Please join us at the Bainbridge Island Electrification Expo to discover how you can be a part of the future of clean energy. Whether you are curious about electric vehicles, renewable energy solutions, or how to live more sustainably; this event offers something for everyone. There will be food booths available at this event as well as ample parking.
Andy Cochrane, the owner of Power Trip Energy, will be speaking at 2:15 p.m. in one of the Breakout Sessions after keynote Speaker; Brian Stewart.
I recently read about two towns in California that have mandated the installation of grid-tied PV systems on newly constructed homes. This government legislation illustrates to me how far residential solar power has come. Just a couple of decades ago, solar power brought to mind one solar panel powering a flickering light bulb hanging from the ceiling of a wood cabin. And now City Councils are insisting upon solar! The passing of these laws leaves me wondering if legally mandating solar installations is a growing trend and what will this mean for the future?
The town of Sebastopol has about the same population as Port Townsend, Washington, around 8000 souls. In 2013, this quirky and decidedly liberal town passed a law requiring solar panels on all new buildings and additions with nearly unanimous support from its City Council. According to a May 10, 2013 article by Miranda Green of The Daily Beast, “Sebastopol’s ordinance orders that the solar systems must provide 2 watts of power per square foot or offset 75 percent of the structure’s electricity use.” So a humble 3.6 KW system would be required on an 1800 sq ft home.
Unlike Sebastopol, Lancaster, California is largely politically conservative. It has a population of around 150,000, about the same as the Washington State counties of Clallam, Jefferson, and Mason combined. According to Green, Lancaster was the first city in the United States to mandate solar panels on new construction. The city council was unanimous in approving a zoning code amendment requiring housing developers to add solar power systems on all new homes. This new code was initiated by the Republican mayor, R. Rex Parris, who wanted to make Lancaster the “solar capital of the universe.” The satellite photo of Lancaster above shows a segment of a housing development impacted by the legislation.
A Marketplace.org article posted on August 11, 2016, by Jed Kim addresses the question of mandating solar power. According to Kim, “Santa Monica recently approved an ordinance making rooftop solar systems mandatory for all new construction and major renovations.” San Francisco is planning on implementing similar legislation in 2017. Dean Kubani, Santa Monica’s chief sustainability officer, explained that the ordinance was approved to aid the city’s efforts to reduce emissions, “We, like a lot of other cities, are looking at greenhouse gas impacts and carbon impacts, and we’re trying to figure out how can we become carbon neutral.”
In the greentechmedia.com article, What It Really Means to Require Solar Panels on All New Buildings (June 20, 2016), Julian Spector writes, “Other municipalities have already reached out to San Francisco for more information about the policy, including Boston, Washington, D.C., Cambridge and Palo Alto.” Spector concludes, “The endgame will be cities where rooftop solar isn’t a personal challenge for a homeowner, it’s just one of many components expected of a market-ready property.”
It seems clear that mandating solar power is indeed a growing trend. However, I am hesitant to assert that solar power should be mandated for all new construction across the country. All too frequently, legislation that is meant to help people ends up presenting unintended consequences and sometimes does more harm than good. What are the possible unintended consequences of legislating solar installations? How successful are other incentive programs and commercial promotions in encouraging people to adopt solar power? If we wait for the market to come around to solar, will it happen fast enough to mitigate our climate crisis? What do you think? What questions do you have about this topic or other issues with solar power?
Proud new owners of a Power Trip Energy solar array, 2016
If you are like most environmentally conscious people, solar power has been on your radar for a very long time. You may have even developed a habit of waiting for the technology to become more solid, mainstream, and affordable; waiting for the first wave of users to help work out the kinks and develop a perfected product. Until about three weeks ago when I began my research on the Solar Agent position at Power Trip Energy, I thought we were still in waiting mode.
As my training on grid-tied PV has progressed at Power Trip Energy, it has dawned on me that the “early adopter” phase for residential solar power may have already passed. My family has always been the sort who are first on our block to embrace such things as microwave ovens and home computers, cell phones and Netflix. Thankfully, we can keep our technological early adopter self-image intact. Despite the fact that residential solar power has become so mainstream that we can now share our democratized power production with the utility grid and be paid for it at 100% the utility’s selling rate, we can still be the first on our block to invest in a flashy and affordable new solar array!
Your wait is truly over. Residential grid-tied PV solar technology has become more than a logical investment in the future livability of our planet; it has also become fiscally practical, paying for itself over time, increasing our property values, and significantly reducing our power bills immediately. Power Trip Energy was brave enough to show up early and paddle out to the big wave. Now they, I mean WE, are ready to join you in riding that wave back to shore.
What strikes me most about the super awesome community members at Power Trip Energy is their integrity and commitment to our habitat. From the electric personal cars and bicycles in our parking lot to partnering with companies that insist on producing solar modules sustainably, Power Trip Energy is making a real impact on our future for generations to come. I am honored to join them in this powerful movement and eager to share the electricity with you!
Photo taken on Puget Sound Express‘s Glacier Spirit whale watch touring vessel. Hudson Point Marina is in the background. Heather Flanagan is the newest member of the Power Trip Energy team. Originally from Portland, Oregon, she now calls Port Townsend her home. Heather lives in Uptown with her two boys, Logan and Blake.
Mansfield Residence – 7.85 KW SunPower Array on Fronius 10 KW Inverter – Port Townsend – December 2015
SunPower last year verified 25.2% efficiency in a manufactured silicon-based PV cell. This year, they have integrated that cell into a manufactured PV module which attains 24.1% efficiency. When making efficiency comparisons, the cell-level efficiency is less relevant as in order for us to utilize that power, we need the cells built into a module, which will necessarily be slightly less efficient due to the space between cells, and the small area occupied by the frame.
When we are designing a system for a home’s roof, we usually need to make as much power as we can on the available roof space in order generate the largest percentage of the home’s annual energy. So using the most efficient modules available is important to us. While these SunPower modules are not the least expensive on the market, when we can put up an array with higher power rating in the same space as an average array, we can recognize relatively lower $/watt installation costs on all the other aspects of the system.
We are now commonly utilizing SunPower X-21 345 watt modules, which are 21.5% efficient at the module level. Their high efficiency, finish quality, and industry-leading warranty make SunPower an excellent choice for almost all of our clients. For example on the installation from last winter pictured above, we used the SunPower 327 watt modules to get 7.85 KW in the available un-shaded space. If we had used an average module, running ~290 watts in this size right now, that would be a 6.96 KW array in the same space, 12% less power installed for the same amount of work.
There are several trends in the solar industry that are benefitting us locally, and driving our growth. We are currently installing over 60 KW per month, having installed 180 KW in Q4 of last year, and Q1 of 2016. That means in each quarter, we are installing as much solar as we did the first five years of business from 2003 through 2007.
We continue to see prices on pv modules slowly decrease, mostly as a result of global manufacturing capacity increases and efficiency gains. SunPower specifically has seen recent gains at its fourth “Fab” and is now approaching producing 1500 MW of pv per year.
So as a result of this increased manufacturing capacity, SunPower has been able to give us a fairly significant price cut recently, in addition to adding a 360 watt version of their standard residential pv module. We have been installing mostly 327’s for the last year, though now the 345’s are very close in price per watt and will make up the bulk of our designs for the remainder of the year. In cases where we want to make the most power possible, we will give our clients the option of the 360 watt product.
The increased installation rate here at Power Trip Energy also creates an interesting dynamic in terms of our pricing. With more and larger projects being installed each month, without our overhead significantly increasing, we can lower our installation charges on each job. So the lower equipment costs are actually resulting in lower labor charges as well.
The extension of the federal tax credit has removed a major deadline we were facing at the end of 2016 so we can intelligently plan for manageable growth this year. The waning state incentives should be considered, since we have about four more good summers to capitalize on those annual production payments from the state.
We don’t know how long these market conditions will persist, but we do know there has never been a better time to install a grid-tied pv system in Washington.
This 10 year old array continues to produce returns with no additional investment on our part. Thanks to the Energy Edition of Industry Focus for bringing up this topic – http://www.fool.com/podcasts/industry-focus. Sean, Tyler and Taylor – I hope you appreciate my Foolish perspective.
