Puget Sound Energy (PSE) is the state’s largest utility and has been showing some innovative thinking in terms of transparency and involving customers in demand response. Demand response is a term that describes altering energy usage to match availability. As we phase out polluting fossil fuels, we will increase electrification and install more renewable energy sources on the grid. Those renewable energy projects will be both utility scale and smaller distributed generation like the solar arrays on our clients’ roofs. There are benefits to everyone that participates in this transition, and there will be some new challenges as well.
PSE is taking advantage of current technology to communicate with their customers to give them the option to participate in several different ways. In the simplest form, PSE texts customers and lets them know there is an incentive to decrease your power consumption at the moment. Customers get paid to enroll in the program and get paid for the savings they can enact during what PSE calls “Flex Events.” Additional aspects of the program can provide rebates and incentives for using “smart” thermostats, EV’s, or even batteries which can be controlled by the utility to shift the timing of demand or to allow PSE to utilize stored energy. Learn more from PSE here https://www.pse.com/en/rebates/PSE-flex
If you are a PSE customer, there is no downside to enrolling in the alerts, so I would certainly say to go ahead with that at least. You can learn more for yourself about the details of the other aspects of the program.
Reasons for the Flex Program
PSE has said they don’t implement the Flex protocols in advance of outages necessarily, but that it is more of a cost savings measure at times when energy is more expensive. Daniel Schrager just had a nice article in The Olympian here (paywall, 24 hour free access for registering) https://www.theolympian.com/news/state/washington/article298205253.html
One of the main underlying trends our region is facing is a decline in available hydro power due to declining precipitation and snow packs. There is no doubt we are seeing the climate gradually changing, even if there is still discussion regarding the complexity surrounding the causes of global climate change and the effects we see here in the Pacific NW. The main reason we have been motivated to create Power Trip Energy and to continue encouraging clean local rooftop solar is to mitigate our contribution to CO2 into the atmosphere, while helping our clients save money. Even if one does not think there is conclusive evidence showing correlation between human carbon emissions and decreased snowpack feeding our hydro system, it seems that it makes a lot of sense to err on the side of caution and avoid them as much as possible.
Another dominating trend we will see is a transition to clean renewable energy to provide the additional power we need for electrification of homes and vehicles, and for new energy hungry industries such as the increase in data centers for our information technologies. You will be participating in this change whether you take personal action or not. The question will be whether you pay for someone else to provide that new power, or whether you invest in producing it yourself. If this resonates with you, we’d be happy to talk to you about how you can effectively and economically make solar power on your own roof.
Please join us in Port Angeles for the 40th Annual KONP Home Show on March 8-9th at the Port Angeles High School Gymnasium. It’s a two-day, rain or shine event. Be sure to stop by and say hello to Andy and Becky if you are in the area.
The Port Townsend Home Show will be at the Blue Heron School on March 1, 2025. Come and enjoy the solar power produced from the 99kW array installed by our team in 2023.
Please join as we enjoy chatting with our friends and neighbors at the North Peninsula Building Remodeling & Energy Expo at the Sequim Middle School on February 15 and 16, 2025.
On Saturday and Sunday at 10:00 a.m. Buddy Taylor will be talking about how grid tied solar and energy storage solutions (batteries) can keep the lights on when the power goes out!
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.
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.
We have an opportunity to bring a sensible standardized and streamlined permitting process for pv installations to Jefferson County. The Jefferson County Dept of Community Development (DCD) and the Jefferson County Commissioners are currently considering how to exert their authority over solar installations. While all grid-tied pv arrays are currently inspected by both the WA Dept of Labor & Industries electrical inspectors and the Jefferson PUD, the county is considering adding building permits and inspections to this list.
It has been nationally recognized that the “soft costs” of solar installations often exceed the hardware costs, and cause pv installations here to be twice as expensive as those in Germany, which is often the standard for comparison, since they are the global leader in solar energy installations. A nationwide effort of the US Dept of Energy to decrease the costs of solar installations has been pursued a program called the SunShot initiative. Here in Washington State, the Evergreen State Solar Partnership received a grant from the federal government to work on this issue locally. A multi-year study process has been undertaken by a broad coalition of stakeholders including the WA Dept of Commerce, Cities of Seattle, Edmonds, Ellensburg, and Bellevue, utilities including PSE, Seattle City Light, and Snohomish PUD.
This state-wide coalition has determined that under certain circumstances, a standard rooftop pv installation requires no building department review. These situations are generally when the installation uses pre-engineered industry standard racking equipment, the pv array is flush mounted to the roof and does not extend beyond the roof, when the weight is less than 4.5 lbs per square foot, and when the loads are distributed over the roof as per installation instructions. Below is a link to the guidelines they have determined.
We recognize DCD’s need for revenue, and for essential public safety protections, however in some cases, there may actually be no safety issues to review. In those cases, as defined by the Evergreen State Solar Partnership, we are proposing building permit exemption.
In 2011, the Jefferson County Commissioners and Port Townsend’s City Council each adopted the Joint Resolution adopting the Climate Action Plan, which were the recommendations of the Climate Action Committee, a joint city/county/citizens committee that had studied local impact of climate change since 2007. There were several recommendations for action that were all evaluated in terms of feasibility and benefit. The top-rated recommendation was to provide incentives for community-wide adoption of local renewable systems. A good idea, but it is unlikely our county will ever be able to come up with any actual funds for these hypothetical incentives. Perhaps the best course of action would be to assure that no county policies had the impact of increasing the costs and providing disincentives for installing solar.
Isn’t it beautiful that we could accomplish some of our climate-related and renewable energy goals, by adopting standards and policies that have already been developed and have momentum statewide, and not cost the county one cent in new expense? Merely by getting out of the way and not hindering or raising costs for the citizens continue to do for themselves what they have demonstrated the desire to do anyway, the county could allow us and our clients to continue to accomplish those stated goals.
Please let us know your opinion as to whether you think this streamlined permitting checklist and building permit exemption makes sense to you, and whether you would encourage our county government to adopt these policies.
Resources:
Jefferson County Climate Action Committee and link to Plan
NW Solar Communities – This is now the home of the work done on permitting by the Evergreen State Solar Partnership, a site maintained by the WA Dept of Commerce and NW SEED.
