Mr Sustainable

Germany is the world’s leader in solar adoption.

A friend commented to me that flying into Germany recently, he could not believe how many solar panels he saw as he approached from the air.  And the panels were not just in big solar farms but on businesses and residences in great numbers too.

Germany’s success is not based on having more sun that other places in the world.

Its success comes from the fact that it adopted very successful policies for solar.

And Germany’s solar policy makes solar cost half as much to install as it does in America.

Read more in this article.

PV America East is one of the major conferences for the solar industry in the United States.  It’s in town in Philadelphia this week with close to 4,000 professionals and nearly 100 exhibitors.  Leaders in the industry and interested customers will all be there showing off the latest in technology, financing, and services.

Everyone is excited about the continuing drop in the cost of installing solar energy generating systems.  Much of the cost reduction has come from the plummeting in the price of photovoltaic panels, which have gone down more than 75% over the past five years.  This is making solar energy more and more affordable, and approaching “grid parity” the time at which the cost of solar will be equal to the cost of producing electricity from conventional, more polluting sources.

There’s also excitement about the continued rise in the amount of PV installed in the US.  In 2012, the Solar Energy Industries Association reported that residential rooftop installations were up 30 percent from the previous year, and total rooftop installations, including commercial buildings, grew over 100% during this time.

Solar energy is especially beneficial when the demand for electricity is the greatest and cost of electricity is greatest.  When a high level of power is called for – such as on a hot summer day when air conditioners are in use – solar and wind already out-compete coal, nuclear or natural gas, since the added cost of sending more electricity to the grid from solar panels or wind turbines is much less. This is sometimes referred to as the “merit order effect” and it has already cause savvy consumers to turn to solar power.  See Bloomberg BusinessWeek  “Solar Energy is Ready.  The U.S. Isn’t.

And there’s good news from other countries about the success of solar providing larger and larger percentages of a country’s power demand.  For example, Germany passed a notable benchmark in last year, when its solar power market met almost half of the country’s electric demand at mid-day on Saturday in May, and a third of its needs on a Friday, when industrial usage what high.  Wharton School University of Pennsylvania Article  “Germany proves solar energy is no mirage.”  http://knowledgetoday.wharton.upenn.edu/2012/05/sunspots-germany-proves-solar-energy-is-no-mirage/

Germany, a world leader in the development of solar power, is not producing a small overall amount of solar power by any stretch of the imagination: on these very sunny two days, it produced power equal to the generating capacity of about 20 nuclear stations.  See Wharton Article.  These facts continue to establish that solar can play, and in places already has played, a successful role in large-scale energy production.

This all makes it a good time for the United States to get squarely behind solar.  We can build our economy, provide good jobs, and reduce our dependence on foreign sources of fuel – all while improving our environment and health.

If you get the chance, check out PV America East 2013, at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia Pennsylvania, and please stop back again to read future posts.

Solar-powered home is a shining example of what can be accomplished with innovative thinking outside the grid.

During the assault and aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, his East Amwell residence was bright with light gleaned from the sun through solar panels.

Every small step toward sustainability is a small step away from unremitting  dependence on the Earth’s finite supply of fossil fuels.

Read NJ.Com Editorial

When Dante DiPirro was 11, he built a contraption from old mirrors that directed the sun’s heat toward a single point. The makeshift solar collector was his sixth-grade science fair project.

Now, decades later, DiPirro is still experimenting with sunlight. Calling himself Mr. Sustainable, the lawyer, blogger and self-styled environmental consultant designed the system of solar panels that powers his off-grid East Amwell, New Jersey home.

See NJ.com feature news story and photographs.

Despite the storm devastation around him, “Mr. Sustainable,” Dante DiPirro of Hopewell, New Jersey, never lost power during Hurricane Sandy.   Dante designed and built a sustainable, off-grid home that gets 100% of its electricity from the sun.  The power is stored in batteries, so that even if a hurricane or other catastrophe has shut down the electric power grid, he still has power.

During Hurricane Sandy, when the grid was down for ten days in his town, Dante invited his neighbors over to warm up, refrigerate food and most importantly get drinking water-all of which he can do off-grid.  He did the same for his neighbors during the October 2011 “Halloween” snow storm, which also knocked out the town’s power for over a week, and during other recent storms.

More and more Americans are asking how they can live more sustainably.  One of the reasons Dante designed and built this home, was to demonstrate that it is doable and affordable.

He hopes that when people now start planning for the next emergency, that they consider a sustainable solution like solar electricity for their home or business. He says even if you still connect to the grid, there are ways to design the system so that you can have power when the grid goes down.

Don’t just rush out and buy a gas generator, which may still leave you out hunting for fuel when gas stations have run out or do not have electricity to pump the gas, like happened during Hurricane Sandy. Consider installing a solar system that can keep you with power during emergencies and give you clean, free electricity the rest of the year.  You’ll feel good knowing that you produce clean, free electricity from the sun, and you’ll feel even better when the grid goes down and you still have power!

Dante’s home has been off-grid since 2006.  He’s aware of only one other off-grid solar home, outside of the western United States.

Dante has worked on over 25 megawatts of solar projects.  As “Mr. Sustainable,” Dante blogs about, and dedicates himself to sustainable energy, building and living.