The Energy Show

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon These days you can’t watch TV, read a news story or listen to the radio without seeing catastrophic fires, hurricanes, and high temperatures. The world is getting hotter. To illustrate, Death Valley recorded the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. Temperatures averaged 108.1 degrees day and night, all of July 2018. That beat last year’s record monthly temperature. This is not just a U.S. only story, it’s a worldwide issue. During the month of July 2018 record high temperatures were set on every single continent in the northern hemisphere (it was winter in the southern hemisphere). Politicians, policymakers and leaders all over the world created the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016 — which every country in the world joined except for outcast Syria. Syria stepped up to the Paris Climate Agreement in 2017 — and then during the same year President Trump withdrew from the Agreement. The U.S. is the only country in the world that is not a signatory of the Paris Climate Agreement, the intention of which is to avoid a likely slow motion global warming disaster. We have been euphemistically describing this problem as “climate change.” Yes, the climate is changing, and it is getting hotter. So I am back to describing this looming catastrophe as “global warming." There are a few scientists who still believe that this global warming is not caused by mankind, is part of a natural cycle, or is not really a problem (Iceland could be the new Costa del Sol). Nevertheless, according to ongoing temperature analyses conducted by climate scientists at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the average global temperature on Earth has increased by about .8 degree Celsius which is 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit since 1880. Two thirds of the warming has incurred since 1975 at a rate of .15 to .2 degrees per decade. Natural processes are generally not linear -- this warming is speeding up. We may be getting close to a tipping point at which global warming dramatically accelerates, flooding coastal areas and creating conditions so hot in many countries that humans can no longer survive. Please Listen up to this week’s Energy Show as we share various scientific and media perspectives on global warming. It’s time to panic and act.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon This week’s Energy Show is for solar power customers, contractors and inverter manufacturers who appreciate the need for reliable solar power systems. Surprising as it may seem, most solar monitoring systems are simply not up to the reliability standards of the panels and inverters they support. The good news is that solar monitoring problems almost never affect system performance. Monitoring failures may indicate an inverter problem, but the panels and inverters are almost always working properly. In reality, the problem is with the communications somewhere along the chain - including the inverter, inverter gateway, home router, wireless connections (wifi, zigbee, cellular, etc.), internet connection and server-side software. Troubleshooting these monitoring and communications issues is one of the biggest hassles that contractors have -- made more difficult by the fact that most installers do not have home networking IT expertise. As a result, many contractors have changed their inverter suppliers because of less than perfect monitoring hardware and software. Going back to 2001 I’ve installed inverter systems from over a dozen companies. Not surprisingly, most of these inverters or communications systems are still running (including Trace, SMA, Fat Spaniel, Xantrex, BP Solar, Sharp, Fronius, SunRun, Enphase, SolarBridge, PowerOne, SolarEdge, JLM, Tigo). Although these inverter companies make great inverters, they are not necessarily software and communications experts. The end result is poor monitoring reliability and customer complaints, even when the inverters continue to operate. To learn more about these solar monitoring issues — as well as my recommendations for long term monitoring reliability— Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon. All Rights Reserved. On this week’s Energy Show were talking about old solar panels. Specifically, what do you do with them? Solar panels last 30 years or more. Almost all of the old panels that I have tested still crank out close to their original power output. Unfortunately, old solar panels are not compatible with the electronics of new systems - inverters, optimizers and microinverters. Sort of like that old CD-ROM software that is still good…if you could just get a computer that has a CD-ROM drive and runs Windows XP. Some people want to upgrade their old 14% efficiency panels with new 20%+ efficiency panels equipped with a battery storage system. One big benefit of upgrading or adding panels is that the 30% tax credit applies to all new equipment — including that old inverter that may have failed. I expect that commercial customers will also start to upgrade their systems, replacing thousands of old panels with thousands of new panels. So what do you do with these old panels? Even though they are constructed of recyclable glass, aluminum and silicon, there has not been a viable solution for recycling solar panels. Instead of dumping old solar panels in landfills, my friend and solar guru Sam Vanderhoof has a solution to this problem: his new company called Recycle PV Solar (recyclepv.solar). Sam estimates that about 95% of solar panels are going into landfills. 15 gigawatts of solar panels were installed in the U.S. in 2016 - that represents about 6 million pounds of panels being installed every day! On a cumulative basis there are about 53 gigwatts of panels currently installed in the U.S., or about 200 million solar panels. To visualize the enormity of this recycling challenge, a train filled with containers of solar panels would be 1,500 miles long! Please Listen Up to this Week’s Energy Show to learn more about the challenges, economics and opportunities of recycling solar panels.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon. All Rights Reserved. Great solar policy is just as important as great solar technology. Obviously we need the technologies for these products — but we also need the policies so that solar products can be cost-effectively installed. And I’m not just talking about incentives…policies related to net metering, interconnection and permitting are just as important. Getting good solar policy requires effective political lobbying. I hate to let you down, but these great energy policies did not magically spring from the brains of inspired politicians When I look back at the successes our industry has had over the years — net metering, the California Solar Initiative, Solar Tax Credits, state incentives — all of these policies were based on sound analytical research coupled with effective lobbying. There are a few companies that specialize in the types of analysis that’s required to put together good policies. One of the best is Cross Border Energy, based in Berkeley California. They provide clients with strategic advice, economic analysis and expert testimony on market and regulatory issues in the natural gas and electric industry. It is my pleasure to have Tom Beach, Principal Consultant of Cross Border Energy as our guest on this week’s Energy Show. Tom has been influential on many of California’s ground breaking energy policies. He has worked on the restructuring of the states gas and electric industries, the addition of new natural gas pipelines and storage capacity, renewable energy development, and a wide range of issues concerning California’s large independent power community. I also had the pleasure of working with Tom on the California Solar Initiative many years ago. To learn more about the energy industry, real world solar economics, and Tom’s perspective on energy regulatory issues, listen up to this week’s Energy Show. PS – the Kyocera and SMA rooftop solar system I installed for Tom back in 2003 is still working perfectly, with only 0.4% degradation over the last 15 years. PPS – his monitoring system is intermittent since his 15 year old computer that runs the software is on its last legs.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon. All Rights Reserved. The electric utility industry is undergoing rapid change. There used to be two types of utilities: investor owned utilities (IOUs, such as Pacific Gas and Electric and ConEd) and municipally owned utilities (MOUs, such as LADWP and Silicon Valley Power). Now there is a third hybrid type, called a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) utility. IOUs work for their stockholders — striving to maximize their profits by charging the most they can for electricity, maximizing their net assets and minimizing their expenses (often maintenance). MOUs work for their local cities — and try to provide affordable and reliable power in their territory. Not surprisingly, electric rates at IOUs are almost always higher than rates at nearby MOUs. Because IOUs profit by installing their own solar and storage systems and maximizing their own sales of electricity, they do not look favorably on homeowners and businesses installing their own systems. My biggest competitors for almost 20 years have been local IOUs. CCAs offer the potential for lower electric rates for customers in their territory, without changing completely to a municipally-owned business structure. CCAs buy power from large solar and wind farms, as well as hydroelectric facilities. They then distribute this power over the existing utility lines. The existing utility bills customers and maintains the power lines, while the CCA essentially just charges customers for the energy they use. CCAs offer customers cheaper electricity, and they offer better economics to solar customers. Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) is the new CCA serving most of the Silicon Valley area. My guest this week is John Supp, Manager of Accounts Services at SVCE. Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show as we talk about the operations, economics and effects that CCAs will have on both customers and the utility industry in general.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon. All Rights Reserved. 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.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon. All Rights Reserved. This week were talking about ten utility electric company myths and were going to debunk these myths, but first a little background. Electric utilities started in the U.S. in the 1880s. Thomas Edison came up with a way of generating DC power, and then George Westinghouse came up with a concept of AC power, which ultimately became the industry standard and grew rapidly. The fundamentals of the utility industry are you generate power in a central location with big power plants; originally coal fired, then oil, then gas, then nuclear, now solar. You then have transmission lines that transmit the electricity at high voltages over long distances. Then you have local distribution networks –those utility wires above and underground, and transformers that look like tin cans on utility poles, and these local distribution lines send lower voltage power to businesses and homes in the area. It’s a terrific industry, many innovations and it’s been a key part of our industrial economy’s growth. They deliver power safely, and relatively inexpensive in relation to what it used to cost –it is pretty affordable when you consider the alternatives, such as putting in your own wood burning generator --crazy. But the thing is, the way we generate power and the way we can now store power, and the way we are using the technology is changing rapidly. The way we would store power even as little as ten years ago was we would build dams to store water, then run turbines to generate electricity as the water in the dam goes down. We can still do that but it is easier to store power in a battery. Now that we have solar and wind power, as well as affordable energy storage we have to reconsider the role of utility companies. Because of changes in technology, we have less need for big utility companies that generate power centrally and transmit that power over long distances to our homes and businesses. So where all this going is and what does it mean for homeowners and businesses? Listen up to this week’s Energy Show as we cover the top ten myths about utility companies that they use to justify their actions to ratepayers and competing industries like solar.

Copyright 2018 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon. All Rights Reserved. California continues to lead the country when it comes to clean and inexpensive energy. Here is an example – In May the California Energy Commission passed a new rule that goes into effect on January 1st 2020 and it’s a really big deal! This rule requires that new homes have a photovoltaic system sized to zero out their annual electrical use. The rule applies to all new homes, apartments and condos under three stories tall. The rule also includes an option to include an energy storage system. I’ve received a number of calls and emails from people both in favor of and against this new rule over the last few weeks. The things that I really like about this new rule is that new homebuyers will definitely save money. We’ve done hundreds of installations on new homes and it works out really well for the new homeowner. And here’s why –According to numbers from the California Energy Commission, which by-the-way, I actually think they are fairly conservative when looking at the benefits: The cost of a new system on a mortgage would be an extra $80 per month on a typical mortgage. And that’s without the tax credit. The monthly savings with current electric bills are estimated to be $40 per month. So the net monthly savings is $40 per month which equates to almost $500 per year. So every new home that has solar on it is going to come out $500 cash flow positive every year. It’s good for new homes and good for new home buyers, but it’s also good because I think it’s going to increase the awareness of solar on residential rooftops. 152 But, there are also some negatives about this new rule. Some people have a visceral reaction against mandates. They simply don’t want to be told what to do and this is something that is going to slightly increase the cost of a new home. Keep in mind, mandates exist because we are trying to help people. After all, seatbelts are mandated too. There are a lot of other things that go into your home like insulation, guarantees, and certain types of equipment. It’s all mandated and now solar is being mandated. It will increase the cost of a home and homes in California are already really expensive. So while it’s true that costs will go up a little bit, there will be positive net savings for each and every one of these new home owners. To learn more about the details on this new ruling on solar and battery storage for new homes in California, Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon ©2018 - All Rights Reserved On this week’s energy show were talking about the all electric future. We’ve had customers at Cinnamon Energy Systems come to us wanting to go 100% electric at their home. They want to get rid of their gas dryer and furnaces, put in more solar panels, use an electric heat pump, and many already drive an EV. This kind of transition is already happening. So what does it mean when our homes, businesses and most transportation systems and most industries primarily operate from electricity instead of the fossil fuels that have powering humanity since basically we discovered fire? There is a steady trend of devices and appliances that are converting from fossil fuels to electric operation. All of the big energy users when you look at the economy, transportation, industry, residential and commercial electricity have all been generated by fossil fuels. Now, everything is going electric. I expect that this electric future for humanity will depend very heavily on both solar and wind in the near term because we know those technologies to be cost effective. There may be things like nuclear fusion or other energy generating technologies that might happen over the next ten to fifty years, but right now, my bet is on solar and wind. So Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show to learn more about why this migration to an all electric future is underway and the economic decisions you should be considering now for your home and business.

Commercial Rooftop Solar, Energy Storage, Rooftop Solar Mounting Systems

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon © 2018-All rights reserved What are the best solar panels – that’s the question we get all the time.  The first thing you have to figure out how you define word “best”.  Now the way I look at this is you look at solar panels that have the highest efficiency, that are the most cost effective, and are the most reliable. So you have to weigh those three factors. The first thing is all solar panels generate the same electricity on a per watt basis. Your appliances can’t tell the difference if you’ve got super panels made in the USA or the cheapest panels made somewhere in Asia. But there are clear cut differences in these panels in the efficiency, cost, aesthetics, installation costs and their availability. We also have distinctions that are somewhat objective like brand, quality, are they going to provide long term energy output. The thing about these subjective measures is they are not based on comparison data, objective studies or any independent laboratory testing. They are manufacturers claims so you have to be careful. So which panels are best? To learn about key decision factors for selecting the best solar panels, please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon © 2018-All rights reserved Reducing E-Waste with Lou Ramondetta of Surplus Services Ours is a consumption economy: we buy electrical equipment, building materials, appliances, toys and innumerable ephemeral knick knacks. When these items no longer serve their purpose — or just become passé — we throw them out. They are almost never re-used and rarely recycled. Ideally, we should recycle everything. Household waste streams are mostly recycled, But old electronics are the worst: think about that drawer of circa 1990s cell phones, box of 3.5” floppy diskettes containing precious data, or pre IP office phone systems that can still power up but are worthless without a dial tone. Unfortunately, this old electronic equipment is usually just thrown in the dump, becoming what we now call "E-waste.” Efforts are in place to prevent old solar panels from also becoming E-waste. Theoretically, the glass, aluminum, silicon and copper in the panels are extremely recyclable. But because of the 25-year durability of solar panels, there are few efficient ways to recycle, or even re-use, old solar panels. There are a few new companies that are addressing the growing need to re-use or recycle E-waste. My guest on this week’s show is Lou Ramondetta, President of Surplus Services. Lou has been in the industrial, electronic and medical equipment industry for over twenty years, and is now working to recycle or — better yet, find a home for working but old electronics equipment. To learn more about how companies like Surplus Services are helping companies and local municipalities reduce and even zero-out their E-waste streams through repurposing of electronic equipment, Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon © 2018-All rights reserved For over a hundred years our civilization has been getting electricity from centralized generation. This utility business model relies on remote power plants fueled originally by coal, oil and gas — and now increasingly by wind and solar. But the development of inexpensive rooftop solar power over the past 20 years is changing this central generation paradigm. It is now cheaper for homes and businesses to generate their own electricity on their rooftop, and only stay connected to the utility for night time power. These Distributed Generation (DG) solar power systems are connected on the customer’s side of the meter, or referred to as Behind the Meter (BTM) from a utility’s perspective. Utilities generate their profits by selling power, as well as owning the power plants and utility power lines. When customers generate their own power, utilities lose revenues. Moreover, when customers pay for their own solar generating systems, utilities do not get to own additional generating assets - further reducing their profits. This loss of revenues and profits is disrupting the conventional Investor Owned Utility (IOU) business. Utilities claim that there are costs being shifted from solar customer to non-solar customers. This cost shift argument is nonsense, since in reality the utilities are trying to regain their lost profits from solar customers by increasing rates for everyone else. Think about it: since utility customers are going elsewhere for the utility’s product (electricity), utilities are raising prices for everyone else. Nice work if you can get it. The trend towards BTM solar (and now battery storage) is inexorable as these technologies continue to get cheaper. The aptly named Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) focuses on these technology and sociological transitions. Our guest on this week’s Energy Show is John Farrell. John directs the energy program at ILSR and is best known for his research and papers on economics and benefits of local ownership of decentralized renewable energy. John is one of our best thinkers and communicators on this subject, so Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show for his commentary on the superior economics of Behind the Meter solar and storage.

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon © 2018-All rights reserved This week we’re talking about battery storage system safety. But first, a brief digression. As a contractor, the biggest safety concern that I have for all rooftop solar and battery systems is not necessarily with the solar panels or the batteries, but with fall protection. It’s an OSHA regulation that all workers must be secured with roof anchors and proper harnesses when working on rooftops. So make sure your solar contractor installs roof anchors during your installation so the people working on your roof are safe. Back to battery safety… Look around: there are batteries everywhere. 120 years ago we started with batteries in our cars and flashlights. Now just about every portable device we have requires batteries: cars, laptops, phones, entertainment systems, toothbrushes and wacky Internet Of Things devices. Fortunately, with the proliferation of electric vehicles, the prices for large-scale battery storage systems have declined substantially. We’re now at the point at which in many locations it is cost-effective to install a home or business battery system to avoid high peak electricity costs -- and get the added benefit of backup power if your utility is unreliable. Batteries pack a lot of energy in a small package -- but not as much as conventional fuels. The energy density of a standard alkaline battery is 0.14 kWh/kg, and the energy density of a lithium ion battery is 0.5 kWh/kg. Compared to explosive gasoline (13 kWh/kg) and uranium (23 million kWh/kg), stationary batteries used in buildings are extremely safe. Moreover, circuitry required by safety agencies (UL, National Electrical Code) makes it almost impossible for these batteries to burn or explode -- even if they are damaged or misused. Nevertheless, the solar and battery storage industry takes safety issues related to battery storage systems seriously. Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show to learn about the built-in safety provisions in residential and commercial battery storage systems -- as well as the fire safety, transportation and worker training required for their safe installation.

The Energy Show - Hosted by Barry Cinnamon We’re talking about hot water this week. No — I’m not in trouble with my local utility again -- just discussing the best ways to heat water for your home. Our focus is on domestic hot water (DHW). This is hot water that you use for your kitchen, bathing and laundry.  In the U.S., the average home uses about 68 gallons of hot water a day, with huge variations based on the number and age of occupants in the home. Taking a step back, I counted six basic ways that people have been heating water since humans discovered fire.  Deliberate heating started with a pot on a campfire (or with hot rocks to boil water). Then we used solar thermal to heat water in a blackened container (and we are still using solar thermal systems today). Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) were then used starting in the 1800s in boilers to heat water (the latest insulated tank technologies use high efficiency condensing gas boilers). In the 1900s we started using electric heating elements in hot water tanks.  Flash or pass through hot water heating systems - powered by electricity or natural gas — completely eliminate the hot water tank, thereby reducing standby losses. But the current champions for DHW efficiency are the new heat pump hot water heaters. These systems have efficiencies in excess of 200% since they extract ambient heat from surrounding air (essentially cooling the air), and use this heat to increase the water temperature. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these heat pump systems have become much more reliable and cost effective. On this week’s Energy Show we will review each of the common technologies used to heat water to help you decide what kind of DHW heating system makes sense for you the next time your tank wears out (BTW, according to NREL the average lifespan of a hot water tank is 13 years).