David & Barbara Heid asked us to install a 12.4 KW Solar PV system on their new home.  They felt compelled to provide the following review based on their experience so far.

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Power Trip (PT) was instrumental in building our new “green” house. Several years ago PT was asked to survey our possible building site for potential solar energy capture. Their survey reported that the site had positive solar potential. That survey began our strong relationship with PT.

PT was with us from the beginning of our newhome. PT determined the compass orientation of the house foundation that would place the roof line for the greatest capture of solar energy. PT also designed the angle (slope) and size of the roof for placement of solar panels. PT also helped in our selection of the metal roof style that enhanced panel placement without having to penetrate the roof for panel anchorage.

Our “green” home is installed with a ductless heat pump for household heat, a ‘heat-pump’ hot water heater, and all lighting is LED. The house is insulated beyond county code requirements.

PT installed our solar panels on January 5, 2017. In addition to the panels, an EV (electric vehicle) charger station was installed. On April 28th , an all electric Chevrolet Bolt was purchased.

Today after 129 days since the installation of the solar panels, data collected shows that the ave daily energy use for the house is 32.87 kWh. So far, the ave daily Solar energy production is 32.07 kWh with a result of 97.57% of the daily household electrical use being supplied from Power Trip installed solar panels (32.07kWh/32.87kWh). The total household use of electricity includes the kWh used to charge the Bolt. The Bolt has been driven over 2000 miles since its purchase and it has been charged at our new home only.

Also, our PUD electric bills for March and April were only for the monthly $14.50 base fee that is charged to each electric bill. No charges were made for electricity since no electricity was delivered. In addition, the May PUD electric bill states that 396 kWh have been added to our banked usage balance.

We look forward to the days ahead when the ‘2017 spring rain season’ is replaced with some long days of sunshine and ‘banking’ energy for later winter days. Also with new batteries being developed, our future may include an ‘on site’ energy storage system.

Can we recommend Power Trip Energy for solar planning and installation? YOU BET!

Heid Residence, 12.4 KW, Port Ludlow, Feb 2017

Puget Sound Energy (PSE), like all major utilities in Washington State, has long offered a Green Power program.  This program allows you to enroll and pay an additional amount per kwh to get green energy.  When we used to be PSE customers, we participated in the Green Power program in which we would pay a premium each month to make certain that what electricity we did buy from PSE (what we needed beyond what our solar pv produced), was sourced from clean energy sources.  The main component in the Green Power program has been wind energy from a couple of large utility scale wind projects owned by PSE.

Now PSE is offering a solar specific green power program called Solar Choice.  The Solar Choice program is similar to the existing Green Power program in that it offers customers the ability to pay a premium in order to make certain that PSE sources and allocates sufficient solar pv generated electricity to cover the amount you sign up to buy.

While this is very different from purchasing your own solar pv array for your own house, it is a good idea if you are a renter or have a shady roof and can’t install your own solar pv.  The benefits are that you get the satisfaction of knowing there is some solar energy being produced somewhere with your name on those electrons, and you can participate or not as you choose.  The more solar choices people have, the better.

If you own your house and have a sunny roof, its probably better to choose to make an upgrade to your house that will make clean power and decrease your home’s energy bills for decades.

https://pse.com/savingsandenergycenter/Renewables/Pages/default.aspx

Palmer Residence, Dec 2016

The solar business is fun and dynamic.  It feels great to be working in an industry which provides a long-term solutions for some of the problems inherent in the energy status quo, and because the majority of people consider themselves supporters of solar, we get a lot of interest and support even from people that are not our customers.  While solar photovoltaic panels have been made continuously since the 1950’s using the basic same materials and techniques, the industry itself is more dynamic than the technology.  Many business leaders (including us) see nothing but opportunity for growth, indeed every sunny rooftop I see is a place where I think solar pv should be installed.  The barriers are not technological, they are economic and social barriers only.

We are a small company assessing the market to determine the best options for our clients.  Based on our years of experience, we have become practical and skeptical of flashy marketing.  This practicality often comes up when people inquire about new products, and lately it seems like Tesla is again the center of attention.  An incredible company led by a charismatic genius CEO, they now have the largest market capitalization of any US car manufacturer, despite the fact that Tesla sold 80,000 cars in 2016, and Ford sold 6.7 million cars for example.  Valuations are as much about stories as balance sheets, and Tesla’s leaders are master story tellers.  They are also masters of shaping their own reality, as evidenced by the quality of the cars they manufacture dubbed “Car of the Century” by Car and Driver http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/2015-tesla-model-s-70d-instrumented-test-review, and by the fact that they have installed the largest utility energy storage facilities in the world with their Li-ion batteries. http://blog.solarcity.com/island-in-the-sun/

Regarding the solar roofs, Tesla has announced they will begin taking orders in April, aiming to begin installations by the end of 2017.  They are currently advertising for and hiring roofers, indicating initially at least they will begin as contractors with in-house installers, as Solar City (a national solar installer now owned by Tesla) has done.  Of note, the company has a history of taking orders very early, and delaying delivery dates significantly.  If you need a new roof now, or if you want to utilize the 30% federal tax credit currently in place, you probably shouldn’t wait for this product.

Eric Wesoff provides a survey of a couple of new solar roofs and several unsuccessful BIPV (Building Integrated solar PV, an industry term for solar roofs) ventures here:  https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Tesla-Says-It-Will-Take-Orders-for-the-Solar-Roof-in-April

Will Tesla again succeed where others have failed?  We are looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish, and how it will relate to the other options available at the time.  In the meanwhile, we won’t be holding our breath.  

Regardless of what the future may hold, what we have to offer right now is better than any time in the past, more watts per square foot at a lower price, with proven technology and 25 year warranties.  We invite you to learn more at one of our upcoming events, we look forward to seeing you.  https://powertripenergy.com/events/

Meyer Residence, 7.6 KW (SunPower 345 watt modules) on the Clallam PUD grid in Sequim

Tesla was one of three companies that just brought online 70 Megawatts of instantly deployable lithium battery power, totaling approx 280 Megawatt-hours of energy storage.  These projects were recently purchased by Southern California Edison (SCE) in response to the massive Aliso Canyon natural gas leak, which impacted gas supply for local plants, and the earlier than planned shut-down of the two San Onofre nuclear plants the company owns, due to premature wear which is still not understood.

This project represents the largest battery storage project in the world, and was completed faster than forecast, with a 100% safety record (no injuries during construction.)  This 70 MW, represents the first step in a much larger eventual capacity for SCE.  Some of the lithium battery storage they are deploying is on the customer side of the meter.  This project is the main reason why you can’t get a Tesla Power Wall at the moment here on the Olympic Peninsula.

18 months ago, right after the initial Power Wall product announcement, I wrote that I hoped to see them within 12-18 months.  18 months later, I hope to see them in 12-18 months.  Tesla is currently in “full production mode” at the Gigafactory outside Reno, NV, aiming to produce 50 Gigawatt-hours of battery capacity annually by next year, and eventually 150 Gwh annually.  Gigafactory 2 has been announced for Europe, but no site has been determined yet.  We can currently get products from other Lithium battery manufacturers that represent the first generation of this market, available for our clients who want to be on the cutting edge.

The synergy between utility scale solar pv and storage at the substation level is too sweet to ignore, and I expect to see continuing cost reductions and increase in the speed and efficiency of build-outs.  In the meanwhile, if you have a sunny roof on your house, plain vanilla grid-tied pv is probably still your best option at the homeowner scale for the foreseeable future.

To learn more about the state of the art in Lithium battery deployment at the utility scale, Julia Pyper’s most recent article is a great place to start:

https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/aliso-canyon-emergency-batteries-officially-up-and-running-from-tesla-green

Chase-Tyler Residence

In November, Elon Musk spoke about Solar City’s plans to install solar roof tiles manufactured by Tesla.  Many people have asked us about the potential of installing solar roof tiles.  We look forward to seeing what becomes available and understanding the details of pricing and performance of this product.  In the absence of any details from the manufacturer, you can look at pictures and sign up for updates here  https://www.tesla.com/solar

This concept has previously been referred to by the nickname BIPV, denoting Building Integrated Photovoltaics, although we see that term used less these days.  The concept of having one product that serves as roofing and also generates electricity is very attractive.  It would be helpful to the product’s feasibility if the solar roof tiles cost less than the combination of a standard asphalt shingle roof with standard framed modules installed on top of it, but no solar roofing product that currently exists comes close to this price point.  So in order to have a solar roofing product, customers will pay a premium.  We have never installed one, though there have been many options available for over a decade, from Sharp Electronics, Open Energy, CertainTeed, and Dow, to name a few manufacturers.  Musk claims that the Tesla solar roof tiles will cost less than a “dumb” roof.  I look forward to seeing that, but I am not holding my breath while waiting.

The other solar roofing products on the market have a relatively low efficiency in terms of watts per square foot compared to standard mono-crystalline silicon modules.  So even though there is the supposed convenience of a single product to install, the amount of energy that could be produced is actually lower than from a standard pv module array.  In most residential installations, our design imperative is to produce as much energy as possible on the limited roof space available, so unless the Tesla product has a higher efficiency than the most efficient product currently available, it will involve making a sacrifice in performance.  We are looking forward to the technical details to be able to make a true evaluation.

Only a portion of a home’s roof is practical for the installation of solar pv, eg, we would install solar on the south-facing roof, but not the north-facing roof of a simple house that is a single gabled rectangle.  Most homes of course don’t have such simple roof shapes nor orientation.  There are usually hips, dormers, clerestories and other roofs with different pitches and compass azimuths, and a big part of our design process is identifying and prioritizing the suitable roofs upon which to install pv.  With the solar roof tiles, the question comes up as to what to do on the roofs not suitable for solar pv.  Will Tesla provide a visually identical product minus the photovoltaic cells?  I imagine this will be the intention, though this will surely raise the price further even for the roof planes not making energy.

Another aspect of this product that gives us pause is the need for a specialized tradesperson to perform the installation.  In a solar installation on a standard home, the roof has been installed by roofing contractors who specify the products and warrant their roof installation for many years.  The solar installers then install their product over the top of that and warrant our penetrations and product performance for many years.  The roofers we work with are great, but it is a fair generalization to state that roofers are generally conservative and slow to adopt new products, which is exactly what you want in a roofer.  As far as solar installers, they generally spend a lot of time surveying this rapidly changing market and keeping abreast of new products and dynamic pricing, updating their offerings for their clients as the options change and better products become feasible.  There is an inherent tension in these two cultures, and the concept of combining those two trades into a single new trade is interesting.  At Power Trip Energy, we have roofing skills related to penetrating, sealing, and flashing many different roof types in order to install our product on any roof, but we have no interest in becoming roofers at this time.  In some situations with certain less common roofs or proprietary roofing membranes, we coordinate our installation with the roofers who follow us on the roof and come in right after us to flash our work and maintain responsibility for the entire roofs warranty.  Perhaps other larger markets will lead in the creation of a new trade specialist, the solar electrician roofer, but we have yet to see evidence of that in the trade literature.  If the installation will require coordination roofers and solar electricians, that coordination will inherently increase the cost of installation and inevitably slow us down.

There are unanswered design questions.  Currently, if we are designing a system using string inverters that accept strings of DC electricity from the solar pv on the roof, we need to make certain we are bringing the DC power to the inverter with the proper voltage and amperage, sometimes a challenge to fully and exactly utilize available roof space.  What will be the design constraints of these solar roof tiles?  More often now instead of string inverters, we are using AC modules each with integrated micro-inverters in the 320 watt range, on a module that is roughly 15 square feet in area.  If each solar roofing tile were to have its own integrated micro-inverter on a much smaller scale, that would increase costs and dramatically multiply the potential points of failure, and increase the complexity and expense of any warranty work.  I doubt whether we will see solar roof tiles with integrated micro-inverters any time soon, but this is exactly where the leading edge of the market is right now for the standard framed modules.

Unless the solar roof tiles can provide some benefits that surprise me in relation to the issues I raised above, the only benefit is the aesthetics some people will find in the look of those roofs.  We have been able to design systems to satisfy even the most aesthetic conscious clients using SunPower’s black-framed modules.  Of course most of our clients find the creation of clean energy a thing of beauty in itself, and are happy to be reminded of their arrays when they come home.

Please pardon our slightly jaded response to some of the industry’s more hopeful forward-looking announcements, we have seen a lot of those in the last 14 years, and it is a rare jewel that makes it from announced intention to actually becoming the best product for your roof.  We’ll be keeping a close eye on these developments and let you know when they are ready for you.  In the meanwhile, what we have right now is a selection of the best solar products made to date, at the lowest prices ever seen, and a relatively friendly regulatory environment, facts which may combine to encourage you to act now rather than following Tesla’s implied advice to continue waiting for something better.

Solar Agent

Join our team and be an agent of change, helping clients navigate their choices to determine whether and how to put grid-tied solar pv on their home.

You will have technical sales expertise, a driver’s license and clean driving record, and a desire to help our clients understand and make choices to harvest solar energy on their homes and businesses.  You will be joining a small company and working alongside the owners.  You will professionally represent us with integrity and excellent communications skills utilized for coordinating with the public, our clients, utilities and government regulators, and other departments within the company.  You will be brutally honest, have excellent math and writing skills, be comfortable using a 32’ extension ladder to reach second story roofs.  You will use company laptop, and vehicle.  You will live in or around Port Townsend.

Specific tasks include:

• educating and qualifying customers over the phone and in person
• site analysis using ladder, hand tools, compass, camera, and cool high-tech shade analysis tools
• conceptual design and communication of financial cost, incentives, savings, and financing options during site visit
• detailed system design including performance estimates, requires good math skills including trigonometry and basic understanding of electricity and physics
• preparation of proposals, contracts using Word, Excel, SketchUp and solar design software
• answering questions in order to close the sales
• creating detailed project binders for the installation crew, including basic electrical calculations and one-line drawings
• creating basic permit applications using manufacturer’s engineered specs, shepherding applications through various jurisdictions

Additional marketing tasks may include graphic design of marketing materials, writing press releases, event coordination, and public speaking at indoor and outdoor events.

We provide a competitive compensation and benefits package including health insurance, paid sick and vacation time, paid and unpaid holidays throughout the year, quarterly bonuses based on profitability, 3% company IRA matching contribution, and continuing education funding.

Send resume and brief statement of your thoughts regarding renewable energy and grid-tied pv.