The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon
The Energy Show: By Barry Cinnamon
Over a million buildings in the U.S. have rooftop solar. These systems are extremely reliable: solar panels are guaranteed for 25 years, and inverters are guaranteed for 10-25 years. Our experience as a contractor since 2001 bears out the terrific reliability record of rooftop solar. Nevertheless, when inverters are past their expected lifetime we upgrade them to new models. Often we are able to replace two smaller inverters with one more efficient large inverter. When rooftop systems get very dirty (generally in areas without regular rainfall) we provide cleaning services. And not surprising to anyone who has ever tried to troubleshoot a home networking system, our most common customer service issue is with internet-based monitoring. To that point, current cellular-based monitoring systems have been 99.9% reliable (the only problems we have ever had have been with very weak mountain-top cell service). Like a 15 year old car that still runs, sometimes it makes good economic sense upgrading your solar system to the latest model. The same logic applies when considering an upgrade to a new solar system. Old panels were 14% efficient, and old inverters were 93-95% efficient. New panels have 20%+ efficiencies, and new inverters are up to 99% efficient. Moreover, because of our unreliable electric grid and transition to Time of Use electric rates, many customers are interested in upgrading to a battery storage system. For more about upgrading your solar system for your business or home – including applicability of the 30% tax credit on new equipment – Listen up to this week’s Energy Show.By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
In a previous life, writer Frank Andorka spent his Februarys at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington D.C. attending the Legislative Day for the pest management industry. He's always been surprised there isn't such a national conference/day for the solar industry, but he did discover that the California Solar + Storage Association holds its own version in Sacramento on Wednesday. He asked Bernadette DelChiaro, the group's executive director, about why she thinks "Lobby Day" is important. Here are her answers. Frank Andorka (FA): What is Lobby Day? Bernadette DelChiaro (BDC): Our annual Solar & Storage Worker Lobby Day is a chance for workers from across the state to educate lawmakers about the jobs our industry supports, and the value of those jobs to people and families. It also gives us a chance to push for our top legislative priorities, such as passing SB 700. FA: Why is it important? BDC: The state legislature sets the pace for the continued growth of solar and storage in California. Despite the state’s commitment to clean energy, powerful opponents to solar spend millions of dollars on insider lobbyists and make large contributions to political campaigns. The best way to cut through all this is for the men and women who make up our 86,000 work force to speak face-to-face with the decision makers, telling personal stories that will leave a lasting impression.By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent
It took forty years for clean energy - solar and wind specifically - installations to reach 1 TW of installed capacity. BNEF says we're only five years away from reaching the next TW. Talk about an accelerated adoption speed.Hitting one terrawatt is a tremendous achievement for the wind and solar industries, but as far as we’re concerned, it’s just the start. Wind and solar are winning the battle for cost-supremacy, so this milestone will be just the first of many.According to Cheung and the rest of the BNEF team:
The findings illustrate the scale of the green energy boom, which has drawn $2.3 trillion of investment to deploy wind and solar farms at the scale operating today.BloombergNEF estimates that the falling costs of those technologies mean the next terrawatt of capacity will cost about half as much – $1.23 trillion – and arrive sometime in 2023.The majority of the new capacity has been in Asia, with 44% of new wind and 58% of solar being built there. One-third of those installations are in China. Which is somewhat depressing, frankly, given how much capacity could be added to the U.S. grid. 54% of the first terrawatt was wind, but by 2020, solar is expected to catch wind, BNEF reports. But here's one of the most interesting tidbits from the article:
More than 90 percent of all that capacity was installed in the past 10 years, reflecting incentives that Germany pioneered in the early 2000s that made payouts for green power transparent for investors and bankers alike.Here's to an industry that is on the rise, and I can't wait to see what the next five years brings. More: Green Energy Producers Just Installed Their First Trillion Watts
Oklahoma Is Prime For Free Markets. The news out of Oklahoma is that the AG (not Scott Pruitt anymore) says that providers of third party solar contracts are not to be classified as utilities. The reality is that it’s Oklahoma and that the AG opinion may change as required by the politics. But, there is little that I want to see more than the State of Pruitt and Inhofe to have to wrestle with cheap solar and wind especially cheap solar and wind with cheap batteries.
A Step Backward. The politics of fossil fuels is really the politics of the incumbent markets. When we electrified the nation the deal was that monopolies were carved out and private capital was guaranteed a profit. The incumbency is the struggle here, not just the fuel source. The DNC wrestled with the wrong problem, which was not enough money, instead of wrestling with the issue of taking that money from the fossil companies solar subsidiaries. How great would it be to have a $10million donation from an oil company coming from solar company X?
SB100 And CA Lobby Day. California needs to show the nation and the world that the future is 100% renewable energy. Amongst other things, the California solar industry is coming to Sacramento this Wednesday to lobby for the local industry with CALSSA. If you are in solar it means you are likely doing business in California. Couple ways that you can help. First, come to Sacramento this Wednesday. If you’re not local and can’t make it then take the $1k that it would have cost you in time and travel and send a check. I’ll take that from you and deliver it to the CALSSA PAC that helps advance our market here. We talk about how we cannot compete on money but I’m not asking you for $10k, just $1k that you spend every time you travel for a meeting. Hit reply and I’ll give you the details. Let’s get at least $12k together today as a SolarWakeup team.
A Better Way To Splice. We all use rail to mount our modules but while most rail is created equal, there is a way to use rail to save money on labor. With the Quick Mount PV QRail you get an internal splice that requires not hardware that needs to be screwed in and the clamps won’t fall out when placed in the channel. Check out this quick video to see the difference!
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Yann