise bill getting ready to move (HR6049; summarized here (pdf)), and the only thing that is going to break the deadlock is public pressure. Congress needs to feel that this is acutely important to their constituents, and to that end, we helped organize a National Day of Action on Clean Energy. Today, over 100 organizations and companies are planning to raise as much ruckus as possible. Will you add your voice?

Background on the solar investment tax credit here and here.

Many thanks, friends. This is the only way that the job is going to get done.

Annie Carmichael and the Vote Solar Team

First T-shirt Drawing Winner Announced!

Published on May 20, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Trends.

Congratulations go to Joanie D. from Portland, Oregon! She’s the first winner in our bi-weekly t-shirt drawing and opted to be sent our “Cute as hell chicky-t”. You could be the next winner of our drawing! How? Click the win a free t-shirt link on the right and fill out a very short survey. Good Luck!

CS students catapult solar evaluations into the future

Published on May 19, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

Here is the typical status quo for solar evaluations:

Jim Solar Considerer hears something about solar energy in the media. He contacts a local installer, who sends a salesperson out to climb on his roof. The salesperson takes down several measurements and requests electrical usage info from the customer. A week or so later the salesperson returns to discuss a system he has designed with the customer. Not only is this process slow and tedious, but the vast majority of people never make it to their phone in the first place. As far as the environment’s concerned, this ain’t gettin’ the job done.

Enter Dr. Barry Levine and his CS students at San Francisco State University. Their tool, dubbed www.solaropportunity.org, is an incredibly powerful, open source tool that can make solar explode in any city that utilizes it. Working with project originator Scott Wentworth with the City of Oakland, it will go something like this:

Oakland forks over access to its high resolution flyover photos (called GIS data). Interns at the city import the data into the tool and trace the roofs and obstructions like trees or chimneys. This could be done by anyone…. students, volunteers, even the homeowners themselves, they are even working on image recognition software to drastically reduce this labor requirement.

The roof data is crunched with Clean Power Estimator, one of the most reliable solar calculation programs out there. It then spits out how much solar you can get on the roof, and what the attached cost savings would be.

Finally, if solar works on your property, the City of Oakland automatically sends you a post card with all the financial benefits on it, coupled with some phone numbers of local installers.

And Pow! In one fell swoop, everyone in the entire city knows the impact solar energy would have on their own home. Not to mention that instead of being hit with occasional inserts in the weekly paper, they are getting something personalized and from the city itself with real useful data on it.

This is the future, my friends, and it’s here now.

The software is handed down from term to term and well-documented. The current version is usable, and Oakland citizens, hopefully, will start getting postcards later this year.

I began attending their meetings because I have, since day one, thought that solar/satellite photo synergy is the place to be. CH2MHILL and Sungevity are two companies innovating in this space, and I hope to see more. Most of the meetings, admittedly, sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher (Despite my engineering degree, I was lost most of the time), but I understand with great detail, the practical implications that software like this can have. Some of these students are going to do great things (greater than they already have) for renewable energy.

With the next term of students, solaropportunity.org should have a polished, finished product with a successful pilot in the city of Oakland, ready to be picked up by volunteers and non-profits around the US.

National Day of Action for Clean Energy next Tuesday – from solar nation

Published on May 18, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

National Day of Action for Clean Energy next Tuesday Join over 100 groups and companies demanding that Congress support a clean energy economy!

Next Tuesday, May 20th, is a National Day of Action for clean energy!

On that day, members of over 100 clean energy support groups, environmental groups, and companies working to bring about the clean energy revolution will be contacting their legislators to demand that they take this, their ‘last best’ chance, to pass legislation that will keep the revolution alive.

Solar Nation is working with groups like The Sierra Club, Environment America, Vote Solar, the Natural Resources Defense Council and many more to bring this day of concentrated action about. It’s a case of ‘all hands to the pump’.

Why?

Congress has been trying unsuccessfully for a year now to extend tax credits for individuals, businesses and developers who invest in clean power; the credits expire at the end of this year, and it’s estimated that over a hundred thousand jobs and some $20 billion in investment will disappear if this happens (see the report here). According to our sources in the industry, these losses have already started to take their toll on the solar sector.

What would this legislation do for clean energy and energy efficiency?

• It would significantly reduce costs for individuals, businesses and developers trying to make use of such power sources as solar, wind, geothermal, biomass, and fuel cells.
• It would reward those who take steps to improve the energy efficiency of their homes and businesses, or who build new energy-efficient homes.
• It would encourage manufacturers to produce high-efficiency appliances.
• It would allow for bonds to be provided to finance certain renewable energy projects.

So, if the legislation is so clearly beneficial, why the difficulty in passing it?

It’s because, until very recently, House leadership has insisted on funding the tax credits from oil & gas industry profits, an idea that the Senate has successfully resisted. But in its latest form (HR 6049), the legislation would be funded from other, less contentious sources. The bill has just passed out of the House Ways & Means Committee, and is expected to pass the House in due course. Its final fate will rest upon the willingness of both chambers in Congress to find a mutually acceptable way to fund it. And the National Day of Action is intended to remind Congresspersons just how important it will be for our future to find that common ground now.

So watch your e-mail on Tuesday; that’s when we’ll ask you to reach out to your legislators on the National Day of Action for clean energy!

See the full text of the new bill here.

Germany Reconsidering their Awesome Solar Subsidy Program

Published on May 17, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

With respect to how much sun they get, Germany has taken their lemons and made lemonade.

The Renewable Energy Sources Act of Germany forces power companies to buy all the alternative energy created by citizens, at a price greater than market prices, and for a long time (20 years). That massively compelling subsidy has turned Germany into the world leader on solar (and keep in mind, they only get half the sun San Diego does!).

As a salesperson for solar energy here in San Francisco, customers with glorious giant flat roofs will often install the smallest possible system because they have low energy usage. PG&E, the utility company here, does not pay you cash if you produce more than you consume for the year. They will credit towards your next months bill, but no wampum in your hand if you go over.

The only way to incentivize someone to install more solar than they need is to pay them for the excess electricity they generate, which is the only way to create a healthy and clean distributed generation network. That is what Germany does, and it kicks butt. The rub comes from the fact that the money for this subsidy is paid for by the consumers that don’t have solar. Right now they are just paying a Euro more than normal, but that could spike to more, alienating consumers.

The proposal by conservatives is to increase the rate at which the subsidy declines, and possibly lower the term from 20 to 15 years. It is unclear to me exactly whether it only effects new installations, or is horribly nasty and effects people that have already installed (which I doubt). Either way, a deal’s a deal as I see it.

Spain has a similar subsidy, and a hell of a lot more sun, so Germany is concerned they will overtake the lead in the market.

The moral of the story is simply that if you make something compelling financially to people, they act in droves. We need to do that here.

I am good at my job. That being said, even with the most progressive culture in the US, a lot of recent legal lubrication for coding/permits, the best subsidies in the nation, and a ton of sun, my job is hard hard hard hard hard.

I got this info from the NY times: Here is the original article.

Solar is getting more expensive

Published on May 12, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

A while back I wrote about people innovating in the web space for solar, where I mentioned how I had a beef with the way the media portrays new solar energy technology. Here’s why:

First, they always understate time frames and cost, and overstate benefits. Read this. It’s just an example, but there are hundreds of these types of articles written each week, and they make my skin crawl. The article leaves you feeling as though a revolutionary startup is going to have $1/watt solar panels on your doorstep next week. They’re not.

• Will they be able to PRODUCE solar panels for $1/watt at some point? Possibly, some day a long time from now. Will they be able to meet demand and distribution problems on the day they meet that production price point? Probably not. Will they sell them for $1/watt? NO, they will cost more, that’s how companies make money. Will the distributors resell them for the same price? No, or they would go broke too. Will it cost $1/watt for installers to put them in? No, it will cost more. In fact, if the panels were available TODAY, my (totally off the cuff) guess is you are looking at something like $6/watt, turnkey.
• Will they work on homes? Probably not. Initial applications will be commercial applications with large roofs. Homes with small roofs will need highly efficient panels to capitalize on that space. The best thin film you can get out there at the moment is going to require four times the space to get the same power out of it. That is simply not an option for homes. That is why no one is installing the stuff on houses right now, and it doesn’t look like we will be anytime soon. Ironically, the article makes it sound as though it will be more efficient than current photovoltaic panels, which is ludicrous.

And another thing. We’re in a subsidy sweet spot, in many places, including here in California. The federal tax credit on solar energy, as it stands, is gone at the end of 08′. The California Solar Initiative, our state-wide subsidy, steps down in 30 cent/watt steps as more people install solar. Add that to the rising production costs of solar, this space age product, whenever it comes out, may end up costing you the same as installations do now. And by then you’ve paid another 80 months of power bills.

That’s right, you heard me correctly. Solar is getting more expensive. The price of energy has increased the cost to manufacture solar panels. Additionally, many are made in Asia and must be shipped over, and shipping costs have exploded. Finally, heavy demand in places like Spain and Germany, due to their excellent, forward thinking subsidies has caused a lot of local distributors to ship overseas.

For the company I work for, our products cost substantially more per watt than they did last year, and that trend is going to continue. Are breakthroughs in solar energy technology that allow for much cheaper production that will also work in residential applications going to be employed at some point? Yes. But it’s wayyyyyyyyyyy longer into the future than the media would lead you to believe, and solar energy is cost effective right now. If you get a PV system on your roof, and 15 years later some flexo-thin film product is available at half price, you’ll still have the last laugh, and you will have been energy independent for those 20 years.

Happy Mother's Day

Published on May 11, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

That’s my mom.  She made my lunch in elementary school so I didn’t have to eat the cafeteria business, she helped me with my science projects, and has provided 29 years of unconditional love, even if I screwed up.   She put in an 18 year full-time job with ZERO PAY.  Here’s to you, mom, and all the moms out there.

Thomas Edison's thoughts about solar power

Published on May 3, 2008 by Dan Hahn.
Categories: Solar Trends.

“Sunshine is spread out thin and so is electricity. Perhaps they are the same, but we will take that up later. Now the trick was, you see, to concentrate the juice and liberate it as you needed it. The old-fashioned way inaugurated by Jove, of letting it off in a clap of thunder, is dangerous, disconcerting and wasteful. It doesn’t fetch up anywhere. My task was to subdivide the current and use it in a great number of little lights, and to do this I had to store it. And we haven’t really found out how to store it yet and let it off real easy-like and cheap. Why, we have just begun to commence to get ready to find out about electricity. This scheme of combustion to get power makes me sick to think of–it is so wasteful. It is just the old, foolish Prometheus idea, and the father of Prometheus was a baboon.”

HOMEWORK

Published on May 2, 2008 by Dave Llorens.
Categories: Solar Trends.

From VoteSolar.org:

Friends-

You’ve probably seen it.  Thomas Friedman’s April 30 New York Times op-ed, “Dumb As We Wanna Be“, chided Congress for failing to figure out how to pay for the extension of critically needed clean energy tax credits.  At a “time when we should be throwing everything into clean power innovation,” he wrote, Congress is “squabbling over pennies.”

As if on cue, Congressional leadership just made a decision to yank inclusion of the solar investment tax credit (ITC) from the Iraq War Supplemental legislation, without a clear plan for addressing energy security in this country.

The House and the Senate have each passed versions that the other side finds distasteful, and now we seem to be at an impasse, close to Memorial Day recess, without a clear path to victory. So what is going to cause a breakthrough in this Congressional log jam? Nothing short of constant constituent pressure.  Can you make a call to your Congressional representatives?  Tell them that solar means energy security, and you’d like to see an extension of the solar tax credits attached to the next legislative vehicle that moves. Capitol switchboard is 202/224-3121.

Or, mail the Friedman op-ed to your representatives in Congress, asking them to find the energy to be serious about extending the solar ITC.  Take action here.