The Energy Show

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Will batteries keep your AC cranking and electric vehicle charged up during an extended blackout? Probably not.

We like to believe the myth of whole house battery backup or the notion that our 21st century lifestyle will continue unabated despite fire hell or high water. The reality is different: Typical battery backup systems work best when they are designed to ration battery capacity and minimize the use of major appliances. These systems must also be integrated with rooftop solar so that the battery can be recharged as soon as the sun comes up.

There are two fundamental engineering limits that make it impractical to run a whole house on battery power alone. First, the energy capacity of typical lithium-ion battery systems is insufficient to power an entire house through a nighttime blackout. Second, battery backup inverters are not powerful enough to start and run many large appliances. Adding multiple batteries and inverters can overcome these engineering limits - but at a very high cost.

Nevertheless, a well-designed solar and whole house battery backup system can provide limited power almost indefinitely. To learn more about the reality of backup power in the event of a blackout or Public Safety Power Shutoff, please listen to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

People talk about solar panels and batteries a lot (at least the people I talk to). The reasons are that solar panels are conspicuous on rooftops -- and batteries are what keep the lights on during increasingly frequent blackouts. But the real brains of a solar and battery storage system is the inverter.

With increased global production, solar panels and battery cells have become commodities -- differentiated mainly by price and efficiency. For a variety of reasons, inverters are still quite specialized. Initially, inverters simply converted DC current to household AC current. Modern inverters also provide a variety of safety features (rapid shutdown and arc fault protection), monitoring, and grid support services. The next generation of inverters extends beyond solar, providing backup power, EV charging and home energy management capabilities.

Through a combination of great technology, disciplined execution and industry vision, SolarEdge has become the leading inverter company. Based on my experience in the field (and roof), they have the best combination of efficiency, safety, installation ease and overall value. Most importantly, SolarEdge continues to push the technology envelope as they expand into backup power and distributed grid services.

Our guest on this week’s Energy Show is Peter Mathews, General Manager of North America for SolarEdge. He has done a terrific job growing SolarEdge to over a 60% market share in the U.S. Please listen to this week’s Energy Show as Peter shares insights around SolarEdge’s business, how SolarEdge is addressing the power crisis in California, their new commercial products, and the company’s ongoing product vision for a distributed grid.

Copyright 2019, The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

The Green New Deal is getting a lot more attention as we get into the 2020 Presidential election. The Green New Deal is a set of proposed economic stimulus programs in the United States with a goal of addressing climate change and economic inequality. The green part refers to renewable energy, energy efficiency, agriculture and related strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new deal part refers to social and economic reforms and public works projects, similar to what was undertaken by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in response to the Great Depression (Civilian Conservation Corp, Civil Works Administration, Social Security Administration, etc.).

Author Thomas Freedman coined the Green New Deal term back in 2007. Taking up where he left off, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Ed Markey released a 14-page resolution for their version of the Green New Deal in February of 2019. Not surprisingly, there are strong political party line differences about the GND. There are even stronger generational differences about the GND. Without mincing words, Millenials see an existential threat to climate change — whereas most Boomers will be dead by then.

OK Boomer, so what should we do? For a youthful perspective, my guest on this week’s show is Kylie Tseng. Kylie is a graduate of NYU and is an activist for the Bay Area Sunrise Movement. Please listen to this week’s Energy Show as Kylie shares a Millennial’s perspective on the Green New Deal, and how everyone can encourage changes that will benefit both our climate and society.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Whether it’s a residential, commercial or utility solar project, contractors strive to install systems that generate the most energy at the lowest lifecycle cost. Solar panels operate at their peak output when the sun is perpendicular to the panel. So for maximum energy collection, tilting the solar panels at the local latitude (37 degrees here in San Jose) facing south is generally best.

Because of existing building structures, compromises are necessary when installing solar panels. Residential systems are generally installed flush to the roof because tilting the panels is unsightly, and the efficiency benefit of tilting the panels is not worth the additional mounting system costs. Commercial systems on flat roofs are generally installed on racking at a relatively low tilt so that more panels can be installed — but almost never horizontal since flat surfaces collect dirt and debris.

But large-scale solar installations do not need to compromise when it comes to tilt angle and orientation. Systems can be more easily oriented due south and tilted at the angle of the local latitude. Taking things one step further, since the sun moves throughout the day, an additional 10-25% efficiency can be achieved if the panels track the sun.

Single axis solar tracker systems generally towards the east in the morning and west in the afternoon. More complicated dual axis solar tracker systems tilt east-west daily and adjust north-south seasonally. Because of the increase in efficiency, trackers have become a standard feature on large solar farms. Essentially, the added complexity of moving parts is worth the big increase in energy output.

NEXTracker was recently ranked the number one tracker company globally. They provide tracking systems and engineering for large utility scale projects all over the world. My guest on this week’s Energy Show is Alex Au, CTO and co-founder of NEXTracker. Alex was one of the pioneers in the solar industry as a key member of the team that developed the first integrated racking AC solar module, and then developed NEXTracker’s core tracking technology.

Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show as Alex shares his insights on NEXTracker, their technology and their recent work in incorporating flow battery technology to help eliminate the imbalance between peak demand and renewable energy production for utility scale applications.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

The annual Solar Power International show held in October of this year celebrated its 16th year. The first show was a tiny venue that started in back in 2004 and was held in a tiny venue in San Francisco. Since that day back in 2004, the show has grown significantly as has the solar industry itself.

This year, the Solar Power International show was held in Salt Lake City with a big focus on energy storage --which has been building more and more every year, with a particular focus on new battery storage products.

In addition to the plethora of bigger and better solar panels, there was many new racking and mounting products that connect these systems to a roof or big utility scale field, plus all kinds of hardware such as inverters, controls and accessories. Most notably, software and hardware companies are now working to make installing and managing these systems easier, so software is becoming an important part of the whole industry.

But with the current demand for energy storage, clearly the focus on new battery storage products was most interesting. So to learn about the industry's latest energy storage offerings, please listen to this week’s Energy Show as we review the most notable battery storage systems spotted on the floor of this year’s Solar Power International show.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

On this week's The Energy Show, we’re talking about energy — duh. And power. Not just because we’re short on both energy and power. But because solar and battery customers need to understand these properties so they can properly size and operate their systems. This show is a bit on the geeky side, so buckle up.

Power is the measure of the amount of work that can get done over a period of time. We measure power in units of watts in the metric system, and in units of horsepower in the English system. Even though the English use the metric system and horses are basically just recreational vehicles for rich people. Commonly we refer to the power of a car in horsepower, or the power requirements of an appliance in watts.

Energy is the measurement of work, or force over distance, or an amount of heat. Not a watt, but instead a watt hour or kilowatt hour (kwh). Your utility bills you for electrical energy in terms of kilowatt hours, and for natural gas thermal energy in terms of Therms (geeky rhyme). A Therm is 100,000 BTUs, which stand for British Thermal Units — which is a measure of energy in the English system — which only the Americans still use (my high school English teacher would have referred to this sentence as a which hunt).

In the solar world, we measure the power output of a solar panel in watts (360 watts per solar panel under ideal conditions), or the total size of a 20 panel system as 7,200 watts. Home battery storage systems are measured in terms of kwh (most commonly a 10 kwh or 13.5 kwh battery), and commercial systems are measured in terms of mwh (megawatt hours).

Feel free to download this week’s Energy Show for more information about the energy and power terms we use in the solar and storage industry to measure size and performance of solar and battery storage systems.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Hold onto your seats because this is going to be the most exciting Energy Show I’ve ever done. This week we are talking about … DRUMROLL … your PG&E electric bill.

Modern utility bills are a masterwork of corporate obfuscation (Wikipedia: the obscuring of the intended meaning of communication by making the message difficult to understand, usually with confusing and ambiguous language). Indeed, there should be a picture of a PG&E electric bill on Wikipedia for illustration purposes.

Rather than trying to figure out their electric bill, most people’s eyes glaze over — they just write a check or click on Bill Pay to get the offending document out of their inbox. Almost every one of us could be paying an extra $10 or more a month and we would never know. Fortunately, the PUC (that’s a Three Letter Acronym for Public Utility Commission) tries to ride herd on overzealous utility rate makers.

Most mortals can understand charges per kWh — and solar customers understand NEM. But it helps to have a Master’s Degree in TLAs to understand the meaning of charges such as NBC, IOU, CTC, PCIA, CCA, DWR and PPP. As well as the myriad of whacky charges, confusing terminology, cross billing, negative credits, random taxes and alphanumeric rate soup.

Here is a summary of my handy Utility Bill Dictionary to aid in explaining some of these TLAs:

NBC – not the peacock network, but charges that solar customers pay because everybody does not have solar

IOU – big, profitable utilities that should be renamed U owe Them.

CTC – charges to all customers because utilities built power plants that are no longer needed

PCIA – charges to certain customers because utilities signed contracts for power at above market rates

CCA – efficient and low-overhead municipal-type utilities that sell electricity for much less than IOUs

DWR – charges to customers to cover PG&E’s first bankruptcy in 2001. These charges should end in 2020 at about the time PG&E’s new bankruptcy charges will hit our bills.

PPP – charges to fund public benefits, including solar incentives, low income assistance, and utility ads telling us to get a flashlight when they cut off our power

So be sure to listen to this week’s Energy Show as we delve into a typical solar customer’s PG&E electric bill and attempt to explain it on a page-by-page basis.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Almost everyone in California is aware of the Public Safety Power Shutoff Program — when the utility turns off power to customers in large areas in an effort to reduce the risk of fires caused by utility lines. In October of 2019 the first series of these power shutoffs began, inconveniencing millions of homes and businesses. These shutoffs were effective in preventing fires in areas that the power was off, but ironically a number of fires were still caused in areas that the power remained on.

California utility companies begin Public Safety Power Shutoffs (PSPS) when dry conditions and typically high winds with gusts up to 60-70 mph are forecast. These high winds often blow down utility lines or cause nearby trees to come into contact with wires — causing fires. Because long distance transmission lines are often the cause of these fires, power shutoffs can affect customers hundreds of miles away from where high winds occur.

During one of these recent power shutoff that affected my neighborhood in San Jose, it was a beautiful sunny day with calm winds. But five miles away at the top of Mount Umunhum the winds were blowing at 60 mph. There were no local fires, but there was a tremendous amount of anger at PG&E. Utility field workers were out in force trying to address issues that were caused by decades of mismanagement. Please don’t get angry at PG&E workers with a tool belt; be mad instead at PG&E employees wearing ties.

Utility blackouts are the new normal. PG&E’s CEO expects that this situation will persist for ten years and could take hundreds of billions of dollars to prevent — mostly by upgrading transmission and distribution systems. But there is a better way: installing more local solar and storage so that we are not as dependent on a centralized grid, and we can more easily ride through power interruptions.

But an ordinary rooftop solar power system does not operate in a blackout. For safety reasons the inverter automatically shuts down if utility power goes out. A special inverter and battery is necessary so that your solar system will operate independently of the grid — often referred to as a micro grid or island mode operation. Homes and businesses that installed a solar power system with battery backup generally had no problems during these blackouts. Properly designed battery systems automatically transfer to backup mode and power the critical loads in the house from the battery at night and solar during the day.

To learn more about Public Safety Power Shutoff programs — and the best way to design a solar + battery storage system to ride through the next blackout — please tune in to this week’s Energy Show.

Copyright 2019 - The Energy show, Barry Cinnamon

In addition to installing solar equipment, solar contractors also install a variety of electrical equipment: wiring, junction boxes, conduit, circuit breakers, etc. Since many of these electrical items are not carried at your local “big box” hardware store, experienced solar contractors source them from electrical distributors.

Since solar is one of the fastest growing industries in the U.S., some of the more farsighted electrical distributors have started to supply a limited amount of solar equipment. And some are distributing solar and storage equipment enabling them to become a “one stop shop” for everything needed on a typical residential or commercial rooftop system.

Having a single source distributing solar and storage equipment significantly reduces the supply chain costs for a typical solar contractor. Instead of ordering from several different manufacturers and have the materials trickle in over a few weeks or months, a contractor can back up his or her truck to a single distributor the morning of a project and load up everything that is needed. For larger projects, distributors can deliver directly to a job site. Voila: no extra warehousing costs, simplified purchasing and payment, and easy access to extra parts or supplies that may be needed during the course of an installation.

CED Greentech is one of the first electrical distributors in the San Francisco Bay Area that provides these specialty solar items, in addition to a complete range of electrical equipment. My guest on this week’s show is Paras Shah, Profit Center Manager at CED Greentech in San Jose. Please tune in to this week’s Energy Show as Paras shares his insight into the ways that local solar/electrical distributor can significantly reduce costs for all sizes and types of solar installations distributing solar and storage equipment.

Copyright 2019, The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon

Where do solar panels, batteries and inverters come from? No, they don’t come from solar elves or a retail store. They come from distributors who order in huge quantities directly from manufacturers. These distributors then pick, pack and ship efficiently in smaller quantities to contractors who do the installations. Essentially the same manufacture-distributor-contractor supply chain as in the HVAC, electrical and plumbing industries.

Distributors provide a tremendous service to solar and storage industry. Even though they mark up the equipment slightly to make a profit, they significantly reduce costs for contractors by eliminating overhead and all the hassles with dealing with dozens of vendors and thousands of components. These lower costs flow to the businesses and homeowners that are purchasing systems.

I have learned over the past 20 years in the solar industry that it is more efficient and actually cheaper to order equipment through a good distributor rather than purchase in huge quantities direct from a manufacturer. One of the best distributors in my experience is BayWa r.e. or Baywa for short. They are based in Santa Fe New Mexico, and their parent company is an $18b multi-national equipment/energy company based in Germany.

Other companies distribute solar equipment, but one of the reasons I like working with BayWa is that their team is responsive, efficient and likes what they are doing. These benefits are a result of their corporate culture…yes, I know, a fuzzy term - but it really makes a difference in the competitive solar industry.

Please listen to this week’s Energy Show as we speak with Boaz Soifer, CEO of BayWa. He’ll explain how he has shaped their culture to drive success at BayWa, and also discuss his insights into the common elements of successful solar companies.