The Energy Show

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon

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Reducing E-Waste with Lou Ramondetta of Surplus Services

Ours is a consumption economy: we buy electrical equipment, building materials, appliances, toys and innumerable ephemeral knick knacks. When these items no longer serve their purpose — or just become passé — we throw them out. They are almost never re-used and rarely recycled.

Ideally, we should recycle everything. Household waste streams are mostly recycled, But old electronics are the worst: think about that drawer of circa 1990s cell phones, box of 3.5” floppy diskettes containing precious data, or pre IP office phone systems that can still power up but are worthless without a dial tone. Unfortunately, this old electronic equipment is usually just thrown in the dump, becoming what we now call "E-waste.” Efforts are in place to prevent old solar panels from also becoming E-waste. Theoretically, the glass, aluminum, silicon and copper in the panels are extremely recyclable. But because of the 25-year durability of solar panels, there are few efficient ways to recycle, or even re-use, old solar panels.

There are a few new companies that are addressing the growing need to re-use or recycle E-waste. My guest on this week’s show is Lou Ramondetta, President of Surplus Services. Lou has been in the industrial, electronic and medical equipment industry for over twenty years, and is now working to recycle or — better yet, find a home for working but old electronics equipment. To learn more about how companies like Surplus Services are helping companies and local municipalities reduce and even zero-out their E-waste streams through repurposing of electronic equipment, Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon

© 2018-All rights reserved

For over a hundred years our civilization has been getting electricity from centralized generation. This utility business model relies on remote power plants fueled originally by coal, oil and gas — and now increasingly by wind and solar.

But the development of inexpensive rooftop solar power over the past 20 years is changing this central generation paradigm. It is now cheaper for homes and businesses to generate their own electricity on their rooftop, and only stay connected to the utility for night time power. These Distributed Generation (DG) solar power systems are connected on the customer’s side of the meter, or referred to as Behind the Meter (BTM) from a utility’s perspective.

Utilities generate their profits by selling power, as well as owning the power plants and utility power lines. When customers generate their own power, utilities lose revenues. Moreover, when customers pay for their own solar generating systems, utilities do not get to own additional generating assets - further reducing their profits. This loss of revenues and profits is disrupting the conventional Investor Owned Utility (IOU) business.

Utilities claim that there are costs being shifted from solar customer to non-solar customers. This cost shift argument is nonsense, since in reality the utilities are trying to regain their lost profits from solar customers by increasing rates for everyone else. Think about it: since utility customers are going elsewhere for the utility’s product (electricity), utilities are raising prices for everyone else. Nice work if you can get it.

The trend towards BTM solar (and now battery storage) is inexorable as these technologies continue to get cheaper. The aptly named Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR) focuses on these technology and sociological transitions. Our guest on this week’s Energy Show is John Farrell. John directs the energy program at ILSR and is best known for his research and papers on economics and benefits of local ownership of decentralized renewable energy. John is one of our best thinkers and communicators on this subject, so Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show for his commentary on the superior economics of Behind the Meter solar and storage.

The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon

© 2018-All rights reserved

This week we’re talking about battery storage system safety. But first, a brief digression. As a contractor, the biggest safety concern that I have for all rooftop solar and battery systems is not necessarily with the solar panels or the batteries, but with fall protection. It’s an OSHA regulation that all workers must be secured with roof anchors and proper harnesses when working on rooftops. So make sure your solar contractor installs roof anchors during your installation so the people working on your roof are safe. Back to battery safety…

Look around: there are batteries everywhere. 120 years ago we started with batteries in our cars and flashlights. Now just about every portable device we have requires batteries: cars, laptops, phones, entertainment systems, toothbrushes and wacky Internet Of Things devices. Fortunately, with the proliferation of electric vehicles, the prices for large-scale battery storage systems have declined substantially. We’re now at the point at which in many locations it is cost-effective to install a home or business battery system to avoid high peak electricity costs -- and get the added benefit of backup power if your utility is unreliable.

Batteries pack a lot of energy in a small package -- but not as much as conventional fuels. The energy density of a standard alkaline battery is 0.14 kWh/kg, and the energy density of a lithium ion battery is 0.5 kWh/kg. Compared to explosive gasoline (13 kWh/kg) and uranium (23 million kWh/kg), stationary batteries used in buildings are extremely safe. Moreover, circuitry required by safety agencies (UL, National Electrical Code) makes it almost impossible for these batteries to burn or explode -- even if they are damaged or misused.

Nevertheless, the solar and battery storage industry takes safety issues related to battery storage systems seriously. Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show to learn about the built-in safety provisions in residential and commercial battery storage systems -- as well as the fire safety, transportation and worker training required for their safe installation.

The Energy Show - Hosted by Barry Cinnamon

We’re talking about hot water this week. No — I’m not in trouble with my local utility again -- just discussing the best ways to heat water for your home. Our focus is on domestic hot water (DHW). This is hot water that you use for your kitchen, bathing and laundry.  In the U.S., the average home uses about 68 gallons of hot water a day, with huge variations based on the number and age of occupants in the home.

Taking a step back, I counted six basic ways that people have been heating water since humans discovered fire.  Deliberate heating started with a pot on a campfire (or with hot rocks to boil water). Then we used solar thermal to heat water in a blackened container (and we are still using solar thermal systems today). Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) were then used starting in the 1800s in boilers to heat water (the latest insulated tank technologies use high efficiency condensing gas boilers). In the 1900s we started using electric heating elements in hot water tanks.  Flash or pass through hot water heating systems - powered by electricity or natural gas — completely eliminate the hot water tank, thereby reducing standby losses. But the current champions for DHW efficiency are the new heat pump hot water heaters. These systems have efficiencies in excess of 200% since they extract ambient heat from surrounding air (essentially cooling the air), and use this heat to increase the water temperature. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these heat pump systems have become much more reliable and cost effective.

On this week’s Energy Show we will review each of the common technologies used to heat water to help you decide what kind of DHW heating system makes sense for you the next time your tank wears out (BTW, according to NREL the average lifespan of a hot water tank is 13 years).

We often talk about smaller solar power systems on homes or commercial buildings but on this week’s Energy Show we are talking about gigawatt scale solar installations, and here is the logic --solar panels continue to get cheaper, panels are getting more efficient, and by the same token, for whatever reason, electricity from the utility companies keeps getting more and more expensive. So it’s no surprise that we are now seeing gigawatt scale solar installations to take advantage of these economies of scale and less expensive electricity.

When I started doing PV installations back in 2001, the biggest projects were about 5 MW. Just over the past couple years I’ve seen 500 MW installations go in here in the US and there is several 1,000 MW (a gigawatt) installations in India and China.

Now there is gigawatt plant construction underway in the US and to put these projects in perspective, it’s twice the capacity of most natural gas plants, it covers about ten square miles, have over three million solar panels, and employee thousands of people during construction.

So to talk about projects of this size, my special guests on this week’s Energy Show are Mark Cox and Shola Ashiru of New Energy Fund II, a private equity investment company.

Battery storage is roughly where the solar industry was in the early 2000’s. It’s a tiny market now but it is exploding and the technology is evolving rapidly. There is money saving potential for customers but there are risks for incumbent energy providers who are pushing back.

The standards for battery storage are changing like quicksand and investor funds are pouring in to take advantage of this inevitable market. The rapid “hockey stick” growth that we are seeing in the energy storage industry is likely to be even more accelerated than the growth of the solar industry.

All the pieces are in place for a number of successful companies throughout the storage value chain, but as with the solar industry, there is going to be some spectacular train wrecks along the way as well as some companies that just do not have the staying power to succeed.

On this week’s Energy Show, we talk about the following eight mistakes that companies in the solar industry made that hopefully storage companies can avoid:

Mistake #1: Constraints on critical upstream components (Li or Co = Si?)

Mistake # 2: Live by incentives and die by incentives

Mistake # 3: Releasing half-baked products

Mistake #4: Ignoring software

Mistake #5: Assuming electricity rates will always go up

Mistake #6: Not paying enough attention to safety issues

Mistake #7: Selling commodity components, not bankable systems

Mistake # 8: Inevitable black swan events

Public policies have a tremendous influence on the energy we use, as well as the condition of our environment. State and Federal legislators make these policies with input from private citizens and businesses. The solar industry quite frankly has thrived with policies in favor of clean renewable energy, and it’s no accident that California is a leader in solar and clean renewable energy.

The Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) helps advocate for favorable business and citizen policies in Silicon Valley and they have made a tremendous impact not only in California but also in Washington DC.

Listen up to this week’s Energy Show where we speak with Tim McRae, Vice President of Energy at the Silicon Valley Leadership Group. Tim is an energy policy expert and an environmental lawyer. He helps Leadership Group Members define and carry out energy policy, programs and events covering issues like energy supply, grid modernization and reliability, and demand side solutions.

Solar is clean and renewable and cheap. So more solar is better for everyone…except your local utility. Keep in mind that utilities generate their profits from selling electricity and building generation, transmission and distribution assets. When electricity customers install more solar, utilities make less money. Unfortunately, utilities have the political clout to enforce their monopoly on customers who would otherwise prefer less expensive rooftop solar. The biggest battles are emerging in relatively mature solar markets.

Over 15% of residential customers in some areas of Hawaii have rooftop solar. As a result, Hawaii is the first “test case” in the U.S. for high penetration solar. Faced with this loss of profits, the Hawaiian utilities clamped down on new solar installations by capping net metering, raising solar-specific rates, and in some cases simply prohibiting installations. Instead of upgrading the local grid to handle these two-way power flows efficiently, their knee-jerk reaction has been simply to limit solar. Their rationale for these limitations is questionable at best, especially at these still low penetration levels.

The impact on the Hawaiian solar market has been severe. Installations have dramatically slowed down and solar companies have gone out of business. The Solar Survivors (who have not been kicked off the island) are migrating to install battery storage systems which are compatible with new utility solar limitations, albeit at less favorable economics.

My guest on this week’s Energy Show is Marco Mangelsdorf, CEO of Provision Solar on Hilo. Marco has been installing solar since 2000 – and has an abundance of insights and advice for solar installers and customers throughout the U.S.

Most people know what an electric grid is -–basically it's power generated centrally by the utility companies from a variety of energy sources like oil, gas, nuclear, coal, and then transmitted at high voltages via overhead and sometimes underground transmission lines to local substations where the voltage is reduced down to the distribution voltage level and distributed over power utility lines to homes and businesses.

It’s called a “grid” because there is a network of wires that move the power around from node to node –basically a combination of power source, wires and controls. A micro-grid is the same concept but on a much smaller scale. One example of a microgrid is a complex of buildings on an island. This complex of buildings may have one outbuilding that has a central power plant which almost always used to be powered by diesel. Now many are solar with batteries and have also have a backup generator, often powered by diesel. So these power plants have a combination of solar diesel and maybe wind and sometimes batteries, and then they have wires going from this power plant to power multiple buildings on the island. Another example of a microgrid is one you might have in your pocket. Think about a cell phone. It’s got a battery, sometimes a backup battery, and you might have a mini solar charger. Those thinks are a microgrid.

So we have different scales of microgrids, but why so much interest in microgrids lately?

Listen up to this week’s Energy Show to learn more about microgrids and the importance they are playing in the changing landscape of central and distributed energy.

Solar and Energy Storage System Engineering with Josh Weiner of SepiSolar by Barry Cinnamon