The Energy Show

Outdoor pools are great on hot summer days - the kids are occupied and the water is refreshing. And as the summer progresses, the water heats up to a comfortable level. But on chilly spring and fall days the cool water in that pool amounts to nothing more than a 30,000 gallon decoration in your back yard. Plus you still may need to run the electric pool pumps to keep the water clean. Because the water is cold in the spring and early summer, your options are to swim (or not to swim) in cold water, burn $50 in extra natural gas to heat your pool, or install a solar pool heating system. It's no surprise that my preferred solution is to install solar pool heat collectors. These pool heat collectors are easily connected into your pool's existing circulating pump system, and can easily maintain your pool at a comfortable 80 degrees F for most of the year. My guest this week is Freeman Ford, one of the founders of FAFCO. FAFCO is the oldest and largest manufacturer of pool heating systems in the U.S. They are based in Chico, California, and have been manufacturing their special black polymer pool solar panels for over 40 years. In addition to their pool solar panels, FAFCO also has a line of solar DHW panels as well as a new hybrid solar thermal-PV panel. Please join me on this week's Energy Show as Freeman talks about our country's lack of commitment to clean, renewable energy -- and the solar industry's perseverance in the face of political paralysis when it comes to a transition to a clean energy economy.

Many of the most significant industrial and technological innovations in the U.S. were discovered, commercialized and expanded with government support. Turn the clock a century or two and you can see how the government was behind oil drilling and refining, transcontinental railroads and our electric grid. More recently the government's been successful with the space program, the internet and the biotech revolution. And these government efforts continue with solar. To quote the DOE: "In 2011, the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) was tasked with achieving the goals of the SunShot Initiative: to drive down the cost of solar electricity to be fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources by the end of the decade." [no one else uses verbs like "tasked'] Suffice it to say that over the past few years SunShot has already been the motivating factor behind dozens of solar innovations, including new financing concepts (Connecticut Clean Energy Finance and Investment Authority's "Green Bank,"), new flat roof and sloped roof PV mounting systems, clever CSP technologies, SolarTech's work to reduce permitting costs, and the Rooftop Solar Challenge. There is considerable momentum behind the dozens of projects that are in the midst of their funding stages, may of which are focused on making solar more affordable by reducing soft costs. SunShot staffers get into the field to understand real world problems and potential solutions. Sometimes that "field" is a steeply sloped roof -- which is where I started this week's interview with Minh Le, the Director of SunShot. After we moved to a more stable platform on the ground we had a good opportunity to talk about the overall SunShot program and how they reach out to solar industry participants. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as Minh Le talks about SunShot's progress in reducing solar hard costs (equipment) and soft costs, as well as their efforts to help new companies and technologies get into the hands of customers where they can do the most good.

Over 95% of climate scientists have concluded that CO2 is the primary cause of global warming. Solving the problem requires a dramatic reduction in CO2 emissions. Some people are altruistic, but almost all businesses are bottom line oriented and will not reduce their CO2 emissions unless they have an economic incentive to do so. There are two realistic incentives: taxing CO2 emissions or setting up a cap and trade program for CO2. Since increasing taxes is politically unfeasible, the most practical approach is with a cap and trade program. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency implemented a cap and trade program for sulfur dioxide (the primary contributor to acid rain) in 1995. This program was a great success, and essentially eliminated the acid rain program. California passed AB32 in 2006 to accomplish the same goals for CO2 emissions. This law sets a cap on emissions from almost all sources, and gives polluting companies a certain number of allowances. If companies reduce their CO2 emissions (with renewable power generation, more efficient processes or smokestack scrubbers), they can trade these emissions to companies that still pollute. Many California companies succeeded in reducing their emissions. In fact, utilities installed so much wind and solar (courtesy of their RPS requirements) that they now have excess allowances to trade. But the gas refining industry didn't act, and starting on January 1, 2015 they will have to purchase extra allowances. How much? When a gallon of gas is burned it emits about 20 pounds of CO2, which is 0.009 tons. At the current market price of CO2 allowances of $12/ton, that extra CO2 amounts to about 11 cents. So the downside of cap and trade is that the price of gas in California is likely to go up by about a dime. The upside is that we get cleaner air and an even stronger green economy. But not everyone wants this outcome. In particular, the oil and gas refining industry tried to suspend AB32 in 2010 when they sponsored Proposition 23 (which was defeated by 62% of voters). This year they are sponsoring AB69, which will delay the application of cap and trade to transportation fuels. It's shaping up as a battle between deep-pocketed dirty fuel polluters -- and just about everybody else in California. I'm hopeful that California's cap and trade program continues to succeed, and maybe someday soon will be adopted by the other 49 states. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as we talk about the real economic impact of cap and trade.

Solar modules started out as fairly simple moisture-proof sandwiches of glass, silicon cells, glue and backsheets -- with a junction box that contains a few diodes to bypass defective or shaded cells. No fancy electronics in the early days. Then power electronics circuitry crept into early inverters -- to the point now where all inverters contain hundreds of electronics chips to provide various optimization, communications and safety functions. Now that many installations use microinverters or optimizers, every single solar panel has its own collection of electronics chips. Power electronics for solar modules are generally designed with 50-200 general purpose integrated circuits and related components. Like almost all other electronic products, microinverters and optimizers were all initially designed with discrete components -- but then, as sales volumes increase manufacturers started to include more specialized components. Think about the first PCs and all the components that were soldered onto internal circuit boards. Now most of the functionality of PCs (and cellphones and TVs and other mass produced electronics) are provided by a few customized chips made in very high volumes. The same miniaturization and cost reduction trend, from hundreds of discrete general purpose components to dozens of specialized power electronics chips, will occur with power electronics for solar applications. As Intel, AMD, Broadcom, Nvidia and others have shown, providing specialized chipsets to electronics manufacturers is a good way to reduce costs and improve performance. It's a geeky business, but one that has made our laptops and cellphones so ubiquitous. Solantro Semiconductor has staked its future on providing chipsets for solar power systems, as well as related energy storage and communications functions. Because they are optimized for miniaturized power electronics applications, Solantro's solar chipsets will be cheaper, more efficient and more reliable than ordinary power electronics composed of hundreds of chips. My guest this week is Antoine Paquin, CEO of Solantro Semiconductor. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as Antoine explains how specialized chipsets for solar power applications will help make solar systems cheaper, smaller and more efficient.

Architects are in the driver's seat when it comes to building new homes or overseeing major remodeling projects. Although they are familiar with rooftop solar, their designs generally do not include solar panels. Whether it's because of cost, technology or aesthetics, it's a big opportunity that is lost to almost all new homeowners. Fortunately, this reluctance to include solar panels as a standard feature is beginning to change. Some national homebuilders offer solar as a standard option, and the overall economics of rooftop solar continues to improve. A recent study has found that the single most important factor driving whether a given homeowner installs solar is peer influence -- essentially, whether their neighbors have solar, also. So new home buyers, custom home builders and home remodeling companies are more likely to ask their architects for rooftop solar. My guest this week is Marvin Bamburg, the principle at MBA Architects, a San Jose-based residential and commercial architecture firm. His firm has been incorporating rooftop solar in his designs for over a dozen years. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as Marvin provides an architect's perspective on incorporating rooftop solar in the design, sale and construction process for residential homes.

Solar PV customers understand that they can generate cheap electricity with rooftop solar. That electricity is good for lighting, appliances, air conditioning and other household uses. But homeowners often ask about heating their homes with solar. The answer used to be installing a solar thermal system with rooftop solar panels generating hot water (stored in a tank) or hot air (stored in a bed of rocks or other thermal mass). But now there is another option: heat pumps combined with rooftop PV. Two trends are making this type of system cost effective. First, rooftop PV systems now generate electricity inexpensively, often much less than what you would pay from your local utility. Second, there is a new generation of smaller, modular heat pumps called "mini-split systems" that allow you to heat and cool a few rooms at a time, instead of your entire house. The combination of cheap PV electricity and a zoned approach to heating and cooling are often less expensive than natural gas heat and central air conditioning. Heat pumps draw on existing heat reservoirs, usually ambient outdoor air, underground water sources or pipes buried outdoors. When these heat reservoirs are in the range of 45 to 55 degrees F, heat pumps can be quite efficient. So they work best in temperate climates -- not in cold areas of the U.S. Nevertheless, even in cold climates a ground or water source heat pump with PV can be more efficient than gas or oil heat (and certainly cleaner). As PV costs continue to decline and split systems proliferate we can expect to see more and more homes relying solely on rooftop PV for their energy use. Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as we talk about the perfect match between heat pumps and rooftop PV.

Cold Fusion - Dec 2014 by Barry Cinnamon 366248

Taking Advantage Of Low Gas Prices - Jan 2015 by Barry Cinnamon 366248

Solar panels keep getting more efficient. That's a great thing. But they can't communicate, can't adjust to environmental circumstances, and don't have automatic shutdown capabilities. Fortunately -- and with apologies to the Farrelly brothers (who seem to have similar limitations) -- solar panels aren't getting any dumber. Many of the newest solar panels are equipped with optimizers, either built into the junction box or attached as a separate component to the back of the panel. Microinverters (which convert the DC output of a panel to AC) provide the same basic benefits at similar costs; however, unlike microinverters, optimizers operate on the DC side of the system and are always connected to a central or string inverter. These optimizers, or power electronics as their also called, provide three basic functions. First, they optimize the output of each panel by adjusting the current and voltage generated by each panel. If there is a weak panel operating at a low current, the optimizer on that panel can lower the voltage across that panel (thereby increasing the current) and prevent that panel from affecting the current of the other panels in the string. Second, optimizers have communications capabilities so that the installer or system owner can see the performance of each individual panel. And third, some new optimizers provide code-required automatic DC shutdown capabilities to prevent arcing and fires. As with many new solar technologies with high initial costs and unproven benefits, optimizers got a relatively slow start. But as production volumes increased, prices came down and operating capabilities were improved, more and more installers began to use them for both residential and commercial projects. Perhaps the biggest breakthrough came as panel manufacturers began to integrate optimizers into the junction boxes - this step significantly reduced both parts costs and installer labor. My guest on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World is Zvi Alon, Chairman and CEO of Tigo Energy, based in Los Gatos, California. Tigo is one of the pioneers in the optimizer business, and is getting a lot of traction in the marketplace as more panel and inverter manufacturers build Tigo technology into their products. So listen up to this week's show as we explore the costs and benefits of this latest generation of solar panel optimizers.

Ahhh. The Holy Grail of Customer Acquisition. Maybe it's low price ... great company reputation ... special technology ... brand name products ... ubiquitous marketing? I've tried all of them and they all work, to a degree. But these tactics are not cheap, consistent or scalable. There is an answer, one that is pretty much right in front of our eyes. Research into this topic is described in the following paper: “Spatial Patterns of Solar Photovoltaic System Adoption: The Influence of Neighbors and the Built Environment.” This research was spearheaded by Dr. Kenneth Gillingham, a professor of economics at Yale University. Dr. Gillingham is not an ivory tower solar newbie. He's been doing research in the solar industry for over a dozen years going back to his days at Stanford. Interestingly, one of his projects was crunching the numbers in an enormous spreadsheet that led to the economic justification for the California Solar Initiative. Ken's research confirms that if your neighbor has rooftop solar, there is a much greater chance that you will have solar (or want to get solar). Rooftop systems tend to cluster in a neighborhood, regardless if these neighborhoods are wealthy or liberal. It's almost as if solar is contagious! Please join me on this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy world as Ken explains the way in people are influenced to go solar, which is termed the Diffusion Effect. So listen up to this week's show for some practical tips on finding new customers and reducing your customer acquisition costs.

Hurricanes. Blizzards. Earthquakes. Tornadoes. They've all clobbered populated areas over the last few years, resulting in extended power outages, fuel shortages and even lack of potable water. But people live comfortably in completely off-grid locations, generating their own electricity, using sustainable sources for heat, and even recycling their water. These off-grid systems are gradually creeping into mainstream America. Generators are sold in some supermarkets, wood stoves are becoming popular heating options, people are learning how to recover and re-use grey water, and battery backup solar power systems are being rejuvenated by inexpensive batteries coupled with steadily increasing utility power rates. Inevitably, prices for these technologies will become more and more affordable -- just as electricity, gas and water become more expensive. Our special guest for this week's show is Tod DuBois, CEO of Sangha Energy. Tod's company specializes in off-grid living systems, including battery-backup solar power, generators, and grey water recovery systems. Tune in to this week's Energy Show as Tod and Barry talk about your options for sustainable electricity, heat and water - even in your suburban jungle.

Utility scale solar has historically been the biggest market for solar power in the U.S. Currently, most of the largest plants are located in the southwest U.S. states where there is plenty of sunny, relatively unused land. The largest of these projects are slightly over 500 megawatts using in the neighborhood of 2 million solar panels. Thats a lot of solar panels -- but also a lot of solar panel racking. On any large ground mounted project, most of the on-site labor relates to installing the solar panel racking (by comparison, installing the panels on the racks and wiring them together goes relatively quickly). As the solar industry strives to reduce costs, less expensive and easier to install racking becomes critical to the financial benefits of a project. The traditional galvanized pipe in concrete pier mounting structures have become a thing of the past. One such innovation comes from Solar FlexRack. In 2009 they designed a ground mount racking system that ships compactly, then expands on-site like an accordion. The result is a drastic reduction in the amount of field labor required to bolt the racking components together. Steve Daniel, EVP of Sales and Marketing at Solar FlexRack is our guest this week on the Energy Show on Renewable Energy World. Please join me as Steve discusses the benefits of easy to install ground mount racking, and talks about the value-added services that are necessary to provide turnkey solutions to utility scale customers.

We're in the middle of winter. But pretty soon the rain will stop, the snow will melt, the home and garden shows will gear up and solar customers will start to plan their investments for the year. At the same time, solar companies of all sizes will remind their customers that the tax credits are going away and they better "buy now" to lock in pricing at these low rates. OK, one can pretty much take these predictions to the bank. But what will happen in the solar industry in 2015? What kind of mergers and acquisitions activities will we see? How will the "long tail" of small installers fare against the big national installers? Will we get an extension of the ITC, or will a Republican-dominated Congress try to sideline renewables and keep drilling? Will the residential solar leasing curve flatten in favor of loans and cash purchases? What impact will tariffs have on the prices of modules. Will BOS costs continue to fall? Who will win the Super Bowl? I don't know. But I can guess. I've peered through my cracked crystal ball and ten predictions have come into focus (all except the Super Bowl winner). So listen up to this week's Energy Show on Renewable Energy World for my perspective on the solar industry's prospects for 2015.

In our opening Energy Show we discuss frequently asked questions about residential solar.