The Energy Show

According to Wikipedia -- which has supplanted the Oxford English Dictionary and Encyclopedia Brittanica as the world’s definitive source of information -- an Atmospheric River consists of narrow bands of enhanced water vapor winds that form over the oceans.

In plain English, Atmospheric Rivers are windy rainstorms that dump a huge amount of water in a relatively short time. They account for about 50% of annual precipitation – so these storms are critical to reducing California’s current drought conditions.

Since our crews work on rooftops, we’re very concerned about rooftop safety. As a result we always look at forecasts when planning rooftop work for our customers. This morning I noted that significant rain is projected for eight of the next nine days. In over 22 years of installing solar in Silicon Valley I have never seen such a severe and extended series of storms.

The National Weather Service is predicting that this next atmospheric river storm will be as bad or worse than the recent New Year’s Eve deluge. You can look at the detailed forecast yourself. Suffice it to say that wind gusts will be in the 35-55 mph range, with rainfall estimates ranging from 2 to 10 inches.

With storms like this one -- especially when the ground is soggy -- it’s reasonable to expect many power failures due to downed electric lines and flooded underground wiring. Storm drains will clog, leading to widespread street flooding. And some local creeks are already at flood stage.

But there is some good news. Reservoirs and aquifers are filling up, reducing drought conditions. Sierra snowpack is growing, so there should be more water available for summer hydroelectricity — and the skiing is terrific. Your rooftop solar panels are getting cleaned from these downpours.

If you have a solar-powered battery backup system, please take note of two features available on most systems. First, we recommend that you increase your minimum battery reserve to 50%. Second, enable the Weather Guard or Storm Preparation feature on your system, which will automatically keep your battery at 100% state of charge if there is an imminent bad weather event or PSPS.

To learn more about these crazy atmospheric river storms and how solar and battery storage can keep your lights on, fridge cold and family connected, listen to The Energy Show.

Fusion Power Breakthrough...Really? by Barry Cinnamon

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Over the years I’ve heard thousands of stories about people, companies and products in the solar industry. Fascinating to a solar geek like me, but too much in the weeds for most homeowners.

As the solar and storage industry goes mainstream, we need to communicate to customers in a more mainstream way. Hence the need for storytelling — especially stories that have relevance to people’s daily lives. Sorry, I can’t do it…my stories are just too geeky and boring.

Tor Valenza, AKA “Solar Fred,” has just what we need. Tor is a longtime solar expert and marketing guru — who also has a background in television screenwriting. His first season of “Probably True Solar Stories” provides a fictional look at how solar energy is increasingly becoming part of American pop culture, careers, politics, family life, and urban legends.

The “Probably True” characterization gives Tor the opportunity to tell stories about solar’s heroes, villains, and urban legends in real-life and fantastical genres. The first season has solar superheroes, solar sci-fi, solar crime stories, a solar ghost story, a solar Winnie-the-Pooh story, and of course, real-life solar homeowner stories. Most importantly, Tor’s "Probably True Solar Stories" are fun to listen to — even for people who are not solar geeks. I look forward to each of his episodes, which cleverly embed solar industry technology and knowledge in an easy listening format.

Please tune into this weeks Energy Show for Tor’s take on the latest solar industry trends, customer concerns, and his new venture back into the entertainment business with a solar twist.

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Entrepreneurs are the job engine in the United States. Many of the companies founded by today’s entrepreneurs have products or services addressing environmental needs. New technologies almost always gain traction through the work of stubborn entrepreneurs, including solar, wind, electric vehicles and energy storage.

Public policies that encourage these new technologies are critical to their success in the market. Without smart environmental policies such as the solar investment tax credit, net metering, renewable portfolio standards and the wind production tax credit, the solar and wind industries would be a fraction of their current size. And when these new technologies gain traction with customer economics better than previous energy technologies, adoption of these new technologies accelerates. The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will turbocharge the deployment of clean energy technologies.

Policies like the IRA do not sprout spontaneously from the minds of politicians. Instead, they are suggested, developed and advocated by public policy organizations. And when it comes to smart environmental policies for entrepreneurial companies, Environmental Entrepreneurs, or E2, is one of the leading voices. E2’s members have founded or funded more than 2,500 companies, created over 600,000 jobs, and managed over $100 billion in venture and private equity capital.

Please listen to this week’s Energy Show as we engage with Bob Keefe, E2’s Executive Director, to learn about the genesis of E2, their successes working at the intersection of jobs, economy and the environment; and their plans for the future.

We’re talking about VAMPIRES on this week’s show — vampire electric loads.

It’s Halloween season, and these little energy suckers are insidious. I guarantee that you have dozens of little devices plugged into your home that are using a small amount of standby power, sucking energy all day and night. It really adds up, and causes nightmares for energy geeks like me.

Research shows that these “plug loads” are about 1/3 of a home’s total energy consumption. We’re not talking about big appliances or lighting – but sneaky little things plugged in or wired in all around your home.

Think about what you have. Obvious vampire loads are devices sitting out in plain site like computers, routers, Wi-Fi repeaters, phone chargers, TVs, cable boxes, cable modems, entertainment consoles and appliances (anything with a clock and an illuminated LED). Less obvious vampires are things like security systems, motion detectors, lighting control systems and integrated audio systems. The really sneaky devices that you might not see include doorbell and thermostat transformers, WiFi thermostats, hot water and furnace ignitors, garage door openers, irrigation systems, outdoor lighting control systems, and pool timers.

To get a handle on this infestation, I went to every room with a Kill-A-Watt meter to measure the power consumption of each device. It added up to over 250 watts of 24×7 power — over $750 per year at an average rate of $0.35/kwh.

To learn more about these vampire electric loads — how to identify them, calculate their costs, and drive a stake through their heart — tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

The best run solar companies I know are those that focus on a geographic region, and grow slowly and steadily. As with most other construction businesses, local companies generally understand their local markets better and have lower overhead — enabling them to provide better customer service at lower prices. The results are lower customer acquisition costs, more upgrades and ongoing service revenues.

On this week’s Energy Show we have the pleasure of speaking with Vince Battaglia, the CEO of Renova Energy. Renova started as Vince’s MBA thesis; fifteen years later Renova is now the leading solar installation company in the Coachella Valley. Like many other local solar installation companies, Renova has expanded its residential solar installation business to include commercial installations, system maintenance and battery storage. Renova recently announced their expansion into Phoenix and Las Vegas — both of which are hot markets for solar (in more ways than one).

Granted, the Coachella Valley area is blessed by an abundance of sunlight and cursed with high electric rates – a combination that is perfect for a thriving solar business. But dealing with the ups and downs of the Solar Coaster is challenging — and even more so when operating in three different states. For more about the challenges inherent in building and running  successful and steadily growing solar companies, please tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Adoption of EVs will hit a brick wall when people realize how ridiculously expensive it is to charge EVs at work or at public charging stations. And these charging costs will continue to go up as the price of grid electricity skyrockets.

Electric utilities have rigged the system for EV charging infrastructure so that they maximize their profits. Unfortunately, well-intentioned research studies — such as “Charging infrastructure access and operation to reduce the grid impacts of deep electric vehicle adoption” from Stanford — completely miss the point by ignoring customer costs.

The headline from this study “Charging Cars At Home At Night Is Not The Way To Go” is flat out wrong. Moreover, this study recommends that drivers charge their cars at work, which is actually the MOST expensive place to charge an EV.

Here is a summary of monthly charging costs based on 1,000 miles of driving per month in California:

Charging at work costs a host company $221/month

Charging at a public high speed EV charger costs $153/month

Buying gas at $3.50/gallon costs $140/month (pre-covid price)

Charging on the EV rate at home costs $80/month

Charging from home solar at night costs $18/month

The headline of this study actually should be “It Costs 12 Times More To Charge Your Car At Work Than At Home From Solar.” It doesn’t take a genius to understand that charging your car from rooftop solar 10 yards away (on your home) or 100 yards away (on your company) is cheaper and more efficient than importing power 500 miles away from a solar or wind farm.

Why do studies like these come to the wrong conclusion? For the simple reason that they ignore distributed generation (DG) solar and storage. Solar on the roofs of homes and businesses — especially when coupled with storage — provides less expensive, more reliable and safer electricity. But these DG systems reduce utility profits. So direct and indirect utility-sponsored research almost never considers the superior benefits of DG energy systems.

EVs are great for the environment, but only cheaper to operate if you charge smartly. If you are planning to buy an EV you should definitely charge your car at home, ideally from rooftop solar under full retail net metering. As a reminder to California residents, get that solar system installed soon before the transition to Net Metering 3 next year.

For more details on costs associated with EV charging, please tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Every time I fly into a city the glare from bright white commercial rooftops screams out to me “I need solar panels.” It is a little known fact that the 30% solar investment tax credit coupled with 20%+ depreciation benefits makes commercial rooftop solar the most cost-effective way of supporting local electric grids. Just think about how much more power would have been available to California if only 10% of commercial rooftops had rooftop solar + batteries.

However, the commercial solar and storage market lags behind the utility and residential solar markets in the U.S. for three main reasons:

First, many commercial buildings in the U.S. are leased. Renters generally do not want to make the capital investments necessary to install solar and storage on buildings that they do not own. Power Purchase Agreements coupled with fast paybacks can overcome this financial limitation.

Second, utilities complicate the interconnection of commercial systems by requiring arbitrary system size caps and special equipment. Pre-applying for system interconnections and understanding the timeframes for transformer upgrades help resolve these issues. On a side note, utilities in California have managed to pass Assembly Bill 2143 that requires expensive prevailing wage labor rates for all commercial buildings that will go into effect on 1/1/23. A veto by Governor Newsom is the only way to prevent a big increase in commercial solar and storage installation costs. If you would like to ask Governor Newsom to veto AB 2143, please click on this link: Veto Commercial Solar Prevailing Wages.

Third, many commercial buildings are “value engineered” with limited rooftop load bearing capabilities. Lightweight solar installation technology solves this rooftop loading problem.

Fortunately, there is a solution to the weight of solar panels on these value-engineered buildings. A company called SunMan has developed high efficiency lightweight solar panels that are ideal for commercial and industrial rooftops — including buildings with curved roof surfaces.

Our guest on this week’s Energy Show is the brains behind SunMan: Dr. Zhengrong Shi. Dr. Shi was the founder and CEO of Suntech, the first NYSE-listed solar module company. He is a legend in the solar industry, and is also a professor at the University of New South Wales. During the mid-2000s, Suntech was the largest manufacturer of solar modules in the world, and gained a reputation for quality and reliability.

Please join me on this week’s Energy Show as Dr. Shi discusses the keys to success in the solar industry, as well as the benefits of Sunman eArc solar modules.

copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Mr. Burns of Simpson’s fame — the personification of utility greed and political power — is happily rubbing his hands together as California roasts in the dark. And this situation will get much worse in the coming years.

First, there is insufficient power during heat waves. Even with large solar and wind farms, gas peaker plants, one remaining nuclear plant, and long distance transmission lines importing power — the state is dangerously close to rolling blackouts. As I write this, the predicted power demand is 51,000 megawatts and the theoretical supply of power is 56,000 megawatts. Too close for comfort if temperatures are higher, if power plants go off line, if wildfires get worse, if people do not respond to flex alerts, and if there are also power shortages in nearby states.

Second, electric rates are skyrocketing. Rates increased 3% from 2000 to 2015, 6% from 2015 to 2020, and 14% in 2021 and 2022 (so far) — all before the impact of inflation over the past year. These skyrocketing rates are simply unaffordable to many homeowners and businesses. The driving factors behind these rate increases are out of control investments by California’s investor owned utilities (IOUs). For example, PG&E’s plan to bury 10,000 miles of transmission lines will cost ratepayers in the neighborhood of $100 billion dollars over the next 10 years. That $100 billion is more than enough to install solar and storage on every building in northern California with a sunny rooftop.

Third, electrification will require even more power. The state plans to stop selling gas cars by 2035, requiring a rapid transition to electric vehicles as gas stations are replaced with EV chargers. All new buildings will be heated with electricity, and gas heating equipment in existing buildings will be steadily converted to heat pumps. These factors are likely to increase power demands by another 50% per capita.

Practical solutions to solve these power problems are limited. We can’t go back to the fossil fuel age. New nuclear plants will take 20+ years to construct, and are more expensive than renewables with batteries. Importing power via long distance transmission lines is expensive, dangerous and unreliable. Continued droughts mean we cannot depend on hydroelectric power.

The fastest, cheapest and cleanest solution is to accelerate solar and storage installation on homes and businesses. Buildings can be converted to zero net energy in fewer than six months. Funding as part of the Inflation Reduction Act coupled with widely available clean energy loans make solar and storage cash flow positive for almost every building owner. But monopoly utilities, the biggest lobbyists in the state, spend millions to discourage customer solar and storage installations.

Please tune in to this week’s Energy Show for specific details on what each of us can do to reduce the impacts of these power shortages. We’ll also discuss the actions that must be taken to reign in the destructive economic influence of investor-owned utilities as they crowd out faster and cheaper private sector investments in distributed generation power supplies.

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

I was recently a guest on the Rob Black Show. Rob is a popular TV, radio and podcast financial expert. So in a twist, we talk about leveraging the savings from the Inflation Reduction Act to maximize your Individual Retirement Account.

There’s been lots of news coverage about homeowner’s saving money from the solar, battery, heat pump and energy efficiency incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act. What is less apparent is that, as the IRA spurs adoption of new energy technologies, the companies that provide these technologies will also see rapid growth in their businesses.

Please tune into this week’s Energy Show — courtesy of Rob Black — to learn about the impact that the Inflation Reduction Act will have on both homes reducing their energy costs as well as businesses that provide these benefits.