Author Archives: Frank Andorka

God Bless(ed) Solar Energy: Catholic Diocese Goes All In In New York

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

And the Lord said let there be solar, and it was good.

OK, that’s not really how the quotation from the book of Genesis goes, but under an agreement between the Archdiocese of New York and Con Edison Solutions, five parishes in the sprawling Catholic diocese will soon be running (at least partially) off energy they harvest from the sun.

The Energy Department of the Archdiocese of New York along with five parishes joined Con Edison Solutions, one of America’s leading energy services companies, and students from Blessed Sacrament School to launch a renewable energy pilot program. As part of the initiative, five parishes, including Blessed Sacrament, St. Clare, and St. Patrick on Staten Island and St. Ann and St. Anthony in Yonkers have installed rooftop solar arrays which will collectively generate approximately 700,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity through 1,717 solar panels.

“Preventing further environmental degradation has become a top priority for the Catholic Church under Pope Francis. As such, the Archdiocese of New York is very pleased to partner with Con Edison Solutions to launch a solar pilot program that will allow five of our parishes to benefit from clean energy,” said Bishop John O’Hara, Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York. “This initiative epitomizes the Pontiff’s call for sustainable development and thus serves as a great model for our parishioners and our students.”

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The Archdiocese’s initiative is in accordance with the appeals made by Pope Francis in 2015 in his second encyclical, On Care for Our Common Home (Laudato Si’). In the encyclical, the pontiff called upon people all over the world to take unified action to fight global warming, practice responsible development, and protect the planet. Through these five solar projects, the Archdiocese of New York is doing its part to adopt environmentally-friendly programs while meeting its obligation to help its parishes run as economically as possible by significantly lowering energy costs.

On average, each solar project will provide approximately 50 percent of a parish’s annual energy needs. Each parish has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Con Edison Solutions. Under the agreement, Con Edison Solutions will install, own, operate, and maintain the solar projects allowing the parishes to reduce energy costs by approximately 25 percent on average over the next two decades.

“Blessed Sacrament is thrilled to become a host for clean, renewable energy by taking part in the Archdiocese’s solar program,” said Monsignor Peter Finn, Pastor of Blessed Sacrament. “In addition to supporting sustainable energy while cutting energy costs and creating a physical demonstration of our commitment to preserving the environment for future generations, we will leverage the program as an educational aid by teaching our students about the latest clean energy technologies.”

“Con Edison Solutions is proud to partner with the Archdiocese of New York on this groundbreaking solar pilot program,” said Mark Noyes, President and CEO of Con Edison Clean Energy Businesses which includes Con Edison Solutions. “We applaud the Archdiocese and its participating parishes for championing solar power and its resulting environmental and cost-saving benefits. Working together with the Archdiocese and the schools, we have successfully installed five rooftop solar arrays that help bring us closer to a clean energy future.”

All five solar arrays are behind-the-meter, installed to serve the electrical needs at the customer’s building. The amount of electricity to be generated at each site will vary according to the system size. System capacity is detailed below:

Blessed Sacrament Parish – 153kW-DC with 472 PV modules
St. Ann’s Parish – 56 kW-DC with 173 PV modules
St. Anthony’s Parish – 78kW-DC with 240 PV modules
St. Clare’s Parish – 134kW-DC with 412PV modules
St. Patrick’s Parish – 136 kW-DC with 420 PV modules

The Archdiocese of New York is also working with Con Edison Solutions on potential community solar projects at other parishes, schools, and other institutions in the archdiocese.

The Archdiocese of New York selected Con Edison Solutions through a competitive procurement process that included more than 10 solar developers. The two organizations have been working collaboratively since January 2017 to finalize the elements of the pilot program.

This solar energy initiative is part of a much larger energy program being led by the Energy Department of the Archdiocese of New York which includes several energy conservation efforts like energy audits, LED lighting upgrades, upgrades to higher efficiency heating and cooling options, tightening the building envelope and more efficient energy procurement.

Rutgers Will Research New Jersey Energy Storage Path

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

With just six days left until SolarWakeup Live! New Jersey, the topics are set – but attendees might be forgiven if they have a few off-topic questions that they might decide need to be addressed.

Take, for example, the announcement by the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities that Rutgers University will be studying the state’s energy-storage needs as the regulatory board prepares to shepherd through Governor Phil Murphy’s aggressive plans to have 2 GW of energy storage by 2030.

The contract with Rutgers, announced yesterday and covered by the Press of Atlantic City, will last six months and cost $300,000.

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“The ability to store energy is critical for our future,” NJBPU President Joseph L. Fiordaliso told The Press. “Energy storage systems will provide emergency back-up power for essential services, offsetting peak loads, and stabilizing the electric distribution system, which ultimately will benefit the ratepayer.”

Under the contract, Rutgers will study whether renewable energy storage will promote EV use in the state and what effect it will have on renewable energy production in the state, as well as doing a full cost/benefit analysis of the expansion of storage options.

Governor Murphy made expanding renewable energy in the state – and solar in particular – a centerpiece of his campaign. Earlier this year, he signed two bills into law that, combined, established the state’s community solar program (later bolstered with provisions to encourage the development of community solar in low-income neighborhoods), reformed the state’s important (but flawed) solar Renewable Energy Credit (SREC) program and established a new renewable portfolio standard of 50% by 2030.

Murphy succeeded former Governor Chris Christie, who had vetoed the RPS expansion on his way out the door and had created a difficult market for the solar industry under his leadership. During his tenure, the state dropped from being the No. 2 solar state in the country to much lower in the Top 10. Murphy hopes to return New Jersey to its place of prominence within the solar community.

While New Jersey has fallen, other New England states like New York and Massachusetts have grabbed the majority of the headlines – but with its strong renewable energy and storage provisions, New Jersey

More:

N.J. regulator contracts with Rutgers for energy storage analysis

Partnership Allows Marylanders To Marry Clean Energy And Batteries

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

Maryland residents will soon have the opportunity to marry clean energy and battery storage, thanks to a partnership between CleanChoice Energy and Swell Energy.

As power outages become more prevalent as violent, climate-change induced storms rock the U.S. mainland, home battery storage is increasingly becoming a necessity, not a luxury. Thanks to CleanChoice and Swell, Marylanders can install home energy backup and perhaps qualify a state tax credit of up to $5,000.*

Last year, more than 36.7 million people – including 88,000 Marylanders – were affected by 3,526 reported power outages across the country.

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“People need reliable backup power now more than ever. Climate change is fueling extreme weather that makes the grid more vulnerable to power outages at the exact time that we all depend on electricity for nearly everything. Marylanders can now have peace of mind knowing their lights will stay on when the power goes out,” said Tom Matzzie, CEO of CleanChoice Energy. “Home battery backup makes our homes more resilient, helps move us closer to 100% clean energy, and can make dirty generators obsolete.”

“This program enables us to offer Maryland CleanChoice Energy consumers a radically simple, cost-effective clean energy and smart home solution,” said Matthew Rising, CRO of Swell Energy.

Home batteries store energy from the electric grid and provide seamless backup power to run essential items during power outages of up to 12 hours**—long enough to get through nine out of 10 utility company power outages.

Home energy batteries are a clean alternative to dirty generators that run on polluting fuels including gasoline, propane, natural gas, and diesel fuel. Burning fossil fuels contributes to climate change and unhealthy air pollution; for example, diesel exhaust has been classified a potential human carcinogen.

Swell offers batteries to homeowners as-a-service, and virtually combines the storage capacity across these batteries to provide energy and grid services to its utility and retail electricity partners.

*Tax credit information based on Maryland Energy Administration Energy Storage Tax Credit Program and should not be construed as legal or tax advice nor does it guarantee availability, qualification, or amounts of incentives or credits.

**A standard home will use 1-2 kW/hour. The total time that a battery can power your home during an outage depends on your individual usage.

It’s All About The Jobs: More Funds Flow To Solar Workforce Development

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

How do you know the solar industry is now a serious player in the economy of the United States? More money is flowing from the government into research on how to develop the workforce that is necessary to fill the jobs it’s creating.

Following news that The Solar Foundation received a $2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) to foster training for veterans (among others) comes news that the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has received a grant from the office for $6 million – three times as much – to develop the data science and analytical skills needed to manage the more integrated grid of the future.

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EPRI, along with a collaborative of electric utilities and universities, will launch the Grid-Ready Energy Analytics Training (GREAT) with Data initiative before the end of 2018. The initiative will address workforce skills in four key, emerging technical areas: (1) data science, including descriptive, prescriptive, and predictive analytics, and machine learning; (2) cyber security; (3) information and communication technologies, with an emphasis on interoperability and standardization technologies; and, (4) integration of solar photovoltaic and other distributed energy resources such as energy storage, electric vehicles, and demand response.

This initiative will focus on engineers and computer scientists, with an expanded focus on the new technologies, datasets, and planning tools at the intersection of power system operations and technology (OT) and information technology (IT) in an advanced, electrical power system. Additionally, the program will develop certifications, credentials, qualifications, and standards for the training and education needed in the electric utility industry workplace.

“The engineers of today and tomorrow need to understand the tools and analytics necessary to make sense of the intersection of OT and IT that is transforming the grid,” said EPRI Principal Technical Executive and GREAT project lead Tom Reddoch. “This project is about growing and supporting that workforce with the skills they need to be successful.”

Because electric utilities rely heavily on regional resources from which they obtain assets and people, the GREAT team also will develop five strategic regional training hubs across the United States to prioritize, guide, and customize content development, feedback, and training to support regional workforce needs. The five-year initiative will build upon the existing GridEd program, which EPRI has run for the past five years for the Energy Department, to train and recruit power systems workers and develop university curricula for new engineers and computer scientists.

Utility participants on the project development team include: American Electric Power, Austin Energy, Bonneville Power Administration, Con Edison, Duke Energy, Entergy, FirstEnergy, Lincoln Electric System, Portland General Electric, Riverside Public Utilities, Salt River Project, Snohomish Public Utility District, Southern California Edison, Southern Company, Tennessee Valley Authority, and the Western Area Power Administration.

Collaborating universities include: Stony Brook University; University of California, Riverside; Virginia Tech; and Washington State University.