Why We Use Enphase Microinverters

Microinverters are a relatively new technology. They are an innovative advancement on the traditional “gang “or “string” inverter. An inverter functions to convert the DC energy from the sun into AC energy that we Americans use within our homes. Before microinverters were around, a string of panels on the roof of your house was connected to one inverter on the side of your house. If one of the panels had a performance issue from shading, bird droppings, or any other type of malfunction, the whole string of panels connected to that shared gang inverter would go down and stop producing power until the issue was resolved. Even worse, to figure out which panel had the issue you had to physically inspect each and every panel.

But now, by using microinverters that are wired on the backs of panels, each panel is independent of one another.

If a panel using a microinverter has a performance issue, only that specific panel will stop producing power. Even better, the microinverter functions as a unique tracking device, and with Enphase’s innovative Enlighten remote software monitoring package, all panels with microinverters are continually sending performance data to Enphase employees who are paid to make sure your solar array is always producing the optimum level of power. When an issue arises, 9 times out of 10 the problem can be resolved by sending a simple reboot signal to the microinverter. But even if that doesn't work, you don't have to spend countless hours troubleshooting each and every panel. The microinverter is self-identifying.

Enphase even has a 100% uptime guarantee that states they will reimburse eligible customers 100% of the cost of any energy lost due to the malfunction of one of their microinverters, for up to 30 days, and based on a reimbursement rate of 20 cents per kWh (the average GA utility customer pays 12 cents per kWh and members of the GA Power Solar Buyback Program are paid 17 cents per kWh of generated renewable energy). The microinverters come with a 15 year limited warrantee and have been laboratory tested under simulated conditions to work for over 100 years!

Cumming, GA Sees Another BIG Solar Installation

Image credit - AJC

Some wording borrowed from AJC and Forsyth County News

Most everyone has heard of cutting a ceremonial ribbon to welcome new facilities, but how about a power cord? That's exactly what one south Forsyth business did to officially roll out the second largest commercial solar energy array in Georgia.

DataScan Technologies LLC, a subsidiary of JM Family Enterprises Inc., now has the capacity to capture and convert sunlight to create an estimated 285,500 kilowatt hours of electricity each year.

To symbolize the impact on the firm's electricity bill, company leaders cut a yellow electrical cord instead of a red ribbon during a dedication ceremony Tuesday.

DataScan Technologies is a global leader in wholesale finance accounting and risk management systems and services. It employs about 500, including some 200 at the local center.

Brent Sergot, vice president of DataScan, said officials began developing ways to reduce the data center's environmental impact about a year ago. He said the solar array, which is more than 24,000 square feet and housed on the center's roof, has the capacity to produce electricity equal to that used by some 25 standard residential homes each year.

It would take 377,000 pounds of coal or 477 barrels of oil to produce that much energy.

Colin Brown, president of JM Family Enterprises, thanked state leaders for approving Georgia's Clean Energy Tax Credit legislation during the past legislative session. The previous cap of $2.5 million dollars per year for solar projects was increased to $5 million dollars during an eleventh hour meeting.

"Without a partnership with the state of Georgia, this would not have happened," Brown said. "We're headquartered in the sunshine state of Florida, but Florida offers no energy credits.

"Georgia is on the fore-front in leadership in this area. You're having a great impact on the environment while also creating jobs."

Estimates from the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority and the Georgia Solar Energy Association indicate the solar industry in 2010 had about 450 direct and indirect jobs, which generated about $1.3 million in withholding taxes.

DataScan's solar array features nearly 1,200 glass modules, which absorb sunlight and can withstand winds up to 130 mph. The modules are also hail-resistant.

The array, produced by California-based solar systems manufacturer Solyndra, is arranged on the roof to avoid shadows.

Officials said the $2 million investment in the array should be returned in about seven years through reduced power costs.

The short-term goal is to lower the data center's energy consumption by 10 percent in 2011.
Several state and local elected officials attended Tuesday's dedication.

Forsyth Commissioner Todd Levent called the project "absolutely on target."

"I'm all for the whole concept of getting away from foreign oil," he said. "With a seven-and-a-half-year return on their investment, this makes a lot of sense.

"It's nice to know Georgia is leading the way with environmental incentives."

Another business in Dawsonville recently went solar on their rooftop due to the lucrative tax incentives and solar energy repurchase agreements that are currently offered from local utility companies.

A display in the lobby of DataScan Technologies shows how much electricity a newly-installed solar array is generating. Local officials toured the south Forsyth facility during a "power-cord-cutting" ceremony Tuesday. Below, DataScan Facilities Manager Dennis Arserio, right, shows Forsyth County Commissioner Todd Levent some of the technology used in the solar array.

Company officials and guests gather on the roof of DataScan Technology on Tuesday to view the company's new solar power system.

'Georgia is on the forefront in leadership in this area. You're having a great impact on the environment while also creating jobs. Colin Brown President, JM Family Enterprises. 'I'm all for the whole concept of getting away from foreign oil. With a seven-and-a-half-year return on their investment, this makes a lot of sense.'

Other local solar developments include a solar carport and solar powered EV charging station that is currently being constructed by Atlanta mogul Ted Turner, a 48-acre landfill that is being converted into a solar power plant, and another 30 acre lot near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport that will include 4,000 solar covered parking spaces.

Ted Turner IS Captain Planet

Article source: AJC

I failed you, Atlanta. I sat down to interview Ted Turner last week with one main goal: to get an answer to a question that several local business and political leaders have been asking themselves lately.

The question: How can Atlanta get its mojo back? Big ideas like going after the Olympics and building Hartsfield-Jackson have largely been responsible for turning the metro area into what it is today. But to our detriment over the past several years — to this very day — there has not been a big idea capturing our imagination.

So who better to ask about what the next big idea might be than a visionary like Turner?

He wouldn’t bite.

“I’m not a business consultant,” he said.

I asked the question a few different ways, but his head and heart are elsewhere now — on tackling nuclear disarmament, containing population growth and reducing global warming by investing in alternative energy.

Turner, 72, argued that making the globe a better place benefits Atlanta, too.
“The last time I checked, Atlanta was on the planet Earth,” he said.

Intellectually, he’s right, of course. Still, I can’t forget how much of an impact he had in helping turn around a struggling downtown Atlanta — CNN Center, Turner Field, Philips Arena and the Turner Entertainment complex beside the Downtown Connector are examples.

I covered Turner for this newspaper during part of the 1990s, and I know that several of his advisers told him there were greener pastures in the suburbs. But Turner would have no part of it.

“God knows what would have happened to Atlanta if we moved to the suburbs,” he said.
Now, however, Turner only spends about 10 percent of his time here as he tackles some of the planet’s biggest messes with his money — a running total of $1.5 billion to the U.N. and a variety of environmental and anti-nuclear causes — and his mouth.

“My top priority is nuclear weapons because they can end it all in an afternoon,” he said. “There’s going to be a nuclear-weapons accident,” he predicted, similar to the nuclear power plant disaster in Japan.

Unstable governments with nuclear weapons, such as Pakistan’s, threaten the world, he said.

“We need to get rid of all nuclear weapons immediately,” he said. He knows that’s not going to happen but sees his role as pushing the envelope.

That same style takes hold when he talks about our reliance on oil and coal.
“The days of fossil fuels are over,” he said. “The trouble is we’re going to run out of atmosphere first.”

Turner is involved with promoting clean energy, favoring solar, wind and geothermal projects. He has reservations about natural gas and opposes the resurgence of nuclear power.

“Who wants to have a nuclear power plant in their backyard today?”

In the side yard of Turner Enterprises downtown — the parking lot — he has installed solar panels to help power the building. (I can’t criticize him for overlooking Atlanta on that score.)

“I think clean, reliable energy should be our top priority,” he said. The federal government should phase out subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, he believes, and transfer that money to beefing up alternative energy sources.

He recently teamed up with Atlanta-based Southern Co. and the local power cooperative serving Cimarron, N.M., on a big solar project there.

Speaking of teams, I asked if he had an interest in becoming a sports owner again, since the Thrashers are for sale and he was instrumental in bringing pro hockey back to Atlanta. There have been persistent rumors about the Thrashers ending up in Canada as the Flames did, negating Turner’s efforts from 15 years ago.

“No, I’ve done sports — been there, done that,” he said.

(During his quest for an NHL franchise back then, I once threatened to stop a Manhattan elevator right before Turner was heading into a closed-door meeting if he didn’t give me a quote to pacify my editor. “Ted, I’m not going to get fired over you,” I remember telling him. “OK, OK,” he replied, before telling me what was going on.)

I couldn’t end the interview without asking what business accomplishment he considers his most significant. I thought he might say the influence he had on other wealthy business people to give away their money, which a lot more are doing these days.

Instead, Turner cited an Atlanta icon.

“Of my business accomplishments, I’m proudest of CNN because it brought information to people who were deprived. … There are 99 24-hour news networks in the world today. … It’s amazing. When we started, there were zero.”


From Henry Unger, The Biz Beat - AJC

Green And Growing In East Dublin, GA

Source: Macon Telegraph

Quitting time on Nathaniel Drive once meant traffic, bumper to bumper, from the bridge spanning the Oconee River into Dublin back to the textile plants that spun the fabric of a thriving local economy. Now, Nathaniel is a lonely, almost lifeless 3.5-mile stretch of five-laned blacktop. Weeds and grass grow tall through cracks in the parking lot at the former Forstmann plant, once Laurens County's largest employer with 1,500 workers.

A few weeks ago, wrecking crews began leveling the mill, which closed in 2007, looking to salvage whatever steel remains after the equipment followed jobs out the door. Company could make Dublin "green and growing" again Wray, the county's lead economic developer, is optimistic of a turnaround. The economic development authority is "busier than we've ever been." Officials have hosted 10 official visits by new industry prospects since January, he said. "We're excited. We're busy. The projects we're working are about $1.3 billion worth of investment - and that is with a 'B.' ... The activity, the looks we're getting, they're really quality projects. They're quality jobs with well-run companies. "We're close on several of them," Wray said. "It's a matter of the companies pulling the trigger." Targeted industries include aerospace, clean-tech, light manufacturing, wood aggregate and distribution companies. "We look very specifically at whether a business is propped up by government subsidies," Wray said. "A business propped up by government subsidies might not be the best business to go after. You never know when they might go away."

Interest has been generated with wind, solar and wood pellet-burning energy companies, and the Dublin area's potential for alternative energy prospects might have some jokingly considering a change in motto.

"Our slogan is 'green and growing,' " said Wray. "People have started to use 'green and sustainable.' "

One of the area's top selling points is location. Interstate 16 knifes through the heart of the county, which sits midway between Atlanta and Savannah, a two-hour drive to both. That access to the world's busiest airport - Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta - and the country's fastest-growing port was a major plus in landing the Germany-based MAGE Solar's new North American headquarters. "They could bring product into the port," Wray said, "and they could make a direct flight from Atlanta to Stuttgart, near their headquarters."

The county, he said, offers a "low cost of doing business with a high-quality of life." It is a drawing area for nine to 12 counties. "Before the recession, it was probably nine counties, but people are willing to drive further for employment," Wray said. "We're drawing from a much larger labor pool." Laurens County, which according to the 2010 Census has about 48,000 residents, has a workforce of about 22,000. Factor in the surrounding counties, Wray said, and the number of available workers is closer to 80,000. "The people who come here to work already come here to shop," he said. "They already come here to go to the doctor." The development authority owns about 600 acres, with utilities, to offer prospects, and it also has partners with available land, Wray said.

MAGE Solar has moved into the former Rockwell Automation plant, which announced in 2009 that it would close, leaving 145 people out of work. The solar panel maker actually shared the facility on Dublin's Industrial Boulevard with Rockwell for three months last year. The company already has launched and expanded its "Solar Academy" operation and has hired 40 employees, mostly management, sales and engineering personnel.

Production lines are being installed, and, after test runs, the plant could begin manufacturing solar energy panels by the end of May, said MAGE Solar spokeswoman Susanne Fischer-Quinn. The company plans to hire 350 employees within five years, she said. It also has bought additional land at the site for possible expansion.

We are proud to say the solar panels we offer at Energy Roofing Systems come from the local MAGE facility in Dublin. We are committed to investing in our local communites whenever possible.

MARTA Puts On Green-A-Palooza Featuring Solar Canopy

Source: AJC

MARTA hosts a Green-A-Palooza at the Edgewood/Candler Park Rail Station from 3 to 6 p.m. today. Featuring entertainment and giveaways, attendees will learning why mass transit is a good way to protect the planet. There will also be an introduction to MARTA’s “green” project, a federally funded Laredo Bus Facility solar canopy installation currently under construction. Once completed, it will be the largest structure of its kind in Georgia and the second largest at a U.S. transit system.

Dalton now the ‘solar energy capital’ of Georgia?

Source: GB Chronicle

With Phase I of his company’s 1 megawatt photovoltaic project near Dalton already generated electricity, United Renewable Energy’s Bill Silva has declared my hometown the “capital” of something other than what it’s best-known for. We have over 1 MW of installed solar capacity in Dalton, the ‘carpet capital,’ which is now the solar energy capital of Georgia,” says Silva, president of the Alpharetta-based solar integrator. Silva was prepping today for yet another celebratory photo op Wednesday at what I’m pretty sure is the largest single photovoltaic project now under development in Georgia. Phase I is generating 350 mw already, and the project is planned to completed over the next three years in two more phases. The project is owned by Georgia Power, which then is selling the energy to municipally owned Dalton Utilities. Other relatively large users of solar electricity in the Dalton area include carpet manufacturing plants.

Solar Inches Closer To $1 Per Watt

Source: Renewable Energy World Rapid growth in solar photovoltaics has brought installation costs within sight of $1 per watt for large projects and closer to competing with fossil fuels.

Prices still hover around $3 per watt currently, so it will take multiple breakthroughs in technology, public policy and manufacturing processes before reaching the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot goal of $1 per watt by 2017.

Industry leaders say a lot can happen in six months, let alone six years, so that goal might even be achievable without a major technological breakthrough.

“Freefall is the only way to describe solar energy prices in the last couple of years,” said Ryne Raffaelle, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Center for Photovoltaics.

That “freefall” has been driven by the growth of solar installations, which is no longer a small business – it is a $100 billion industry worldwide, he said. The cost reductions are so dramatic, that Bloomberg recently reported that solar energy could soon rival coal, while it has also become competitive during peak times in Japan and California.

“Conventional wisdom said our current approaches, materials and efficiencies and cost structures couldn’t get us the metrics ($1 per watt) we were looking for,” Raffaelle said. “That’s changing.”

Economies of scale with incremental, but more rapid and consistent technological improvements, could soon drive costs down to $2 per watt. Bloomberg estimated costs would fall to $1.45 a watt by 2020.

“From our standpoint, if you ask us globally, we believe you can get it down to $1 per watt,” said Helena Kimball, Yingli Solar spokeswoman.

Yingli is among China’s emerging solar giants, many of whom have rapidly lowered costs through vertical integration. Those companies stand to benefit from more scaling since the Chinese government has announced it could double solar capacity from five to 10 GW by 2015 in an effort to replace some nuclear power with sun power in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis.

Though the United States has been behind the curve, it is starting to nip at the heels of Asian and European manufacturers with the NREL’s PV Technology Incubator program and private sector research and development.

GE recently announced that PrimeStar Solar Inc., a startup that GE invested in three years ago and now owns, recorded a record-high 12.8% efficiency for CdTe thin film solar panels. GE plans to take those panels to market, announcing last week that it plans to build a 400-MW American manufacturing plant.

“Our plan to open a U.S. solar manufacturing facility further demonstrates our confidence in this technology,” said Victor Abate, vice president of GE’s renewable energy business. “We’re not only excited by the efficiency milestone, but also by the speed at which our team was able to achieve it.”

More U.S.-based startups are advancing technology with private investment and government support through the DOE’s SunShot initiative, which has provided $50 million to small businesses under the PV Technology Incubator program since 2007. NREL officials say the private sector has invested an additional $2 billion in those incubator companies.

Lower Manufacturing Costs

First Solar’s manufacturing costs per watt fell 75.5% from $2.94 in 2004 to 75 cents in 2011, according to spokeswoman Michelle Friedman. First Solar also increased efficiency of its thin film and glass solar panels to 11.2% this year from 10% in 2009.

The company’s roadmap calls for reducing the cost per watt to 64 cents by 2014. Friedman said First Solar does not discuss the costs of installing its panels, however. First Solar anticipates production of 2.9 gigawatts by 2012. It has expanded multiple facilities and also plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Arizona.

China’s Suntech has targeted 2015 for grid parity in global markets. In 2001, the average levelized price of solar electricity was 75 cents per kWh, according to Suntech spokesman Walker Frost. Solar electricity now costs less than 10 cents per kWh in some regions with abundant sunlight, he added. Suntech is reducing costs by using less expensive materials that are more abundant.

“The technology also allows us to use copper in the metallization process, which has the same conductive properties as silver but is less expensive,” Frost said.

Suntech also reduced energy and water use at production plants and invested heavily in building up to 1,200 MW of wafers in-house. Wafers typically account for 50% of a solar panel’s cost. Chinese competitor Yingli also produces much of its raw materials in house, including about 3,000 metric tons of polysilicon in-house.

There has been talk of an oversupply in the photovoltaic market, but NREL’s Raffaelle said that does not appear to be the case because unmet demand is keeping prices up.

“Demand continues to exceed supply, which drives costs up,” Raffaelle said. “The reality is [that] we use a lot of power. It’s hard to wrap your mind around terawatts of power. There is still much more solar PV manufacturing necessary to put a dent into terawatts of power,” which is currently generated by coal, natural gas and nuclear.

Technological Advances

While economies of scale seem to be driving cost reductions, researchers are still looking for “disruptive” technologies to increase efficiency and ultimately lower costs. NREL tests show 40% efficiencies for some concentrated photovoltaics (CPV). The CPV market is expected to grow from 1.5 to 75 MW in the next five years. That growth was historically limited to desert regions with consistent sun exposure.

The tracking and optical devices required for most CPV have also posed problems. Santa Barbara, Calif.-based HyperSolar Inc. claims it can achieve the same results minus the optical devices by installing an acrylic top sheet onto PV panels.

Researchers are also closing the gap in manufacturing PV “champion cells” with 20% efficiencies. Researchers, however, had difficulties in translating those high efficiencies to the largest panels. In 2009, the large panels could only get 12 percent efficiencies. Some companies are now demonstrating 14 to 17% efficiencies.

Policy Changes

As manufacturing costs decrease, solar panels will no longer be the “long pole in the tent,” Raffaelle said. Industry leaders are searching for ways to reduce costs related to labor, installation and public policy.

SunRun, a solar leasing and installation firm, recently said in a report to the DOE that installation costs on residential solar power could be cut by 50 cents per watt by instituting a standard permitting process. While the industry and NREL are targeting a $1 per watt installation cost for large-scale installations, residential and rooftop solar accounts for 70 percent of all PV deployed last year, Raffaelle said.

“Most of the action has still been in small, distributed stuff,” Raffaelle said. “That in itself poses a lot of challenges because our power system existed under large centralized power station models since its inception.”

Advocacy organizations, such as Solar San Antonio in Texas, have been working with utility companies, municipalities and local media to encourage solar-friendly policies and permitting processes that encourage use of distributed systems via feed-in tariffs.

“We think policy changes can go a long way toward reducing costs,” said Lanny Sinkin, executive director of Solar San Antonio.

Multiple megawatt installations can also benefit from consistent policies, incentives and permitting processes, experts said.

“We’ve found that solar installations areas are actually going up in some parts of the United States while they are going down in others,” Raffaelle said.Rapid growth in solar photovoltaics has brought installation costs within sight of $1 per watt for large projects and closer to competing with fossil fuels.

Prices still hover around $3 per watt currently, so it will take multiple breakthroughs in technology, public policy and manufacturing processes before reaching the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot goal of $1 per watt by 2017.

Industry leaders say a lot can happen in six months, let alone six years, so that goal might even be achievable without a major technological breakthrough.

“Freefall is the only way to describe solar energy prices in the last couple of years,” said Ryne Raffaelle, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Center for Photovoltaics.

That “freefall” has been driven by the growth of solar installations, which is no longer a small business – it is a $100 billion industry worldwide, he said. The cost reductions are so dramatic, that Bloomberg recently reported that solar energy could soon rival coal, while it has also become competitive during peak times in Japan and California.

“Conventional wisdom said our current approaches, materials and efficiencies and cost structures couldn’t get us the metrics ($1 per watt) we were looking for,” Raffaelle said. “That’s changing.”

Economies of scale with incremental, but more rapid and consistent technological improvements, could soon drive costs down to $2 per watt. Bloomberg estimated costs would fall to $1.45 a watt by 2020.

“From our standpoint, if you ask us globally, we believe you can get it down to $1 per watt,” said Helena Kimball, Yingli Solar spokeswoman.

Yingli is among China’s emerging solar giants, many of whom have rapidly lowered costs through vertical integration. Those companies stand to benefit from more scaling since the Chinese government has announced it could double solar capacity from five to 10 GW by 2015 in an effort to replace some nuclear power with sun power in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis.

Though the United States has been behind the curve, it is starting to nip at the heels of Asian and European manufacturers with the NREL’s PV Technology Incubator program and private sector research and development.

GE recently announced that PrimeStar Solar Inc., a startup that GE invested in three years ago and now owns, recorded a record-high 12.8% efficiency for CdTe thin film solar panels. GE plans to take those panels to market, announcing last week that it plans to build a 400-MW American manufacturing plant.

“Our plan to open a U.S. solar manufacturing facility further demonstrates our confidence in this technology,” said Victor Abate, vice president of GE’s renewable energy business. “We’re not only excited by the efficiency milestone, but also by the speed at which our team was able to achieve it.”

More U.S.-based startups are advancing technology with private investment and government support through the DOE’s SunShot initiative, which has provided $50 million to small businesses under the PV Technology Incubator program since 2007. NREL officials say the private sector has invested an additional $2 billion in those incubator companies.

Lower Manufacturing Costs

First Solar’s manufacturing costs per watt fell 75.5% from $2.94 in 2004 to 75 cents in 2011, according to spokeswoman Michelle Friedman. First Solar also increased efficiency of its thin film and glass solar panels to 11.2% this year from 10% in 2009.

The company’s roadmap calls for reducing the cost per watt to 64 cents by 2014. Friedman said First Solar does not discuss the costs of installing its panels, however. First Solar anticipates production of 2.9 gigawatts by 2012. It has expanded multiple facilities and also plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Arizona.

China’s Suntech has targeted 2015 for grid parity in global markets. In 2001, the average levelized price of solar electricity was 75 cents per kWh, according to Suntech spokesman Walker Frost. Solar electricity now costs less than 10 cents per kWh in some regions with abundant sunlight, he added. Suntech is reducing costs by using less expensive materials that are more abundant.

“The technology also allows us to use copper in the metallization process, which has the same conductive properties as silver but is less expensive,” Frost said.

Suntech also reduced energy and water use at production plants and invested heavily in building up to 1,200 MW of wafers in-house. Wafers typically account for 50% of a solar panel’s cost. Chinese competitor Yingli also produces much of its raw materials in house, including about 3,000 metric tons of polysilicon in-house.

There has been talk of an oversupply in the photovoltaic market, but NREL’s Raffaelle said that does not appear to be the case because unmet demand is keeping prices up.

“Demand continues to exceed supply, which drives costs up,” Raffaelle said. “The reality is [that] we use a lot of power. It’s hard to wrap your mind around terawatts of power. There is still much more solar PV manufacturing necessary to put a dent into terawatts of power,” which is currently generated by coal, natural gas and nuclear.

Technological Advances

While economies of scale seem to be driving cost reductions, researchers are still looking for “disruptive” technologies to increase efficiency and ultimately lower costs. NREL tests show 40% efficiencies for some concentrated photovoltaics (CPV). The CPV market is expected to grow from 1.5 to 75 MW in the next five years. That growth was historically limited to desert regions with consistent sun exposure.

The tracking and optical devices required for most CPV have also posed problems. Santa Barbara, Calif.-based HyperSolar Inc. claims it can achieve the same results minus the optical devices by installing an acrylic top sheet onto PV panels.

Researchers are also closing the gap in manufacturing PV “champion cells” with 20% efficiencies. Researchers, however, had difficulties in translating those high efficiencies to the largest panels. In 2009, the large panels could only get 12 percent efficiencies. Some companies are now demonstrating 14 to 17% efficiencies.

Policy Changes

As manufacturing costs decrease, solar panels will no longer be the “long pole in the tent,” Raffaelle said. Industry leaders are searching for ways to reduce costs related to labor, installation and public policy.

SunRun, a solar leasing and installation firm, recently said in a report to the DOE that installation costs on residential solar power could be cut by 50 cents per watt by instituting a standard permitting process. While the industry and NREL are targeting a $1 per watt installation cost for large-scale installations, residential and rooftop solar accounts for 70 percent of all PV deployed last year, Raffaelle said.

“Most of the action has still been in small, distributed stuff,” Raffaelle said. “That in itself poses a lot of challenges because our power system existed under large centralized power station models since its inception.”

Advocacy organizations, such as Solar San Antonio in Texas, have been working with utility companies, municipalities and local media to encourage solar-friendly policies and permitting processes that encourage use of distributed systems via feed-in tariffs.

“We think policy changes can go a long way toward reducing costs,” said Lanny Sinkin, executive director of Solar San Antonio.

Multiple megawatt installations can also benefit from consistent policies, incentives and permitting processes, experts said.

“We’ve found that solar installations areas are actually going up in some parts of the United States while they are going down in others,” Raffaelle said.Rapid growth in solar photovoltaics has brought installation costs within sight of $1 per watt for large projects and closer to competing with fossil fuels.

Prices still hover around $3 per watt currently, so it will take multiple breakthroughs in technology, public policy and manufacturing processes before reaching the U.S. Department of Energy’s SunShot goal of $1 per watt by 2017.

Industry leaders say a lot can happen in six months, let alone six years, so that goal might even be achievable without a major technological breakthrough.

“Freefall is the only way to describe solar energy prices in the last couple of years,” said Ryne Raffaelle, director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s National Center for Photovoltaics.

That “freefall” has been driven by the growth of solar installations, which is no longer a small business – it is a $100 billion industry worldwide, he said. The cost reductions are so dramatic, that Bloomberg recently reported that solar energy could soon rival coal, while it has also become competitive during peak times in Japan and California.

“Conventional wisdom said our current approaches, materials and efficiencies and cost structures couldn’t get us the metrics ($1 per watt) we were looking for,” Raffaelle said. “That’s changing.”

Economies of scale with incremental, but more rapid and consistent technological improvements, could soon drive costs down to $2 per watt. Bloomberg estimated costs would fall to $1.45 a watt by 2020.

“From our standpoint, if you ask us globally, we believe you can get it down to $1 per watt,” said Helena Kimball, Yingli Solar spokeswoman.

Yingli is among China’s emerging solar giants, many of whom have rapidly lowered costs through vertical integration. Those companies stand to benefit from more scaling since the Chinese government has announced it could double solar capacity from five to 10 GW by 2015 in an effort to replace some nuclear power with sun power in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis.

Though the United States has been behind the curve, it is starting to nip at the heels of Asian and European manufacturers with the NREL’s PV Technology Incubator program and private sector research and development.

GE recently announced that PrimeStar Solar Inc., a startup that GE invested in three years ago and now owns, recorded a record-high 12.8% efficiency for CdTe thin film solar panels. GE plans to take those panels to market, announcing last week that it plans to build a 400-MW American manufacturing plant.

“Our plan to open a U.S. solar manufacturing facility further demonstrates our confidence in this technology,” said Victor Abate, vice president of GE’s renewable energy business. “We’re not only excited by the efficiency milestone, but also by the speed at which our team was able to achieve it.”

More U.S.-based startups are advancing technology with private investment and government support through the DOE’s SunShot initiative, which has provided $50 million to small businesses under the PV Technology Incubator program since 2007. NREL officials say the private sector has invested an additional $2 billion in those incubator companies.

Lower Manufacturing Costs

First Solar’s manufacturing costs per watt fell 75.5% from $2.94 in 2004 to 75 cents in 2011, according to spokeswoman Michelle Friedman. First Solar also increased efficiency of its thin film and glass solar panels to 11.2% this year from 10% in 2009.

The company’s roadmap calls for reducing the cost per watt to 64 cents by 2014. Friedman said First Solar does not discuss the costs of installing its panels, however. First Solar anticipates production of 2.9 gigawatts by 2012. It has expanded multiple facilities and also plans to build a new manufacturing plant in Arizona.

China’s Suntech has targeted 2015 for grid parity in global markets. In 2001, the average levelized price of solar electricity was 75 cents per kWh, according to Suntech spokesman Walker Frost. Solar electricity now costs less than 10 cents per kWh in some regions with abundant sunlight, he added. Suntech is reducing costs by using less expensive materials that are more abundant.

“The technology also allows us to use copper in the metallization process, which has the same conductive properties as silver but is less expensive,” Frost said.

Suntech also reduced energy and water use at production plants and invested heavily in building up to 1,200 MW of wafers in-house. Wafers typically account for 50% of a solar panel’s cost. Chinese competitor Yingli also produces much of its raw materials in house, including about 3,000 metric tons of polysilicon in-house.

There has been talk of an oversupply in the photovoltaic market, but NREL’s Raffaelle said that does not appear to be the case because unmet demand is keeping prices up.

“Demand continues to exceed supply, which drives costs up,” Raffaelle said. “The reality is [that] we use a lot of power. It’s hard to wrap your mind around terawatts of power. There is still much more solar PV manufacturing necessary to put a dent into terawatts of power,” which is currently generated by coal, natural gas and nuclear.

Technological Advances

While economies of scale seem to be driving cost reductions, researchers are still looking for “disruptive” technologies to increase efficiency and ultimately lower costs. NREL tests show 40% efficiencies for some concentrated photovoltaics (CPV). The CPV market is expected to grow from 1.5 to 75 MW in the next five years. That growth was historically limited to desert regions with consistent sun exposure.

The tracking and optical devices required for most CPV have also posed problems. Santa Barbara, Calif.-based HyperSolar Inc. claims it can achieve the same results minus the optical devices by installing an acrylic top sheet onto PV panels.

Researchers are also closing the gap in manufacturing PV “champion cells” with 20% efficiencies. Researchers, however, had difficulties in translating those high efficiencies to the largest panels. In 2009, the large panels could only get 12 percent efficiencies. Some companies are now demonstrating 14 to 17% efficiencies.

Policy Changes

As manufacturing costs decrease, solar panels will no longer be the “long pole in the tent,” Raffaelle said. Industry leaders are searching for ways to reduce costs related to labor, installation and public policy.

SunRun, a solar leasing and installation firm, recently said in a report to the DOE that installation costs on residential solar power could be cut by 50 cents per watt by instituting a standard permitting process. While the industry and NREL are targeting a $1 per watt installation cost for large-scale installations, residential and rooftop solar accounts for 70 percent of all PV deployed last year, Raffaelle said.

“Most of the action has still been in small, distributed stuff,” Raffaelle said. “That in itself poses a lot of challenges because our power system existed under large centralized power station models since its inception.”

Advocacy organizations, such as Solar San Antonio in Texas, have been working with utility companies, municipalities and local media to encourage solar-friendly policies and permitting processes that encourage use of distributed systems via feed-in tariffs.

“We think policy changes can go a long way toward reducing costs,” said Lanny Sinkin, executive director of Solar San Antonio.

Multiple megawatt installations can also benefit from consistent policies, incentives and permitting processes, experts said.

“We’ve found that solar installations areas are actually going up in some parts of the United States while they are going down in others,” Raffaelle said.

Five myths behind rising gas prices

Source: AJC

Gasoline prices have been steadily climbing for several months, and Americans are feeling the pain at the pump. The possible culprits (from greedy oil execs to Mideast turmoil) are as plentiful as the proposed solutions (more offshore drilling, green energy or government reserves). But what is really driving prices up? And what, if anything, can be done about it? Let’s take a moment to fill up on information about our fuel.

1. Fighting in Libya is sending gas prices higher.

Libya is not a big enough global oil supplier for the battles there to have a meaningful effect on gas prices. In the 1970s and early 1980s, Libya was a major U.S. supplier, selling us about 700,000 barrels of oil per day. But today, we import less than 50,000 barrels per day from Libya — a tiny fraction of the 9.2 million barrels per day the United States imported in 2010. So why are gas prices up? Though Moammar Gadhafi’s fate is largely irrelevant to the oil market, unrest throughout the greater Middle East is not. The Persian Gulf region produces almost 24 million barrels of oil per day, more than 25 percent of global oil consumption. The Arab spring that has brought protests to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen makes markets nervous, and when markets fret over a possible disruption to oil supplies, gas prices rise — whether the disruption materializes or not.

2. Tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, SPR, is a smart way to reduce gas prices.

The U.S. government maintains a 727 million-barrel oil reserve — 38 days’ worth at current levels of consumption — to protect against potential supply disruptions. But just about every time prices rise, politicians want to access the oil in the reserve to increase supply and bring prices back down. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., for instance, has been calling for oil releases from the SPR for more than a decade. In a letter to President Bill Clinton in 1999, he endorsed the release of several hundred thousand barrels a day from the SPR because, according to a news release about the letter, oil prices had made a “meteoric ascent to nearly $25 per barrel.”

Had Clinton dipped into the reserve then, as Schumer requested, we almost certainly would have gotten a raw deal. What if that $25-per-barrel oil could be replenished only at $75 per barrel? Tapping the SPR makes the government an oil speculator, and any nation running record deficits that becomes a commodity trader is playing a dangerous game.

3. Oil companies produce less in the spring to make gas prices increase.

Almost every year, gasoline prices rise in the spring. At the same time, refineries produce less fuel. This isn’t because oil companies want to keep inventories low to drive prices higher. It’s because what’s in our gasoline — specifically, butane — changes from season to season. Butane is a cheap ingredient in gasoline that boils at low temperatures. In winter, this isn’t a problem. But in summer, butane evaporates from gas, polluting the air while leaving us with less fuel in the tank than we paid for. As temperatures rise, refineries replace butane with more costly ingredients and draw down winter inventories just as beach season begins. Chemistry, not corporate conspiracy, limits supply.

4. The Obama administration is driving up gas prices.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin says the White House drilling moratorium shows President Barack Obama’s “culpability in the high gas prices hurting Americans.” Blaming the president for rising gas prices is nothing new, and it’s a bipartisan tactic. In 2004, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., blamed President George W. Bush for higher gas prices and for continuing to fill the SPR as oil prices climbed. Just one problem: Even if domestic supplies were developed, American presidents couldn’t really control oil prices. The U.S. government has estimated that there are 18 billion barrels of oil in the outer continental shelf of the lower 48 states that are off limits to development. That may sound like a lot, but it is only about
2 1/2 years of supply for the U.S., and it would take several years to allocate leases and drill exploratory wells.

Even if the estimated 10 billion barrels of oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge were available for development, today’s policy decisions would have no impact on gasoline supplies for as much as a decade. Obama can’t dictate what you’ll pay for premium tomorrow. 5. Americans can’t live without cheap gas.

Yes, Americans love to drive, and Americans love cheap gas. But across an ocean, there’s a continent filled with people a lot like us who’ve lived with high gas prices for years. While U.S. gasoline heads toward $4 per gallon, Europeans have been paying much higher prices for years because of high taxes on fuel. Last month in Britain, gas hit about $9.76 per gallon. Because gas is so dear, Europe’s per capita energy use is half that of the U.S., leaving Europe less vulnerable to oil price shocks yet not undermining its standard of living. The U.S., built on cheap oil, is much less densely populated than the Old World, with more wide-open spaces to traverse. But that doesn’t mean we can’t embrace some of what has helped Europeans keep their gasoline bills down — such as high-speed rail, public transportation and green energy.

In fact, Americans have shown that they can adjust their behavior when faced with sticker shock at the pump. As gas prices rose from $2.31 per gallon in 2005 to $3.30 per gallon in 2008, sales of the Toyota Prius eclipsed those of the Ford Explorer, and public transit use reached a 50-year high. When it costs $30 to fill up a Geo Metro, all options are on the table.

Solar paneled parking on tap for former Ford site

Source: AJC

Soon, 30 acres of solar panels could greet drivers along I-75 and those flying above, as well as provide shade for cars stashed near Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

The panels -- essentially awnings -- would cover 4,000 surface parking spaces planned for the former Ford plant in Hapeville and near the new international terminal set to open next spring.

If built, the project would be the largest solar array in Georgia, said Walter Brown, who until recently chaired the board of the Georgia Solar Energy Association. “It’s the perfect place to do something like that,” he said, given the site's visibility near the world's busiest airport.

Solar advocates have long said Georgia lags in solar energy development, but recent tax incentives and a drive by Georgia Power to buy green energy have helped spur $40 million in new solar energy development the past few years, Brown said, and Jacoby's would be the largest.

Jacoby bought the 122-acre Ford plant in 2008 for $40.3 million. The recession slowed development of offices, residences and shops, but a parking facility always was the first order of business, said Scott Condra, senior vice president of development for Jacoby. The panels would generate about 10 megawatts of power, or enough to serve about a third of the airport’s needs, he said.

The firm still is negotiating a purchaser of the power, a potential parking operator, a solar panel installer, and potential bond and tax credits. But Condra expects to finalize terms in April and get the project started in June.

Brown said he believes people will pay a premium to park beneath shade producing solar energy. “The economics of a solar system like that really make sense, if you can charge a buck to $2 premium per day to park under a cover, and you are generating power."

Energy Solar Systems Introduces NEW Energy Efficient T5 Lights

The T5 retrofit light bulb with adapter from Energy Solar Systems is the newest, most efficient lighting solution available and is already saving people thousands of dollars in Europe!

Your lighting represents between 30% and 50% of your total power consumption. We will do a free energy analysis of your current lighting and provide you with a written proposal that will show you the astonishing savings in your electrical utility costs, including your tax incentives, utility rebates, and your estimated ROI.

Both T12 and T8 fluorescent fixtures are considered outdated technology. As of July 2010, by mandate of the Dept. of Energy, the T12 ballast and bulbs can no longer be manufactured. This means that the estimated one billion T12 fixtures currently in use will have to be changed over to either T8 or T5.

Changing from T12 to T8 is an insignificant savings and may not qualify you for the rebates and tax incentives that are available. Changing to the T8 requires that you change not only the bulbs but also the ballast and continues to tie you to the burden of periodically replacing the inefficient ballast. Changing to T5 technology will save as much as 79% on your lighting costs!

Changing to the T5 technology will in almost every case qualify you for the available utility rebates and tax incentives. Using a T5 retrofit adapter is the least expensive, most efficient, and simplest method for you to change from your outdated lighting to the most efficient lighting solution available.

T5 Bulbs Burn 1.6 Times Brighter Than T12 Or T8 Bulbs!
2 T5s Produce More Light Using Less Watts Than 4 T12 or T8 Bulbs!
Less Wattage Used Translates To Money Saved On Your Power Bill!

Benefits Of Energy Efficient T5 Lighting Retrofits Include:
-Reducing your lighting costs by up to 79%
-Allows for de-lamping, decreasing kWh usage while producing more and better light
-UL approved
-T5 bulbs burn 1.6 times brighter than T12 or T8 bulbs
-Eliminates the added cost of replacing existing fixtures (T5s snap right in)
-5 year warranty - 60,000 hour life expectancy
-The T5 retrofit burns cooler, thus reducing air conditioning costs
-Utility and tax incentives are available for upgrading your lighting to be more efficient
-ROI in 12 to 24 months

Increase Your Bottom Line With T5 Lighting!

Chick-fil-A testing green concepts in Texas

Source: AJC

Chick-fil-A says its newest restaurant in Texas is a laboratory for environmental innovations that could pop up in other locations.

The 4,617 square-foot restaurant in Fort Worth would be the first Chick-fil-A restaurant designed to the standards of the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

Executives at the College Park fast food chain say they want the restaurant to be a testing ground for various sustainability efforts. The company plans to open more than 75 restaurants this year, but says it won't know which sustainability measures will appear in new restaurants until it observes the pilot project in Texas.

The Fort Worth restaurant has low-flow fixtures in restrooms and the kitchen. A cistern the size of a swimming pool will collect rainwater to irrigate plants and landscaping, a step Chick-fil-A says will cut water usage by 40 percent. Skylights and energy-efficient appliances are expected to slice energy usage by 14 percent.

About 20 percent of the restaurant’s building material budget was spent on products with recycled content, and more than half of construction waste was diverted from the landfill. The restaurant is projected to have 30 percent more fresh air than typical buildings.

The restaurant is about 15 percent more expensive to build than a standard unit, said David Farmer, vice president of innovation and service. The added expense should pay off in higher efficiency, he said.

"There's no question, this will change how we build stores going forward," Farmer said.

The company plans to send crews out to hundreds of restaurants to replace lighting and water fixtures with higher-efficiency models. That step could yield thousands of dollars in savings each year for operators, Farmer said. Chick-fil-A also is considering replacing its bleached-white napkins with brown versions that would require less processing and energy to make.

It's GREAT to see a big company like Chick-fil-A making a pledge to conserve! We are really pumped to see them adopt greater efficient lighting policies, like T5 light bulbs that can save up to 79% on lighting costs compared to traditional lighting!

Did you know As of July 2010, by mandate of the Dept. of Energy, the T12 ballast and bulbs can no longer be manufactured. This means that the estimated one billion T12 fixtures currently in use will have to be changed over to either T8 or T5.

Changing from T12 to T8 is an insignificant savings and may not qualify you for the rebates and tax incentives that are available. Changing to the T8 requires that you change not only the bulbs but also the ballast and continues to tie you to the burden of periodically replacing the inefficient ballast. Changing to T5 technology will save as much as 79% on your lighting costs!

Changing to the T5 technology will in almost every case qualify you for the available utility rebates and tax incentives. Using a T5 retrofit adapter is the least expensive, most efficient, and simplest method for you to change from your outdated lighting to the most efficient lighting solution available. The bottom line is that by simply upgrading your lights to be more energy efficient you can drastically increase YOUR company's bottom line!

Tesla to sell elecric car with 300-mile battery

Source: AJC

Electric car maker Tesla Motors Inc. plans to offer a limited-edition version of its model S sedan next year that will have a battery mighty enough to keep the car going for 300 miles on a single charge. That's much farther than the Nissan Leaf, which can go up to 100 miles on a charge. The Leaf went on sale late last year. Tesla VP for worldwide sales George Blankenship said in a Web posting Monday that Tesla plans to sell a Model S Signature Series with the 300-mile battery in North America starting in mid-2012. Tesla will sell versions of the all-electric Model S with 230-mile and 160-mile batteries later in 2012.

Using Solar Power to Extract Oil

Source: NYTimes


A California company has begun using solar power to squeeze oil out of an old oil field, flooding the underground rock with steam that comes from the sun’s heat instead of from burning natural gas.


The technique was tried in the 1980s by the Atlantic Richfield Company, but GlassPoint Solar, of Fremont, Calif., which cut the ribbon on a pilot project Thursday, says its plant is the only one of its kind now operating. Other companies have discussed such projects.


The process is cheaper than using natural gas, even at today’s depressed prices for that fuel, and trims the carbon footprint of the gasoline, according to GlassPoint. The pilot plant, completed in January in Kern County, is very modest, occupying less than an acre and producing only about a million B.T.U.’s per hour. But the company says it could quickly be replicated on a larger scale and could eventually displace 80 percent of the natural gas used to produce a barrel of oil.


GlassPoint said that at a full-size plant, its technology could produce steam at a cost of $3 per million B.T.U., compared with a market price of gas today of around $4 per million B.T.U.


Whether GlassPoint can get that far remains unclear. The company has no track record in the oil industry and has had three different business strategies in less than two years. Formerly known as CleanBoard, GlassPoint changed its name in October 2009 when it abandoned plans to use a solar-powered factory to make gypsum-based wallboard and said it would work with other wallboard manufacturers. Last year, it refocused its business yet again on using solar power to extract oil.


Rod MacGregor, GlassPoint’s chairman, said that burning natural gas to make steam for oil recovery was the largest single use of natural gas in California. About 40 percent of California’s oil is produced through such “enhanced oil recovery,” and the steam can account for as much as two-thirds of the production cost of such oil, according to GlassPoint.


The amount of steam needed to produce a barrel of oil varies according to the age of the field, but two million B.T.U. per barrel is typical.


Several companies use curved mirrors to focus the sun’s light to make steam, but on Thursday, GlassPoint unveiled a radically different design, one it says could also be used to make steam for electricity production.


In existing steam-electric solar plants with curved mirrors, the mirrors sit on heavy, rigid frames so that they will not be deformed by wind and can survive storms.


GlassPoint has built a greenhouse and suspended extremely lightweight mirrors from the skeleton of the building. The greenhouse is kept at higher air pressure than the outside environment, so no dust can come in, reducing the problem of cleaning the mirrors. A robot crawls across the glass roof to wash it. The wash water is collected for reuse, an important point since many old oil fields are in deserts.


A different solar energy company, BrightSource Energy, is building a solar steam system at a Chevron oil field project in Coalinga, Calif. It is supposed to go into service in the second half of this year.


Using solar power for oil recovery makes moot one of solar’s most difficult characteristics, its intermittency, according to John O’Donnell, vice president of GlassPoint. “You’re heating a cubic mile of rock,’’ he said. “It doesn’t matter if you heat it up a little higher in the day.’’


In the pilot project, the greenhouse is too far from the wellhead to send the steam by pipeline, so it is preheating the water, which will then be boiled by natural gas, reducing natural gas use but not as much as in a mature production facility.


Another advantage, according to Mr. MacGregor, is that the well is not fussy about steam quality, in contrast to a steam turbine that makes electricity, which demands constant temperature and pressure. “If there are hot water droplets in the steam stream, the rock won’t care, but a turbine certainly would,’’ he said.

Did You Know - Shading Issues With Solar Panels

Did you know that shadows can dramatically decrease the efficiency of your solar panel array?



For example, take our recent 20kW project in Dawsonville. The rooftop where the panels were installed had 3 standard sized vents along the edge of the building.









These vents cast shawdows on the panels during various times of the day as we rotate the sun.

At one point, we actually measured the effect of the shadows on the nearby panels. Dramatically, these shadowy panels had 80% lower efficiencies! 80%! And a panel that is operating at suboptimum efficiency is not producing full power, thus losing it's owner money!

We immediately modified these vents to no longer cast shadows on the panels.

The takeaway from this post is to carefully consider the environment surrounding your current (or future) solar array. If your house is surrounded by trees they will likely cast shadows on your panels and decrease the efficiency.

We are in no way advocating cutting down trees, instead we are encouraging you to let us help you carefully plan and position your solar panels for maximum power output efficiency and maximum return on investment.

Exxon Announces Lack Of Oil, Sun Smirks

Source: WSJ

HOUSTON—Exxon Mobil Corp., the world's largest publicly traded oil company, is struggling to find more oil.

In its closely watched annual financial report released Tuesday, the company said that for every 100 barrels it has pumped out of the earth over the past decade, it has replaced only 95.

It's a conundrum shared by most of the other large Western oil-producing companies, which are finding most accessible oil fields were tapped long ago, while promising new regions are proving technologically and politically challenging.

Although this is scary news to hear about a decreasing supply of oil, this is where solar energy from the sun really shines (pun intended).

There is a limitless supply of sunlight that can be used to power everything from your home and the appliances inside to your (electric) car and the power you use to charge it in your own garage.

Please visit our new solar website to learn more about our vision for your future.

Dept. Of Energy Wants Cut In Fossil Fuel Research

Source: AJC


The current administration will propose making a big cut to fossil fuel research and closing two facilities. Energy Secretary Steven Chu outlined those cuts, as well as a big increase for clean energy, in a blog post Friday.


Chu says that the budget would cut the Office of Fossil Energy by 45 percent, or $418 million. The budget would also save $70 million by reducing funding for the hydrogen technology program in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.


The administration would end operations at the Tevatron facility at Fermi National Laboratory, saving $35 million, and close the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, saving $10.3 million dollars.

Wired Up! 83% of Americans support incentives for using solar.

Source: Climate Progress

A new Gallup poll shows strong support for more renewable energy incentives.

Guest Blogger Daniel J. Weiss is CAPAF’s Director of Climate Strategy.

Congressional advocates of suspending the Clean Air Act to block the Environmental Protection Agency from requiring reductions in carbon dioxide pollution either don’t know or don’t care that the public overwhelmingly opposes their efforts. What’s worse is that they pretend that the public is on their side just because their big oil and other special interest pals are egging them on to stop EPA from protecting our families’ health.

Take Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new Chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. In December he co-wrote an article with the head of Americans for Prosperity, an organization funded by the Koch Brothers who own Koch Industries – a major polluter. The article falsely claimed that “We think the American consumer would prefer” that EPA not establish carbon pollution safeguards. This claim is disproven by recent public opinion research.

ORC International – the pollster for CNN – conducted a nationwide poll for the Natural Resources Defense Council. It found overwhelming support for more – not fewer – EPA safeguards.

This ORC International survey … conducted among a national probability sample of 1,007 adults… [The] survey was completed during the period January 27-30, 2011. The margin of error …is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

Americans want the EPA to do more, not less. Almost two thirds of Americans (63 percent) say “the EPA needs to do more to hold polluters accountable and protect the air and water,” versus under a third (29 percent) who think the EPA already “does too much and places too many costly restrictions on businesses and individuals.” Well under than half of Republicans (44 percent), less than a third of Independents (29 percent) and under a fifth of Democrats (16 percent) think the EPA is going too far today.

Americans do not want Congress to kill the EPA’s anti-pollution updates. Only 18 percent of Americans – including fewer than a third of Republicans (32 percent) — believe that “Congress should block the EPA from updating pollution safeguards,” after being told: “Some members of Congress are proposing to block the Environmental Protection Agency from updating safeguards to protect our health from dangerous air pollution, saying they will cost businesses too much money.” More than three out of four Americans (77 percent) — including 61 percent of Republicans – say “Congress (should) let the EPA do its job.”

The latest USA Today/Gallup poll found that creating incentives to invest in solar and other forms of alternative energy is the top priority of Americans.

Of eight actions Congress could take this year, Americans most favor an energy bill that provides incentives for using alternative energy (83%), an overhaul of the federal tax code (76%), and speeding up withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan (72%).

Of the eight proposals, the alternative energy bill and tax code overhaul ideas show the greatest bipartisan agreement, with 74% or more of each party group favoring these.

With Republicans in control of the House of Representatives and Democrats in control of the Senate, it would appear the proposals with the best chances of passing are those that generate strong bipartisan support. That is clearly the case for a bill that would provide incentives for increased use of alternative energy.

Solar panels being tested across Georgia

Source: Associated Press




AUGUSTA, Ga. -- Georgia Power Co. is testing solar panels at seven locations around the state to see how well they work under different climate conditions.

The panels are being tested in Augusta, Rome, Valdosta, Macon, Columbus, Savannah and Conley.

Georgia Power says that each panel, under optimum conditions and full sun, can generate about 200 watts of electricity.

Company spokeswoman Carol Boatright says the 18-month trial is a joint effort with the Electric Power Research Institute. She says that among the test locations, some have high humidity or salty air, while mountainous areas have cleaner air but colder temperatures and more freezing.

Nice job, Georgia Power! We knew you were testing panels on the roof of your building downtown, but this news brings a big smile! Pat yourself on the back for some well-spent research! Now spread the word about solar and let your customers know they can sell their solar energy back to you! And be paid a premium for it!

Say Hello To T5 Lighting And Lower Lighting Bills!

T5 Lighting Retrofit Solutions

Increase your light while reducing your total lighting energy consumption by over 50%.

Benefits:
• Retrofit leaves current fixture in place, no need to buy new fixtures.
• No disposal of existing ballast, they are bypassed and abandoned in place.
• No need to shut down large areas to replace fixtures.
• No disturbance of ceiling and potential for release of contaminants into the air.
• 5 Year warranty on retrofit adapter (ballast).
• Financing as low as 3% available for loans up to $70k.
• Lowest Mercury content of all Fluorescents.

Easy installation directions are included. Simply remove your old T12 or T8 bulbs, disconnect the old ballasts, and then reconnect the wires direct to the fluorescent housing end wires.

De-lamping: If your fixtures are 4 light fixtures, you simply remove the (4) current T8 or T12 inefficient bulbs and replace them with (2) T5 bulb/adapters. The T5 bulb installs into the adapter which has its own extremely efficient built-in ballast. Then the adapter with bulb is installed into the existing fixture just as you have installed the current inefficient bulbs you are currently burning.

Let us do a free analysis of your current lighting and provide you with a written proposal that will show you the astonishing savings in your electrical utility cost including your tax incentives, rebates available and your estimated ROl. Learn more at our website.

If You Build It, Will They Charge?

Source: NYTimes

A transition to electric cars isn’t just a matter of the cars, but also of the infrastructure that goes with them, including public charging stations. The Electric Power Research Institute and the Tennessee Valley Authority plan to cut the ribbon on Tuesday on a prototype of a new kind of charging station, one that uses solar cells and batteries. But they do not work together in quite the way the public might expect.

The initial installation has six parking stalls, one of them extra wide for handicapped drivers, with carport roofs covered with solar panels. There are three refrigerator-size battery packs in a building that is heated and air-conditioned.

Under the program, called the TVA Smart Station Initiative, such charging stations are described as “solar assisted” because the panels generate only 12 kilowatts at noon on a sunny day, and the charging stations, when in use, draw 3.3 kilowatts for each vehicle, for a total of nearly 20 kilowatts. Cars will go three or four miles on a kilowatt-hour, and in Tennessee, where all of the charging stations will be installed, the cells atop each space will make enough electricity to move a car about 7,000 miles a year, according to John W. Halliwell, a senior project manager at the institute’s research center in Knoxville.

Yet for much of the time, electricity from the cells will flow to the grid because no car will be there to charge. And to recharge the cars, the system draws power from the grid, so the sun does not have to be shining for a driver to charge up.

The batteries and the solar cells themselves are something like shock absorbers for the grid. If drivers want to charge their cars during peak periods on the grid, the charging station’s batteries will meet part of that demand so that the impact on the grid is milder. Likewise, the solar cells will chip in with some energy, lessening the load on the grid.

“If with new technologies we can control these resources on the distribution side, we can eliminate the need for potentially very expensive upgrades to the distribution system,” said James A. Ellis, the senior manager for transportation and infrastructure at the T.V.A.’s Technology Innovation Organization.

At the Electric Power Research Institute, which will be the site of the first charging stations, Mr. Halliwell said, the various elements could be used in any mix. The batteries, of an advanced lead-acid design, have a usable capacity of 30 kilowatt-hours. They will wear out if they get too hot and will not deliver much current if they get too cold, so one question is how much energy it will take to keep them at a comfortable temperature.

Years from now, Mr. Ellis said, batteries that began their life in electric cars but have lost some of their capacity might be suitable for use at the charging stations. In fact, one function of this program is to determine whether such batteries could be useful, although the batteries to be used in the initial trial are not the sort used in cars.

Researchers say they need to know a lot more about charging stations. Will drivers use them to get a full charge or simply park there for as long as they happen to be in the neighborhood, to add a few miles of range? (At 3.3 kilowatts, a typical car would add about 10 miles of range per hour of charging time.) Where are charging stations most likely to get used? Airports? Universities? Shopping center parking lots?

With the Chevy Volt hybrid and the Nissan Leaf all-electric vehicle just hitting the streets, the question remains open.

Another question is economics: there is no mechanism at the moment for charging the driver for the electricity. Because the project is expected to cost $50,000 to $100,000 per space, some purpose beyond electricity sales will probably be needed to make it work, Mr. Halliwell said.

The institute and the T.V.A. hope to have about 125 parking stalls in place, most of them by the end of this year and mainly in the Knoxville, Nashville and Chattanooga areas.