The Energy Show

Over the past few months you may have seen or heard a continuous stream of ads warning about the imminent demise of the solar Investment Tax Credit and California’s Net Metering program. Good news for 2016: both of these programs have been extended. The incentive panic is over (for now). The solar industry – as well as homeowners and business owners – can concentrate on a steady transition to clean rooftop solar power.

As a result of the hard work at solar advocacy groups SEIA, Vote Solar and CALSEIA, the ITC is good through 2021 (30% in 2016-2019, then 26% in 2020 and 22% in 2021). And unlike their brethren in Nevada and Hawaii, the California Public Utilities Commission has made a preliminary decision to extend retail net metering, albeit at a slightly reduced rate.

But there is still real urgency to go solar: the sooner your installation is complete and you flip that switch to “on,” the sooner you’ll reduce your electric bill. Granted, installation costs are likely to be a little lower in future years, but electric rates keep going up and the “cost of doing nothing” will only grow as you pay your monthly electric bill. Many states still have rebate programs and caps on net metering – so check with your local installer to find out the status of incentives for your home or business. For more about the extension of the ITC and local net metering programs, please Listen Up to the Energy Show on Renewable Energy World.

If only all our New Year’s Resolution were this easy. Luckily, saving energy is easier than losing weight after gorging over the holidays. And the best part is that you’ll see results fast!

Energy and fuel costs are lower than they have been in years: gasoline is about $2/gallon, natural gas hasn’t been this inexpensive since 1999, and electricity costs are in the range of $0.10/kwh when generated by solar or wind. But even though these energy prices are relatively low, we live a much more energy-intensive lifestyle -- so we all consume more energy per person than any previous generation.. To get the New Year started right, here are ten tips for reducing your energy consumption in 2016.

1. If it’s raining, turn off your outdoor watering system

2. Drive a stake through the heart of your vampire electric loads

3. Replace all of your incandescent bulbs with LEDs, including your outdoor lights

4. Make sure you have a 7 day or smart thermostat, and that it’s working properly

5. Fix the weather stripping around your doors and windows

6. Install rooftop solar; wash your panels if they are very dirty

7. Clean your heating/cooling filters and check your ducts for leaks

8. Buy an EV

9. Install a variable speed pool pump and cut back on the hours of operation

10. Change your electric rate to a Time of Use or Electric Vehicle rate

It’s surprisingly easy to reduce your energy expenses in 2016, while at the same time improving our environment. For more details, Listen Up to the Energy Show on Renewable Energy World.

Whenever I land in a city I can’t help noticing how few -- if any -- commercial rooftops have solar panels. Historically, there have been two reasons why commercial solar hasn’t taken off as quickly as residential solar has: complicated financing and high costs for equipment.

But now, with more commercial financing options and lower prices for equipment, simple paybacks for commercial systems are often fewer than five years. That’s why big national companies such as Walmart, Safeway, Costco and Home Depot are adding rooftop solar systems to their retail and warehouse buildings.

If you own, manage or have a long term lease on a commercial building -- especially in a location where electric rates are high -- you should take a serious look at rooftop solar. Please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show on Renewable Energy World for an overview of the process, equipment, and key considerations for commercial rooftop solar installations.

$400 billion dollars. That’s how much money is spent every year on electricity in the U.S. It’s a huge industry. But not for long, because new solar and storage technology can provide many of the same services for a fraction of the price.

The threat isn’t new solar technology, but the ways in this technology is being deployed and paid for. Historically, utilities generate and distribute electricity, and charge customers for their usage. Indeed, about 5 GW of utility solar will be installed in 2015 -- more than the commercial and residential sectors combined. But the price of electricity to residential and commercial customers continues to increase. Even though utility scale solar is the cheapest new generating source of electricity, customers are not benefitting. To make matters worse, customers can install their own solar power plants and generate their own electricity for less than the utility charges.

The centralized monopoly utility business model must change because electricity can now be generated, consumed, stored and even distributed on a local level. John Farrell, senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self Reliance (ILSR), focuses on issues surrounding renewable energy, utility power, and energy-generation. Please join me on this week’s Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as John shares with us his insights on how utilities are trying to adapt to the new world of distributed generation.

Mankind has been in an energy transition ever since two cave-boy scouts rubbed two sticks together and created fire. Although the world’s economy is currently powered by fossil fuels, renewable power sources (primarily wind and solar) are now cheaper than fossil fuels for many applications. This renewable power tipping point implies that a 100% renewable society is feasible, and may be here sooner than we think.

But there are many naysayers -- usually from the fossil fuel industry. They claim that renewable power is still too expensive (ignoring direct and indirect subsidies to fossil fuels), that new technology can make fossil fuels cleaner (the myth of clean coal and VW’s TDI diesels), or that we need to go slowly in this transition to prevent a worldwide economic calamity (really just a loss of fossil fuel company profits). Fortunately, these claims are easy to refute with the right data and analyses.

My guest this week is Clint Wilder, senior editor at Clean Edge -- a leading advisory firm specialized in reporting the latest in clean energy technology, economic developments, and market trends. Clean Edge recently released a report entitled “Getting to 100, a Status Report on Rising Commitments Among Corporations and Governments to Reach 100% Renewables.” This report focuses on the rapid progress that corporations and governments are making to deploy renewables and related technologies, including energy storage, more efficient buildings and an updated electric grid.

Please join me on this week’s Energy Show on Renewable Energy World as Clint explains our progress towards this 100% renewables, and discusses some of the opportunities and roadblocks that we will experience as we make this transition.

I’m wading into an opinionated minefield. We’re not supposed to talk about religion or politics in polite company. But we already did a show on the Pope’s Environmental Encyclical. And politicians are blasting the airwaves with their energy views in the run up to the presidential primaries. So this week’s show is about the politics of clean energy.

We have a lot of recent material to work with. There is Obama’s Clean Power Plan, Candidate Clinton’s plan for 500 million solar panels by 2021, and plans from various Republicans reflecting their view of energy and the environment. As usual, the parties are diametrically opposed regarding both the problem and the solution.

Both parties are in favor of the environment (apple pie, too), more jobs, cheaper electricity and better economic conditions. But that’s about all they agree on. Republican politicians are adrift on that long river in Egypt when it comes to global warming; hence, their solutions are unlikely to solve the real problem. Democratic politicians are swimming upstream against another river - a river of fossil fuel money. For two different perspectives on our clean energy future, please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

Even with the anticipated El Nino weather conditions on the west coast, the drought in California will continue. Experts say it will take three or four years of very heavy rainfall to replenish above ground reservoirs, and many more years of above average rainfall to refill underground aquifers.

The Governor implemented a mandatory 25% water cutback, and people responded with an average 31% reduction. Brown is the new green when it comes to lawns (urban use accounts for 21% of water consumption). Unfortunately, farm output has taken a big hit -- fields are empty and orchards are filled with dead trees (agriculture accounts for 79% of water consumption).

But it has been difficult for people to conserve when they do not know what water costs. Anyone who drives a car knows how much gas costs per gallon -- but very few people know how much water costs per gallon. Last year here in the San Jose area our household water cost $0.004 per gallon (about half a penny). We cut our usage in half, but our water rates still more than doubled to $0.009 per gallon (almost a penny).

Painful as it may be when it comes to something we take for granted, people respond to price signals. As water rates doubled, consumption dropped. The same behaviour applies to other commodities that we buy -- most noticeably gasoline and electricity. For more about the effect of higher prices on California’s water usage, please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

Recently, a solar worker in Hawaii fell off a roof to his death. Construction work is one of the most dangerous activities, and installing rooftop solar presents additional fall and electric shock hazards. It is up to owners and managers of solar companies to insist that their workers follow appropriate safety procedures -- even though these procedures may be inconvenient, time consuming and expensive.

Proper safety procedures can prevent tragedies like this. If you do rooftop installation work, we have three specific suggestions. First, install two or more permanent roof anchors on every job. These anchors are inexpensive (about $15 each), leak-proof, and easy to install. With these anchors installed there is no excuse for your workers not to use ropes and harnesses. Second, follow all of the applicable OSHA procedures for solar contracting, including ladder safety, protective gear, electrical safety, and emergency procedures. Third, consider getting a free OSHA safety inspection audit. Although inconvenient, these audits will help identify gaps in your company’s safety procedures.

Solar safety does not end when a system is installed. Homeowners must also be aware of the proper way to clean their panels and check for debris or problems with wiring. Although we're not aware of a serious fire from a properly installed rooftop system, there have been incidences of squirrel or bird damage to wiring, and occasional arc fault problems. By design, rooftop PV systems have many built-in safety features to prevent injury or property damage -- and local jurisdiction inspections are a good final step to help ensure the system is installed safely. For more on homeowner and installer solar safety, please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show.

$0.25/kwh - what a typical California homeowner pays for electricity (based on current PG&E rates at the U.S. average of 12,000 kwh/yr)

$0.12/kwh - what a typical California homeowner pays for Net Metered rooftop solar electricity (based on a 5 kw system installed at $3.75/watt)

www.SaveRooftopSolarCA.com - what you can do right now to prevent utilities from killing rooftop solar

Rooftop solar electricity is half the price of utility-supplied electricity. No business can survive when their product is that overpriced. EXCEPT a monopoly.

As a monopoly, utilities are permitted to set their electric rates so that they earn a minimum 10% profit. Their reaction to cheaper rooftop solar is to bombard the public with misinformation (solar is for wealthy people), fear mongering (more solar will cause the grid to collapse) and dirty tricks (trust us, new electric rates are actually good for consumers). To make matters worse, this advertising and lobbying is paid for by electric ratepayers themselves.

Utilities haven’t been able to make rooftop solar illegal (although they have tried); instead, they have insidiously reduced the benefits of Net Metering by increasing fixed charges and reducing Net Metering rates. In Hawaii, Arizona and Nevada these attacks against rooftop solar have been so effective that many solar companies have laid off employees. Effectively, residential and commercial electric rates have gone up.

California is the next big battleground for rooftop solar. This battle is being fought at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), where utilities want to eliminate Net Metering. Utilities are proposing solar-only fees and charges that will double the paybacks for new customers (including existing customers who want to expand their systems).

Luckily, with 250,000 rooftop systems already in place and over 54,000 people working directly in the solar industry, California can resist this utility bullying. The California Solar Energy Industries Association (CALSEIA) is the focal point for continuing the growth of affordable solar in the state, and Bernadette del Chiaro is CALSEIA’s Executive Director. Please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show as Bernadette explains the tactics that utilities are using, the reasonable arguments for continuing with retail Net Metering, and the actions that every reader and listener can take to support the growth of the rooftop solar industry. Quick Tip: click on the link at www.SaveRooftopSolarCA.com to add your name to the rooftop solar petition.

I typed the words “free solar” into Google and got 747,000,000 hits in half a second. We all know that solar systems are not free. But the technology that is being marketed is still so new and complicated that it is easy to scam homeowners who are eager to save money.

There are about half a million homes in the U.S. with solar, 200,000 people working in the U.S. solar industry, and 10,000 solar companies. Unfortunately, as in every big industry, there is a small percentage of companies that take advantage of consumers in order to make a bigger buck. Not surprisingly, complaints about unethical and fraudulent business practices in the solar industry are adding up.

Fortunately, the solar industry has been proactive with its efforts to reign in companies that are taking advantage of consumers. For many years several state solar organizations have published ethical and business practice guidelines. Most recently, the Solar Energy Industries Association published their Solar Business Code. This Code provides detailed principles for companies in the solar industry -- specifically focused on protecting consumers.

Please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show as we go over some of the real-world problems that consumers experience, the solutions specified in the Solar Business Code, and the caveat emptor realities that apply to all big purchases and investments.