Guest Post from Wayne Mackey: A Case for Solar Photovoltaics Today

Systems can last for 40 or more years. By going solar, you can lock in your current and future energy costs in at today’s lower rates.

The first crude modern solar photovoltaic Solar cells were created in the Bell Telephone Labs in 1952 – 1954 by Daryl Chapin, Calvin Fuller, and Gerald Pearson. They were trying to find a way to power telephones in remote areas of the country. They were able to produce a solar cell that was 6% efficient at converting sunlight into electrical energy.

Solar energy is not diminished by harvesting, unlike fossil fuels. The amount of energy we capture today in no way diminishes how much we can take tomorrow, or how much is left for our children and grandchildren. Every single day enough solar energy falls on the earth to supply all of the world’s energy needs for four or five years. Solar energy shows up directly in the form as sunlight which can be harvested by panels that can create either heat or electricity. Our allotment of solar energy can also show up indirectly as wind, the result of uneven heating on the earth’s surface.

PV panels have no moving parts and the embodied energy input required to manufacture them is replaced in two to four years according to studies from the National Renewal Energy Labs. None of a PV module’s raw materials come from the Middle East. Rather, they are made from a high grade form of silica from (see Ed Begley’s book for source) They are highly recyclable.

You can get a warm, fuzzy, and highly self righteous feeling from using renewable energy but what can it do for your wallet? Solar energy allows you to cover part, or all, of your electrical needs yourself. Every watt hour your system delivers is a watt-hour you don’t have to buy from your electric utility company. Once installed to the utility grid, your RE system will reliably shave your most expensive Kilowatt-hours off the top of your energy bill every month. RE offers shelter and protection from rising utility rates in the future. Your solar system is going to last as long as your house, and it is going to reliably crank out watt-hours every day. What’s that worth? Pennsylvania is currently offering a rebate of up to 35% on a first come first serve basis. The Pennsylvania Sunshine Loan and Rebate Program began accepting applications on May 18, 2009. There is also a 30% tax refund available from the Federal Government that can be taken the following tax season. Pennsylvania also has a loan and rebate program available from the PA Energy Harvest Grant and Loan program that offers both low interest rates for those who are unable to lay out two thirds of the initial costs of renewable energy, and there is also a program especially tailored for individuals with even more modest means. People interested in starting the process of going solar should contact a certified solar installer as listed on the state’s website under the (PA Environmental Protection Agency website). Have a follow-up site assessment with a certified solar installer, and if satisfied, begin the contracting process with the installer. They are the only ones that are authorized to handle the solar rebate program requirements with the state. To help you evaluate the effectiveness of Renewable Energy for your particular location simply go to Google and do a search for “Clean Power Estimator” and follow their instructions.

Net Metering

In the mid ’90s individual states started passing “net metering” laws which allowed small scale producers to very simply sell excess renewable energy to the utility through their existing meter at standard retail rates. This meant that you could push a kilowatt-hour of electrical energy into the grid during a sunny day, buy a kilowatt-hour back later that evening, and enjoy total zero on your meter. Net metering allows us to treat our electric utility like a big, never full, never wears-out 100%-efficient battery, we don’t have to buy, service, or maintain. To check out Pennsylvania’s net metering law, go to dsireusa.org, click on the state symbol and then click on “incentives for the homeowner”.

The electric utility company is only going to accept the electricity generated from renewable energy sources only if it is as good as, or better than, the product they normally deliver. There are many highly valid reasons for the utility companies to be less than enthusiastic about accepting power input from small independent electric power producers. Is it clean enough to sell to the neighbors? The utility company is responsible for any power quality problems once they accept your solar-generated electrons. What happens if the utility power fails? Line workers could be at risk if your system continues to feed power to the grid after a failure.

UL1741 Standard and Regulation was enacted in May 1999. It is the small-scale interconnection standard for PV. Since then, they have been updated and expanded several times. It sets precise limits for how low or high the voltage can wander, how much distortion is allowed in the waveform, what has to happen under any conceivable utility condition, and how fast it all has to happen. The end result is that the output power from a grid-tie AC/DC Inverter is held to a much higher standard than the local electric utility has to meet. UL1741 guarantees better quality power to the homeowner than your local utility can promise. The inverters have been rigorously (expensively) tested and proven to deliver cleaner, tighter, better regulated power under all conditions. Having a precisely written UL performance standard assures both the utilities and customers that these inverters simply cannot present any threats to workers or owners.

DC (Direct) current is merely a steady stream of electrons traveling along a conductor from one place to another. It is the current that powers all of the systems in automobiles, and the current that flows from a photovoltaic module (solar panel) to a battery or inverter. AC (Alternating) current is an electrical current that reverses its direction of flow several times a second (60 cycles per second, or hertz, in the USA.

Direct grid tie is the simplest, lest expensive, and most efficient way to put a solar electric grid-tie system together. It is the path that 98% of system owners have chosen to date.

If you generate one kWh of electricity of your own, you can save much more than one kWh from the electric utility company. It takes over 3.3 kWh of energy (consumed in the process) to deliver that one kWh to your home by the utility company. Electricity generated from a rooftop solar array can deliver 100% of each watt directly to the home or electric utility. It does not lose any wattage due to its transmission through such short distances.

A photovoltaic paneled system must be within 25 degrees of true South in order for you to collect 98% of the sun’s energy.

The average grid-tie system installed and permitted goes for around $20K to $30K before rebates and other incentives. Unlike most conventional power sources, a solar PV arrays expense is all up front. However, in Pennsylvania, under the PA Sunshine Rebate Program, the solar contractor can apply for the 35% state rebate and can apply it to the initial cost of the system, leaving only the federal government’s tax incentive waiting until the next tax season to claim, and your final portion of (35%) direct out of pocket expense when all is said and done.

There are almost no operational costs, it doesn’t wear out no matter how hard you use it, and there are no long term societal costs such as air pollution, environmental degradation, or reduced resources for our children. Since we live here in the North East, generally speaking, regular cleaning of the panels is not much of an issue due to the large amount of rain we receive on an annual basis.

Conclusions:

The use of “net metering” which allows homeowners and business owners to install photovoltaic solar panels on their rooftops and sell electricity back into the grid at times when they don’t need it, provides powerful incentives for the rapid spread of photovoltaics. Pennsylvania currently has enacted the PA Sunshine Program for residential and for small business and is a program designed to stimulate the growth of the renewable energy in the state. Funding became available for renewable energy projects statewide on May 18 of this year (2009). Pennsylvania’s “Net Metering Law” provides the legal framework under which they can operate. PA Energy Harvest Grants are available periodically each year for specific pre-approved projects. Applications are available on-line. The Small Business Energy Efficiency grants program helps businesses save money by reducing energy consumption and enhance their competitive position as Pennsylvania’s electricity market transitions to market pricing. $237 million targeted specifically toward helping small businesses manage higher energy prices. Time of use electric utility costs are in our future. We can avoid these higher prices. At the very same time Time-of-use pricing will significantly increase the saving and value of the solar electricity we generate during peak demand periods. It will clearly work to the advantage of homeowners and businesses with solar electric generation systems. You can get a smart meter right now, if you are willing to pay for it.

Keystone Help is Pennsylvania’s special low rate payment financing program for Energy efficiency home improvement.

Because silicon is the second most abundant substance in the crust of the earth (after oxygen), there is no shortage of raw materials.

One advantage of using solar panels is that they generate their peak output when the sun is shining and is at its hottest during the summer. Happily, this coincides with the normal peak demand for electricity, which is usually driven by peak air-conditioning usage.

The ability of the current electric grid to integrate intermittent flows of electricity is a manageable challenge for electric utilities to manage so long as it not exceed roughly 20% of the total. Beyond that, however, the challenge becomes considerably more difficult. One innovative solution involves a side benefit of shifting the auto fleet to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and all electric vehicles, because these millions of electric PHEVs and EVs can serve as a widely distributed battery.

Our country is moving very rapidly to a unified national “Smart Grid”. We are hearing more and more, about “The Smart Garage. The intermittency concerns associated with PV in a specific area with PV can be offset by the availability of sunlight elsewhere.

“Right now, we have the opportunity to fundamentally transform how we generate and use energy in this country, to put ourselves back in control of our economy and national security and to assert global leadership in a new 21^st century clean energy economy” Alliance for Climate Protection president & CEO Maggie Fox.

I am advocating for a national commitment on the order of FDR CCC program to move homeowners and small businesses toward complete and independent self-sufficiency in energy…to produce all of the energy they each need on site. The LIUNA Training Program may just be the Green Retrofit Army that this initiative needs.

Information contained in and condensed from the following sources:

“A Guide to Sustainable Living,” by Ed Begley, Jr.

“Got Sun? Go Solar” by Rex A. Ewing and Doug Pratt

“Our Choice” by Al Gore

Information Condensed and Compiled by Wayne Mackey