The last four years has seen a continued increase in the adoption of renewable energy, and many state’s have made Net Zero commitments by certain years. The main change we have seen is that there is a domestic manufacturing renaissance in clean energy and storage underway due to the provisions in the IRA and the CHIPS and Science Act, both passed in 2022. There have been many announcements of new solar and battery manufacturing facilities in the US. We shall see if the incoming administration disrupts those programs, however if the goal is to stop conceding high tech and manufacturing jobs to the Asian economies, there is some healthy momentum at present. The US added about 150,000 clean energy jobs in 2023 according to the 2024 report here https://www.energy.gov/policy/us-energy-employment-jobs-report-useer.
We are hopeful the incoming administration continues the current positive trend, however it has been announced the nominee to head this department will be Chris Wright, who is the chief executive of an oil and fracking services company. While it seems likely that we may be taking a step backwards at the federal level, much of the progress that has been made is not able to be undone at this point. Again we may find ourselves in a situation where some states will lead and ultimately the progress will depend on us as individuals. This is a situation we have become accustomed to over the decades and is at the heart of our mission here at Power Trip Energy.
We are always happy to help our customers expand their existing arrays as their energy consumption changes. With Phase II now operational, this system will produce enough power to fully offset their electrical needs; contributing to a greener and more energy-independent future for this Sequim resident.
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.
It was a very good year for solar in Western Washington. Not only did the weather cooperate, showing performance equal to any year since we have been monitoring inverters, but the pace of installation of new solar quickened significantly. While we do not have any state-wide figures available at this point, we can say that locally we installed 63 grid-tied pv projects totalling 383 KW. This represents a 70% growth in our KW installed over 2012, and also represents about the limit of what we feel we could do with current staffing. We are looking to accommodate more growth this year by adding three new people to our team.
Last year we added one new employee; John Fleming has now been with us nearly a year, and is bringing a great engineering mindset to our site evaluations and system designs. On an administrative note, we lost our reasonable ability to provide a group health plan for our employees. The premium increases were too high compared to what our employees could get for themselves on “The Exchange”. So we gave everyone raises b y dividing up our savings on health care premiums and cancelled our group health plan. It’s hard to see how that is a good result of the ACA, but we’ll be continue to be patient and review our options again next year.
The year 2013 marked the first year that a significant number of our clients utilized local financing to pay for their systems. Although some financing has been available for quite a while, it has never been optimal and we had not previously encouraged its use. Now there are great local financing options available from several local lending institutions, which include low interest rates in recognition of the energy savings, high enough loan amounts to put up large pv systems, and the lack of leans against the home (some of these loans are secured by the pv system only.) Call us to learn more about those options or review this page https://powertripenergy.com/fininc.htm#Solar_Financing
Our three Solarize programs each had the highest participation rate yet in the three years we have been running them. Solarize Kitsap, Solarize Port Townsend, and Solarize Sequim all resulted in major savings to clients through the group purchasing rebates, and we also installed a slew of complimentary electric vehicle charging equipment as another benefit to participants who installed 8 kw or larger systems.
More and more of our clients are driving EVs and producing their own electricity with solar. In our family at home we began to lease a Nissan Leaf, and here at Power Trip Energy, we leased a Toyota RAV4 EV – both all electric, and with 50-75% of that electricity generated from local solar power.
In 2013 we continued to see slight price decreases in modules and slight efficiency increases. Due to the high local market demand, some local manufacturers struggled with lead times, but our supply from international industry leaders remained reliable. We utilized some newer products offering module level power management and monitoring, and this continues to be a strong trend in the industry. As we keep an eye on the state of the industry and introduction of new products, we retain the primary goal of using the highest quality equipment from the most reliable manufacturers as the best way to ensure long-term value for our clients.
Looking ahead to 2014, we are seeing continued strong interest locally. Our 2014 Solarize Kitsap program is off to a strong start and enrollment remains open through March 31, 2014. There are several upcoming orientation sessions, the schedule is here: http://www.solarizekitsap.com As mentioned above, we have remodeled our office to accommodate new staff and are planning to add three new positions this year. The national and local trends are that solar is becoming mainstream. Our goal of becoming “just another trade” may be within reach.
The existing state of the market is amazing in terms of the lowest prices and highest quality equipment we have ever seen, combined with several incentive programs in place for another couple of years: the 30% Federal tax credit (until 2016), the Washington State sales tax exemption (until 2018), and the annual production incentive payments available through the Washington State Renewable Energy Cost Recovery Program (in place until 2020.) There has never been a better time to install solar, and depending on whether those incentives are extended, we may not see a moment like this again. If you have been considering installing grid-tied pv, give us a call or learn more at https://powertripenergy.com
