Solar Energy Show

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Unless you’re totally off the grid -- both literally and figuratively -- you know that there are power shortages in California. With California experiencing hotter weather, people working at home, dirty power plant retirements, fires, and Public Safety Power Shutoffs, power outages have become a fact of life. But the solution to these problems does not have to exclusively be more power generating capabilities. Demand Response is a concept that describes the reduction in power consumption by utility customers to better match the available supply of power. An example would be if homes and businesses reduced their air conditioning needs — by simply raising the set point on their thermostats — during a peak power demand event at 4 PM on a hot summer day. There are challenges to implementing Demand Response programs, including communicating to customers when they should cut back their power usage, compensating these customers for their inconvenience (keep in mind

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon You just invested in a brand new EV charged by your rooftop solar and battery. Then, a year later, your utility adds a $50/month fixed charge to your bill just because you have rooftop solar. How would you feel? This scenario is not just hypothetical. Utilities all over the country are lobbying to change rates for solar and battery customers by adding large fixed fees, eliminating net metering, delaying interconnections, and deliberately mismanaging incentive programs. This anti-competitive behavior should be no surprise. Businesses don’t like competition; it hurts their profits. Homes and businesses can generate electricity for much less than their utility charges. So rather than find ways to be more efficient, competitive and environmentally friendly, utilities spend hundreds of millions of dollars suppressing competition from rooftop solar and battery storage and diminishing your solar and battery storage rights. To add insult to injury, the money they are

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Solar panels are long term assets - guaranteed by every manufacturer for at least 25 years. Lithium ion batteries are guaranteed by most manufacturers for at least 10 years. But there are no major solar panel manufacturers have been in business for 25 years, and no major battery manufacturers for 10 years. So how can a homeowner, building owner or financing company assess the reliability of solar panels and batteries? The best way is to scientifically gather and assess reliability data for these components. To be objective, this reliability analysis must be done by an independent organization - not by manufacturers. PV Evolution Labs is the leading independent lab for equipment testing. They assess the bankability of PV modules, inverters, storage, and other balance-of-system equipment. Joining us on this week’s Energy Show is Jenya Meydbray, CEO and co-founder of PV Evolution Labs. Please Listen Up to this week’s Energy Show as Jenya talks about the foundi

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon There are over a million homes with rooftop solar in the U.S. – out of about 100 million detached single family homes. So we are looking at market penetration of about 1%. There is a lot of growth potential for solar, storage and maintenance work. Once people have a solar power system the first question they ask is “how do I read my electric bill?” The second question they ask is “how often should I clean my solar panels?” Now reading your electric bill – that’s another show altogether given how complicated the bills are. But on today’s show we’ll mathematically and practically answer this second question –how often should I clean my solar panels. We will base our recommendation on daily and annual performance analysis of systems before and after cleaning and also provide advice on how – and especially how not -- to clean solar panels. To start, you might be wondering how the solar panels get dirty. They get dirty basically by wind-blown dust. Just like yo

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon For the first time in 20 years California is experiencing rolling blackouts. Reports indicate that over 3 million residents were recently affected. Conditions that caused these blackouts will continue, and the situation will get worse during fire season when we can expect Public Safety Power Shutoffs. In the olden days, blackouts were an opportunity to sit around by the fire and read by candlelight. Not any more. We rely on electricity to keep our food cold, to keep our lights on, to charge our cars and to keep our family connected to both school and work. PG&E is not being candid about the real cause of these recent blackouts. Ostensibly, the rolling blackouts were caused when hot weather caused air conditioning demand to spike at the same time that several 500 MW natural gas power plants went offline, either due to scheduled maintenance or failure. But when I checked into the cause of several extended Silicon Valley outages, it became apparent that these o

Copyright 2020, The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry CInnamon Like every other industry, the Covid-19 impacts on the solar industry have been significant. Supply chains have been disrupted, customer demand has decreased as economies suffer, and then, customer demand has gone up as people realize they need their own reliable source of power. And, there is a big question mark on government policies towards clean energy –especially here in the U.S. People in the global solar and storage industry want information to help them navigate these uncertain times and one of the best information sources in the solar industry is IHS Markit. IHS Markit is a leading provider of data analytics and expertise serving a number of industries including cleantech and renewables, oil and gas, automotive, financial and economics and my guest on this week’s Energy Show is Cormac Gilligan, Associate Director of Solar and Energy Storage at IHS Markit. Cormac is like a human crystal ball for the global solar industry and is widely regarded as a le

Copyright 2020, The Energy Show - Barry Cinnamon Solar and battery backup systems are the ideal antidote to the triple threat of high evening electric rates (over $0.50/kwh), frequent power failures (some of which are deliberate shut-offs), and our increasing dependence on electricity for the necessities of life (food, phones and fun). Several established companies — including Tesla, LG-Chem, SolarEdge and Enphase — have developed excellent solar and storage systems for homeowners. These systems are great, but they must be designed properly so that they meet both the power (watts) and energy (kwh) needs of a home during an extended blackout. Please listen to this week’s Energy Show as we talk about the evolution of battery storage technology, how solar and batteries work together, the technical limitations of storage systems, and the critical software and hardware components that factor into design considerations for battery backup systems that will reliably keep your lights on and your fridge cold.

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon The solar industry is used to rapid changes, hence the moniker “The Solar Coaster.” But this year the changes are at their most extreme in my recollection: rapid adoption of battery storage, tariffs, blackouts, the coronavirus pandemic and a recession. It takes a varied set of skills to run a successful solar business over the long term in such a dynamic environment. Not only does a company need the right mix of technology, marketing and strategy, but they also need a management team that is focused on long term success. Companies that are in for the quick buck, featuring n low prices and “free” solar deals, usually disappear just as quickly. Over the past decade I’ve gotten to know some of the best locally-focused solar companies around the country. One of the companies that stands out is Renova Energy, based on the Coachella Valley in California. Please listen up to this week’s Energy Show featuring Vincent Battaglia, CEO of Renova Energy. Vincent shares

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Today’s solar technology is the most sustainable way of generating energy. Solar power is inexpensive on a kilowatt per hour basis, is low maintenance, has zero fuel requirements, generates no emissions, and is completely silent. But even solar leaves a waste footprint, primarily because there is a lot of equipment that is manufactured and installed. Energy is consumed during component and equipment manufacturing, shipment and installation — whether on a utility-scale field, commercial flat roof or home. Waste is inevitably generated, especially packaging materials (I was kicked out of my first home office because we were recycling too much cardboard). Perhaps the biggest waste footprint issues will arise when solar installations are de-commissioned at the end of their life. Aluminum and steel racking can be profitably recycled. However, as with many other consumer and industrial products (tires, electronics, etc.), there are significant costs associated wit

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon With the upcoming wildfire season in California and Covid-19 stay-at-home requirements, many people are looking into ways to power their home when utility power goes out. Battery backup systems coupled with rooftop solar are an ideal solution to keeping the lights on during these blackouts. Although these battery backup systems are affordable, quiet and clean — there are limits to the amount of power they can provide. We all have had experiences with the limited energy capacity of batteries — neither our phones nor EVs seem to run as long as we would like. Moreover, we know that battery-powered devices cannot provide as much power (sometimes referred to as in more technical terms as “oomph”) as devices that have cords plugged into the wall. These limitations are based on both the energy capacity in the battery (measured in kwh), as well as the power delivery capacity of the battery (measured in watts). Large appliances in homes presents the biggest challenge

Copyright 2020 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Everyone is looking forward to a return to some degree of normalcy as we recover from the corona virus pandemic. But it is very hard to make sense what a new normal would be with all the conflicting information from health, economic and policy experts — not to mention the almost diametrically opposed viewpoints expressed in various media outlets. The reality is that the progression of the corona virus will dictate the pace at which we will return to normal. Unfortunately, there are just way too many variables — on a worldwide basis — to predict when the corona virus will be reduced to a manageable level, perhaps like the flu or common cold. I’m not a medical or economic or political expert — but I do know a bit about energy, solar and storage. As a result of the corona virus, the solar + storage industry has been on an extreme version of the Solar Coaster. Like most businesses, almost all solar and battery companies were completely shut down for a few weeks

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.

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. Th

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 o

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,

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,

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 environm

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