Solar Energy

HelioPower and 1BOG will offer free solar information, including a solar webinar on Thursday, October 22 at 7:00 p.m. PT. To sign up visit: http://solarcoachellavalley.1bog.org/faqs-and-webinar/.

HelioPower's Scott Gordon will be representing the company. Scott has led very successful solar webinars for 1BOG in the company's previous solar San Diego campaign. He has been quoted extensively in the Coachella Valley press about this current solar community discount program.  

Excerpts from recent press quotes from Scott include the following information from The Desert Sun:  

That means a 4 kilowatt system, about 20 panels, will have a net cost of about $10,857, after state rebates and the federal tax credit for solar energy, said Scott Gordon, HelioPower's vice president for residential sales.

The package will also include computer monitoring of the system so any maintenance problems are detected quickly, Gordon said.

For Coachella Valley residents, the break-even point for such a system could range from five years to 12 years, depending on their energy use and their power provider, Gordon said. Southern California Edison customers, who pay tiered rates, would get a quicker return on their investment than east valley residents in the Imperial Irrigation District service area, who pay lower rates, he said.

HelioPower client, James Price, made local news in Lompoc this weekend.  His ground mount solar power system was on display in the city's first ever, "Central Coast Solar Tour."  The tour, part of the national effort to showcase solar power systems, featured four solar power systems in the Lompoc and Santa Maria

area.

Covering the event, Lompoc News writer Glenn Wallace, posted this article, "Residents look to solar energy for savings" featuring Price's solar experience and savings record.

In August 2008 something funny began happening to Jim Price’s electric meter — it started going backward.

“There it goes — tic, tic, tic,” Price said watching the digital display flash an arrow to the left instead of the right.

Occasionally the display flashes all zeroes, indicating he is using less energy than the backyard solar panel system is actually pumping into the electrical grid, to be used by his neighbors and local businesses. His energy bills — they used to be more than $120 a month — sport more zeros.

Price’s house was just one of five around Lompoc partaking in the National Solar Tour on Saturday.

Jim Riggens, an Air Force retiree and self-described environmentalist, helped bring the tour to Lompoc, and to five other sites in Santa Maria, as part of the nonprofit American Solar Energy Society (ASES) national education and publicity campaign.

Riggens is trying to get his neighbors to consider solar energy.

“What struck me was why, in a place where you have so much sunshine, how few roofs have solar panels?” Riggens asked.

One of the biggest misconceptions most home owners seem to have is that a solar panel system is too exotic or prohibitively expensive, Riggens said.

“It’s very common for builders. It’s off the shelf. It’s not in a laboratory, and it’s not experimental,” Riggens said.

And as for the money? Riggens just points to Price.

Installing the 4,400-watt, solar panel system in his back yard cost $34,531, Price said. However, after last year’s city and state rebates, and a $2,000 tax credit from the federal government, his final cost became $19,250.

“Yes, there is an investment, but in the long term, he’s flattened down his energy costs,” Riggens said.

On average, Riggens and two of the solar panel installation experts on the tour all said current rebates and tax credits have improved, and the panels now cost less. Within seven to 10 years most systems finish paying for themselves. Since the systems have no moveable parts, they are expected to easily function without major repair for 25 years, meaning quite a few years of profit for people such as Price.

According to Riggens, there is also a property tax exemption for home value increases based on improvements such as a solar panel system.

“So it’s a better return on your investment than redoing that kitchen with granite countertops.”

On top of the money saved, Riggens said there was also the thousands of pounds of carbon emissions home owners could be saving the environment as well.

“There’s two types of people who put in a system,” said Mary Kammer, Lompoc’s utility conservation coordinator. “Those who want to be green, and those who want to beat the system.”

Whichever their motives, so far there are 15 residential solar panel systems installed in the city, with another two in the process.

Lompoc is one of the few cities in California to actually buy electricity back, so Price and anyone else with a bigger system and smaller usage will be receiving a check at the end of the year for generating more than he uses, according to Kammer.

Lompoc Councilwoman Cecilia Martner was on hand at the Price house to learn more about solar power herself. She praised him for “having the vision to move ahead with something like this.”

“The sun is right there, and it’s free,” said Martner.

“Nature provides us with all these things, and all we need to do is make use of them,” Price added.

A home on Moonglow Avenue in Vandenberg Village represents what Riggens called a holistic approach to green design.

The owner, who asked that his name be withheld, said he and his wife had designed the home to include many energy-efficient features, including 100 percent energy generation from his panels, as well as a solar-powered hot water heater and heating system. The couple also had the house plumbed to use shower and sink “greywater” for irrigation.

“We decided to go ‘green’ now because of what might be coming up with energy prices,” said Keith, the Moonglow owner.

Riggens said he plans on having the solar tour become an annual event, and eventually hopes to extend it to include from Santa Barbara to San Luis Obispo.

For more information about solar power, or to find solar installation firms in the area, visit www.ases.org.

For more information and additional photos of the Price solar install, click here.

The September issue of National Geographic has a terrific set of articles on solar. "Plugging Into the Sun. Sunlight bathes us in far more energy than we could ever need—if we could just catch enough"  by George Johnson is an in-depth look at the capabilities of solar to light up the world, historic and scientific information and why Europe is so far ahead of the U.S. "Can Solar Save Us?" by Chris Carroll is an essay worth visiting. The articles are supplemented by an excellent photo gallery and several renewable energy graphs.

Excerpts:
With a new administration in Washington promising to take on global warming and loosen the grip of foreign oil, solar energy finally may be coming of age. Last year oil prices spiked to more than $140 a barrel before plunging along with the economy—a reminder of the dangers of tying the future to something as unpredictable as oil. Washington, confronting the worst recession since the 1930s, is underwriting massive projects to overhaul the country's infrastructure, including its energy supply. In his inaugural address President Barack Obama promised to "harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories." His 2010 budget called for doubling the country's renewable energy capacity in three years. Wind turbines and biofuels will be important contributors. But no form of energy is more abundant than the sun.

"If we talk about geothermal or wind, all these other sources of renewable energy are limited in their quantity," Eicke Weber, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, in Freiburg, Germany, told me last fall. "The total power needs of the humans on Earth is approximately 16 terawatts," he said. (A terawatt is a trillion watts.) "In the year 2020 it is expected to grow to 20 terawatts. The sunshine on the solid part of the Earth is 120,000 terawatts. From this perspective, energy from the sun is virtually unlimited."

“We’ve never seen solar module prices so low. With the rebates still relatively high and the federal tax credit at 30%, there’s never been a better time to go solar,” said Scott Gordon, Vice President of Residential Sales at HelioPower.

According to a Yahoo! Finance report yesterday, August 10, “Technology, Tenacity Drive Down Solar Power Costs,” solar photovoltaic (PV) technology has changed little since the energy crisis of the 1970s, but it's finally getting cheaper.

The report goes on to say:  Large-scale rollouts of solar farms in Europe in the past few years have virtually commoditized PV as an energy source, and huge installations on the way in the United States and China will cement that process.

Edison International (NYSE: eix) subsidiary Southern California Edison got the go-ahead last month from California's energy regulators to build and manage 250 megawatts of solar power generation and contract for another 250 MW from outside developers within the next five years, making it the largest solar PV program ever undertaken.

Independent solar industry consultants Solarbuzz estimates that worldwide solar PV installation hit almost 6,000 MW in 2008, nearly double the 3,000 MW of 2007.”

In its August review of solar photovoltaic modules, Solarbuzz states “This month we have good news for solar electricity consumers and also for the solar industry.

The first area of excitement for PV end-customers is the rapid fall in solar module prices. The August 2009 survey set two records - the largest number of price declines in one month and for the magnitude of the monthly decline in both the US and European price indices.

There were 176 price declines this month. In the eight years of this survey, there has never been anything close to this number of moves in a single month. The previous high was 126 declines in May of this year. In past times when prices were rising, the largest number of price rises in a single month was 142, back in August 2005.”

More from the Yahoo! Finance report: The economic downturn has lead to a collapse in the price of silicon, a key ingredient in the making of solar cells, and short-term drop in demand for modules.

State-level renewable portfolio standards (RPS) have mandated that an increasing amount of renewable energy be generated. There is also a national RPS-like mandate currently in the Markey-Waxman energy bill making its way through Congress. And an array of tax credits and renewable energy mandates have also subsidized solar PV to bring its cost per kilowatt hour more in line with that of "brown" power, usually coal-fired in the U.S.

Finally, the efficiency of the solar cells themselves has improved. Early this year, researchers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems created a solar PV cell that's 41.4% efficient, beating the record held by the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Laboratory by almost percent.

The cost of solar energy production on a kilowatt-hour (kwh) basis, with all government subsidies netted out, has dropped 8 percent from a peak of 22.04 cents/kwh in January 2002 to 20.40 cents/kwh in July 2009.

That efficiency is trickling down the supply chain to customers.

Solarbuzz estimates that the "customer price" of an average, flat-roof-installed, 500-kilowatt solar energy system - a size typically used by an industrial user that includes the panels, inverter and grid connection hardware - dropped by 0.7 percent alone from June 2009 to July 2009, to about $2.4 million.

Manufacturers and installers of solar modules are looking for new ways to decrease costs, lower prices and attract customers, at a time of rising demand; that race for profit could be seen at the second annual Intersolar 2009 trade show, was held in mid-July in San Francisco.

In addition to silicon ingot, wafer and solar cells makers like Canadian Solar, (NASDAQ: csiq) there were firms like Applied Materials (NASDAQ: amat ) and Alcatel (: aclu), which are intent on squeezing efficiency out of the process of making solar PV modules.

All of these gains in efficiency could see solar energy reach the key goal of parity with coal within the next few years.

Right now, consumers, businesses and community building owners can purchase solar power systems at an all time low.

HelioPower, a leading solar power design and installation firm in California and Nevada, has signed the first solar power project in the 1BOG solar group purchase program in San Diego.  One Block Off the Grid (1BOG) launched its solar San Diego campaign on May 18, securing a discounted price of $6.09 per DC watt for its members.

“We’re proud to announce we’ve already sold several 1BOG systems in north San Diego County, having signed our first contract on June 1,” said Scott Gordon, Director of Sales for HelioPower. “1BOG has negotiated an incredible installation price for its San Diego participants and people are taking advantage of it. Those who hope to get the best deal will act before San Diego Gas & Electric’s solar power rebate drops next month.”

HelioPower was chosen along with groSolar to install the solar San Diego systems priced through the 1BOG program.  HelioPower is working in the northern San Diego area with groSolar installing projects in the central San Diego region.  1BOG has successfully launched statewide group solar purchasing programs in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Sonoma County.  Outside California it has active campaigns in New Orleans, La. and Denver, Colo. Upcoming community programs are launching in Phoenix, Ariz., Sacramento, Calif. and Washington, D.C.

“The pricing from HelioPower was the lowest we’ve seen in any of our group purchase campaigns run thus far,” said Dave Llorens, 1BOG General Manager. “We were impressed by HelioPower’s request for proposal response,” he continued, “We also look for companies who truly embrace environmental awareness in their operations.  We inspected the HelioPower southern California offices and warehouse, and saw how they run their business and green their supply chain.  We were excited to see their attention to even small details like pre-removing boxes from panels to ensure they are recycled.  It made our decision easy.”

More information on the San Diego campaign can be found at:
http://solarsandiego.1bog.org.

In its webinar this week for solar power system buyers in San Diego, 1BOG, One Block Off the Grid, marketing director, Brad Burton, was joined by Scott Gordon, Director of Sales at HelioPower. The webinar gave participants an opportunity to review information and pricing related to the Solar San Diego discount pricing program currently being offered by 1BOG. 

The webinar is available in its entirety by clicking here.

"I very much enjoyed presenting the 1BOG Solar San Diego program with Brad Burton. As Brad mentions during the webinar, at $6.09/dc watt the Solar San Diego campaign pricing is by far the best 1BOG has negotiated to date," said Scott Gordon.  

"This means unprecedented savings when you purchase your solar power system through the program," Gordon continued.   "I liken this to the Costco Car Program. When you buy a car through Costco, a magic book appears from under the salesman’s desk at the auto dealership. Because Costco did all of the negotiating ahead of time, you experience a pleasant non-haggle purchase experience without having to get multiple quotes from multiple dealers. In a similar fashion, the 1BOG campaign saves consumers time and money by simplifying the solar power system purchase process for the public at large. Of course, those hoping to see the greatest savings will act before SDGE’s rebate drops from $1.90 to $1.55 per watt."

From The San Diego Union Tribune, May 31, 2009, staff writer Onell R. Soto:  "Power to the people. One Block Off the Grid uses community activism to build networks of solar energy systems so homeowners can get volume discounts. "

Excerpts, for full article click here.

The renovation, the insulation and the new kitchen all helped, but Meg Goldfeather couldn't get her 1926 University Heights bungalow to save enough power.

She can't stand looking at her three-digit utility bills, knowing she could generate her own electricity using solar panels on her roof.

But cost has been an obstacle. So when Goldfeather's electrician suggested she look at something called One Block Off the Grid, she was interested.

“The minute I read it, I thought, this is absolutely it,” Goldfeather said. “Community effort, lower price.”

One Block Off the Grid, or 1bog.org, is a campaign that groups together people interested in buying solar power so they can get volume discounts. It is run by Virgance, a San Francisco company that uses activism campaigns to bring about social change while also making money.

After requesting proposals from local solar installers (in San Diego), Virgance enlisted groSolar and HelioPower, two companies whose prices – $6.09 a watt – impress longtime advocates of the technology.

“I might have to sign up,” said Bill Powers, an electrical engineer who is looking to expand his own solar energy system. He said many of the region's power problems, such as reliability and prices, would be alleviated if more people put the systems on their roofs.

Per watt, these installations would be less expensive than the massive systems installed on warehouse roofs just two years ago, in part because solar panel prices are dropping, Powers said.
The campaign now under way comes as a worldwide economic slump pushes solar panel prices down and government subsidies make systems more affordable.

A typical household system provides about 3,000 to 5,000 watts at peak production. Its size is determined by how much power a household uses in a month, with the goal being to replace the most expensive electricity.

Residential systems typically cost $7 to $9 per watt, said Irene Stillings, executive director of the Center for Sustainable Energy, which tracks state rebates for such installations.

By Scott Gordon, Director of Sales, HelioPower

If there were a most commonly asked question contest in the solar business, this question would win hands down: “How long will it take for my solar system to pay for itself?” (Incidentally the second most asked question is: “I have an XXX square foot house, how many solar panels do I need?”).

As you can imagine neither question is particularly easy to answer and both depend on the individual circumstances. If we start with the second question first, the answer is: “The number of panels you require, Mr. Customer, depends upon your 12 month electrical usage history, how your roof is configured, and the type of panels you choose to install.” In other words, without knowing the particulars of a customer’s situation, it’s impossible to answer what on the surface seems like a simple question.

Answering the first question (concerning solar payback) is more complicated because we need to establish a definition of ‘payback’ before we can adequately get to the nuts and bolts answer the customer is seeking.

Then we need to apply customer specific financials to make a final determination. In my experience as both a solar customer and salesman, I believe that there are three ways to think about a solar power system’s payback:

1. ROI – (Return on Investment) - This is what most customers think about. ROI determines how many years of energy savings are required for the solar power system to pay for itself.
2. IRR – (Internal Rate of Return) – Least considered payback methodology, IRR compares a solar ‘investment’ return to other conservative investment returns like interest paid by savings accounts, treasury bills & other bonds, certificates of deposit, etc.
3. Cash Flow – Can financing be obtained that generates positive cash flow for the customer? In other words, will the finance payment be less than the current electric bill? This is truly the Holy Grail.

Using my own solar power system as an example, I’ll address all three of these payback methodologies.

Gordon Residence, solar power in Laguna Beach, CA

1. ROI – My system (installed in February 2007) has an eight year ROI. It will take eight years of energy savings (compounded at 6.7% annually) before my system pays for itself.
2. IRR – That same system provides me with an IRR of 12%. I’m currently paying 4.2% on the money I borrowed to finance the system, so my ‘net return’ is 7.8% (way better than my savings, CDs, or bonds are paying me and certainly better than the 24 month return on my stock portfolio!).

3. Cash Flow – Most importantly, I’ve been cash flow positive from the FIRST MONTH. How? I swapped a $150-200/month electric bill for a $150/month Home Equity payment. Unlike my electric bill, the $150 HELOC payment was entirely tax deductable since it is 100% interest paid toward a qualifying home improvement.
Over the last two years, I’ve paid off a significant portion of the principle (which lowers the monthly payment) and had some luck on the interest rate front. Today, I am $110/month cash flow positive, yet my solar panel system won’t “pay for itself” for another six years!! Funny, because it’s paid me every single month since I installed it in 2007. As you can see, solar payback is truly a matter of perspective.

With the recent removal of the cap on the residential tax credit (Federal), IRR in some utilities is approaching 20%. Warren Buffet became a billionaire by averaging a 20% return over the course of his investing career. Bernie Madoff defrauded investors of billions by promising a 12% return.

A solar power system will provide you with a guaranteed conservative Buffett-like return, without making off with your money in Madoffesque fashion. Your exact return will ultimately be determined by your utility’s rebate level; your appetite for tax credits; and net system price.

If you can achieve positive cash flow with solar, your return from either/and ROI or IRR standpoint become less important. Cash is king, and the more of it you keep every month, the better off you’ll be in the long run. However you decide to calculate the payback on your solar panel system, remember, like any attractive investment, there is a cost to wait. Rebates are ticking down and utility rates keep going up. Every month you delay could cost you hundreds of dollars. Now that’s food for thought.

Tyler Michael is HelioPower’s resident expert for the application of solar in new home construction.  This week he is participating in the Urban Land Institute’s (ULI) Green Building Expo, a forum for sustainable building technologies, in San Diego.  The Green Building Expo is part of the ULI’s Smart Growth awards program and will be staged May 14 starting at 5:30 in the venerable Wonderhaus downtown.

The ULI provides leadership in the responsible use of land, and in creating and sustaining thriving communities worldwide. According to their website, as “the ‘go to’ land use organization for real estate issues in our region, the ULI San Diego/Tijuana District Council facilitates the open exchange of ideas among industry leaders, practitioners and policy makers.”

We asked Tyler about his interest in this region.

E. Tyler, are there special motivations that inspire you to be part of this San Diego Green Building Expo?
T. As a HelioPower specialist in solar for new construction, this event and the people and concepts that I encounter there are critical to my own growth and to my ability to contribute.

I believe that in San Diego/Tijuana we truly share a single urban landscape that is divided by a political line only.  We are in the same region with the same beauty and the same challenges.

We are interdependent in resources and in the conservation of those resources.  In my lifetime, I’ve seen Tijuana transform from just another “border town” to a thriving center of international commerce and I’ve seen San Diego transform from a quiet Navy town to a national force in research and technology. It seems only natural that we become an international leader in sustainability as well.

E. What in your background motivates your interest?
T. After moving to Chula Vista in 1952 and growing up within 7 miles of the Mexican border, I developed a real affinity for the bi-national mindset.

In my late teens, I became a true bi-lingual after studying Spanish for 8 years and hosting 26 Argentine foreign exchange students with others in my high school.

I’ve lived in Spain, Argentina, Ecuador, and nearly 14 years in Mexico. My time in Mexico and the lasting friendships I developed there have brought me a first hand awareness of the serious environmental sustainability practices being put into practice there.  My career in solar for new construction in San Diego has broadened my perspective on sustainability in general and in green building methods in particular.

E. Do you have a vision for the area?
T. The resources we share tie our destinies together. Recognition of those who have dedicated themselves to the careful preservation of those resources is both inspiring and necessary to bring forth the future leaders in this field who are poised to make their contribution.

For more information on the event, click here.

Wall Street Journal reporting April 24, 2009…Defying a global trend of weak solar demand, owners of homes and businesses in California installed a record 78 megawatts of solar panels in the first quarter of 2009, the California Public Utilities Commission said Friday.

While solar-panel prices have fallen 25% or more, on average, due to a global slowdown in demand, rooftop solar panels remain in high demand in California, the world's third-largest solar market, the CPUC data show.

The strength of California's solar market is due largely to generous state incentives, coupled with federal tax credits that greatly reduce the cost of installation and the fact that California has among the highest utility rates in the nation, making self-generated solar power competitive with conventional utility power, especially for large users.

The state is spending $3.3 billion to install 3,000 megawatts of solar panels over 10 years.

In a quarterly report on a solar rebate program it administers, the CPUC cited a recent change in the federal tax code that allows homeowners a larger tax credit for solar installations as a factor driving strength in that market.

Solar rebate applications filed with the CPUC in the first quarter hit a new quarterly record for capacity, at 52 megawatts, since the program started in January 2007, while the number of applications was down compared with the fourth quarter, the CPUC said.

To date, customers of utilities owned by PG&E Corp. (PCG), Edison International (EIX) and Sempra Energy (SRE) have installed 211 megawatts of new rooftop solar generation since 2007, the CPUC said. Statewide, California generates more than 500 megawatts of power from solar panels, the agency said.