The Energy Show

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

As our society recovers from the triple threats of Coronavirus, economic collapse and social unrest, the longer term threat of global warming continues to hang over our heads. Earlier this year — just as the Coronavirus hit and our economy went into a recession — the Trillion Trees Act was introduced.

Representative Bruce Westerman, a pro-logging advocate from Arkansas introduced this act, along with several Republican colleagues. Representative Steve Stivers of Ohio hailed the act as offering a powerful solution to combat our changing climate. And President Trump declared the US will join this initiative. A fundamental claim of this initiative is that a trillion trees is an important part of solving the global climate crisis. In itself, this claim is an acknowledgment by Republicans that there is indeed a global warming problem that humans can effectively address.

Both political parties to some degree acknowledge that global warming is a man-made problem. With abundant apologies to Joyce Kilmer: "I think that I shall never see, a Global Warming Solution as lovely as a tree. So the real question becomes: “how effectively can a trillion trees solve global warming?”

Please listen to this week’s Energy Show as we delve into a few of the scientific and economic issues related to the Trillion Trees Act, including: how trees sequester carbon, how much CO2 will a trillion trees remove, how much land is required, how much will it cost to plant a trillion trees, how long will it take for these trees to capture atmospheric CO2, and to cap it all off — can Congress pass such a bill.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

In response to the Financial Crisis of 2008, Rahm Emmanuel — at the time Barack Obama’s Chief of Staff — quipped: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” The death, economic destruction and havoc wreaked by the Covid-19 crisis is by no means “good;” nevertheless, sometimes it does take a life-economy-society altering crisis to overcome the inertia that stands in the way of fundamental changes.

One of those changes that we need to make relates to our archaic electric grid. New technologies — wind, solar, batteries, EVs, computer controls, building electrification, software, heat pumps — make the distributed electric grid cheaper, safer and more efficient. But we have over one hundred years of established grid infrastructure practices standing in the way of transforming our electric grid.

Companies that are transforming our electric grid have a tremendous market opportunity, magnified and accelerated by any government stimulus spending that may be allocated. The problem is not just isolated to regular upgrades and maintenance of our grid. Instead, the big opportunity is to redesign the grid — much as the interstate highway system revolutionized transportation in the U.S.

One new company in this space is Veloce Energy. It’s my pleasure to have Jeff Wofe, CEO of Veloce, as our guest on this week’s Energy Show. I’ve known Jeff for over 15 years since he was the founder and Chairman of GroSolar, a pioneering national distributor and installer of solar equipment throughout the US. Jeff and I served for many years on the board of the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), where we worked side-by-side on solar policies such as the Investment Tax Credit (ITC).

Please listen to this week’s Energy Show as we Jeff describes Veloce Energy’s grid-edge system architecture. This architecture will provide simplified connections for distributed generation, cost-effective resilience for both buildings and vehicles, and a streamlined path to help us in transforming our electric grid of the future.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

With the Stay At Home orders in place throughout a large part of the U.S., many of us are now 100% dependent on our home's electric grid for work — as well as lights, refrigeration, HVAC and entertainment.

Unfortunately, our old fashioned electric grid is not up to the challenges of wildfires and storms, not to mention ever-increasing maintenance costs. Transmitting power long distances over high voltage transmission lines is particularly vulnerable to disruptions. Although this old grid was good for over a hundred years, new technologies — particularly battery storage, solar and smart appliances — are more reliable and less expensive.

These new technologies move the generation and storage of electricity much closer to the buildings that need this power — a design that is called Distributed Generation. In suburban areas there is often enough available roof space for solar panels; power for these systems is generated Behind the Meter (on the customer’s side of the meter). But in urban areas there is rarely enough roof space; instead, large solar power systems can be installed over parking lots, on brownfields, or on warehouse rooftops. With this design the power is generated on the utility’s side of the meter — a concept called Wholesale Distributed Generation.

Wholesale distributed generation makes terrific environmental and economic sense. The Clean Coalition was established in 2009 to accelerate the deployment of wholesale distributed generation. They advocate for a modern, efficient power system that takes advantage of these new solar and storage technologies to provide clean, reliable and more affordable energy.

My guest on this week’s show is Craig Lewis, the Executive Director of the Clean Coalition. I’ve known Craig for almost 15 years — going back to his work at GreenVolts, one of the pioneering solar concentrator companies. Please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show as Craig shares how the Clean Coalition is working to create fair, transparent, and effective policies and programs to help power the United States with renewable energy from local sources.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

The Covid-19 crisis will transform many of our traditional businesses processes. Although this podcast was recorded before Shelter In Place became a household phrase, Greenlancer‘s outsourcing business model is proof that there are better, faster and safer ways to handle many traditional business processes.

Solar hardware costs — such as solar panels, batteries and mounting equipment — continue to decline. However, non-hardware costs, referred to as “soft costs — such as permitting, labor and overhead — have continued to increase steadily. With equipment costs going down and soft costs going up, there has not been much change in the overall cost of a solar and battery backup system.

As a long time solar contractor, I’m always looking for ways to reduce our costs while still installing top quality systems. I’ve come to the conclusion that there are no magic bullets. Nevertheless, there are a a number of smaller actions that we can take that, in the aggregate, keep costs down for our customers.

Design and engineering costs used to be a huge expense. I once had a room full of 60 engineers and project managers working on projects across the U.S. It was challenging to manage, very expensive, and not particularly responsive to the ups and downs in the solar industry. Now, by outsourcing the electrical design and drafting, I’ve been able to reduce my design and engineering costs by more than half. Moreover, I can turn around engineering projects in a day or two — providing faster installation services for our customers.

I’ve been using Greenlancer’s outsourced solar design and engineering services for almost seven years. We send them the design, pictures, equipment and project details, and in a day or two they send back a comprehensive plan set which we then submit to the local permitting office.

Not only do they reduce our costs and improve our customer service, but Greenlancer’s outsourced business model is also a perfect example of a way to both reduce costs and respect the Shelter In Place requirements. Please listen to The Energy Show to learn more about Greenlancer, the services they provide and how they are reducing solar soft costs for solar installations across the US.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

With the gradual improvements in solar technology over the past 15 years, many early solar customers are considering a solar system upgrade. Some people want to add more panels because their electrical demand has increased. Some people have inverters that are past their warranty. Some people want better system monitoring. And some people are doing a home renovation and want to re-use their existing panels.

Not surprisingly, the most common reason for an upgrade is to add battery backup capabilities to keep their lights on and their fridge cold. Systems based on older string inverter technology (and some microinverters), need an inverter upgrade to be compatible with the latest lithium ion battery technology.

Thinking back on the equipment we installed 20 years ago to today, a lot has changed. Solar panel efficiency has gone from 14% to over 22%. Inverter efficiency has gone from 93% to 99%. Monitoring (while still somewhat complicated) is now standard. And, perhaps most importantly, battery storage systems are automatic, more reliable and have 10-year warranties.

Remember, the 26% tax credit applies to solar and battery upgrades. So if you are thinking about a solar system upgrade, are about to re-roof or do a home renovation, or want to add battery storage, please listen to this week’s Energy Show. We will review the latest solar technology, detail what’s involved in upgrading, and provide useful tips to ask your solar installer so that you get the best solution for your home.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

The general consensus is that there is a climate emergency –global warming, climate change, whatever you want to call it but it looks like its happening. Candidly, there is still not 100% consensus of the problem, cause and solution but 90% of people including the science community and politicians believe global warming is a big problem.

On this week’s Energy Show we are talking about “Project Drawdown” which is a plan to reverse the increase of CO2 in the atmosphere. Not just slow down the emissions but reverse the trend of these emissions so we can reverse global warming.

We are currently over 400 parts/billion of CO2 in the atmosphere, and it use to be 100 so were looking at reducing that number through lower emissions and other methods such as sequestration. The key to this project drawdown is finding a way to reduce every source of C02 in the atmosphere so that over time, the concentration is reduced.

The Drawdown effort was led by a couple of environmentalists Paul Hawken and Amanda Joy Ravenhill who gathered a diverse team of over 200 scholars, scientists, policymakers, business leaders, and activists worldwide to assess, map, and model the most substantive solutions to achieve this goal. Results of the initial study were published in 2017 in a book called Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming.

The plan includes 80 documented solutions to achieve the goal ranked by the amount of CO2 reductions that can be accomplished and the total cost to enable these solutions and resulting savings over a period of 30 years. So please listen to this week’s Energy Show as we review the top 10 solutions ranked in Drawdown.

Copyright 2020, The Energy Show - Barry CInnamon

The global warming crisis is a slow-motion train wreck that requires an all hands on deck response. Individuals, businesses and government all need to be pull in the same direction to minimize the effect of this crisis. Unfortunately, our federal government continues to focus more on supporting the incumbent fossil fuel industry instead of the clean energy technologies encouraged by the rest of the world.

The good news is that leadership in many state and local governments are stepping up with practical, effective and affordable climate change solutions — and the City of San Jose is clearly a leader when it comes to implementing these solutions. A key component of the City’s efforts is the award-winning Climate Smart San Jose program. This community-wide initiative focuses on reducing pollution and improving the quality of life for San Jose residents. Basically, it’s the city’s plan to align with the targets of the Paris Climate Agreement.

Our guest on this week’s Energy Show is Ken Davies, Director of Climate Smart San Jose. For over ten years Ken has been at the forefront of Silicon Valley’s environmental efforts. There is no doubt in my mind that the work he and his team are doing in San Jose will exceed our local goals for the Paris Climate Agreement.

Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show as Ken discusses some of the key components of Climate Smart San Jose, including electrification rebates, the Climate Smart Challenge, zero net carbon buildings, vehicle electrification, San Jose’s Reach Code, and 100% green electricity.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

What started as a trickle of a few EVs has turned into a flood of models from virtually every single manufacturer. Hats off to Tesla for opening the floodgates, and making GM’s EV1 a crude and distant memory. While the specifications for some of the new cars coming out in 2020 are still getting fined tuned —battery pack capacity, horsepower, range — the 2020 EVs look pretty impressive.

Like all successful new products, EV market adoption goes through phases: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. We are still at the innovators stage in most of the world. California is leading in the U.S., with China clearly on a path to be the leading EV market. For cost, reliability and environmental reasons, EVs are destined to represent the majority of vehicles on roads within a few decades.

Nevertheless, before EVs dominate they must be comparable to gasoline engines in terms of range and cost. Continuing reductions in the cost of batteries solve both problems. Not only are EVs becoming less expensive because batteries are less expensive, but larger batteries are going into EVs — giving these vehicles comparable ranges to gasoline engines.

For more about 2020 EV model specifications, including EPA MPGe ratings, ranges, and costs, please tune in to this week's Energy Show.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Buildings consume 40% of our energy, most of that for heating and cooling. Almost all of this energy is supplied by fossil fuels, resulting in tremendous CO2 emissions. Building electrification solves this problem. Instead of burning fossil fuels in homes and businesses, we can heat, cool, wash and cook using electricity generated from clean, renewable sources.

San Jose is one of the first cities to establish building codes that pursue a  zero net energy policy by strongly recommending all electric new homes. But what about existing homes? To find out first hand what was involved in getting to a zero net energy home, my wife and I embarked on a project to completely electrify our 50 year old home in San Jose.

I’ve done quite of bit of energy upgrading on homes and businesses over the past 40 years. Nevertheless, I checked in with a few friends who had done some electrification of their homes (thanks to Howard, Jeff and Dick). The steps we took mostly followed conventional wisdom: address the easy and cheap items first (LED lights, controls), extra insulation, solar with battery backup, EV charger, heat pump HVAC, heat pump water heater and induction cooktop.

There were only two real hassles with this electrification project. The first hassle is familiar to anyone doing a renovation or maintenance project: finding the “best” contractor for each individual task. Because building electrification involves so many different types of contractors, there is no one “general contractor" who can do everything both efficiently and cost effectively. We ended up with five different contractors: insulation, pool, solar, electrical and HVAC. Since I’m capable of screwing in a lightbulb, I took care of the LEDs lights and controls. The biggest hassle was on the electrical permitting side and coordinating with our local utility. Nevertheless, when everything was done and connected, we are enjoying a net negative (for the year) electric bill — including all of our heating, cooling, cooking and most of our driving.

Perhaps the most rewarding event was when our local gas utility PG&E sent an inspector to our house to find out why the gas meter almost stopped completely! To learn more about electrifying your home or business, please listen to this week’s Energy Show. And if you are thinking about making the switch from fossil fuel home appliances to electrical appliances run by solar and battery storage solutions, take a look at our 10 steps to whole house electrification.