Mr Sustainable

Dante DiPirro will be a panelist on a discussion of solar energy at Rutgers University on December 3, 2014.  The discussion will include the current status of solar energy, the marketplace in New Jersey, and the future of solar energy in New Jersey and the United States.  Other panelists include: Jeanne Fox, former President of the NJ Board of Public Utilities; Pam Frank, of Gabel Associates; and Robert Kropp, a blogger on sustainablity.  The roundtable will kick off at 6 pm at the Student Activities Center, 613 George Street, New Brunswick NJ 08903.  The event is open to students, government officials, and members of the public.

On April 24, 2014, the New York State Public Service Commission staff released a report and proposal that calls for a shift away from the traditional utility model of centralized generation, toward more distributed electricity generation.

Distributed generation serves as an alternative to or an enhancement of the traditional electric power system.

Distributed generation is a method of generating electricity from systems — like solar systems– located close to where the electricity is being used, in contrast to the traditional model in the U.S. where electricity is generated at large power plants and then transmitted long distances to individual electricity users.

Distributed generation using renewable energy systems has many advantages: it promotes the generation of clean nonpolluting electricity; it saves utility companies and their ratepayers from the cost of having to build new power plants; and he can prevent the loss of power when the electric grid is down during a natural disaster or other emergency.

See staff report at: http://www3.dps.ny.gov/W/PSCWeb.nsf/96f0fec0b45a3c6485257688006a701a/26be8a93967e604785257cc40066b91a/$FILE/ATTK0J3L.pdf/Reforming%20The%20Energy%20Vision%20(REV)%20REPORT%204.25.%2014.pdf

For other analysis, see:
http://www.troutmansandersenergyreport.com/2014/05/nypsc-staff-releases-proposal-to-overhaul-utility-regulation/

Jon Wellinghof, Chairman of FERC: “Solar is growing so fast it is going to take over everything”

And isn’t that a GREAT thing!

Mr Sustainable, Dante DiPirro, will be speaking on rebuilding sustainably after Superstorm Sandy.  Since we have to rebuild anyway as a result of the catastrophe, we have an opportunity to do it right!  The event will be held on Monday, May 13, 2013 at 7PM at the Monmouth County Library – headquarters, 125 Symmes Drive, Manalapan, NJ.  The event is open to the public.

Competitive bids for long-term solar credit contracts is an approach that has been adopted in several states including Connecticut, New York, Delaware, and Massachusetts.  Will this be the next new trend in incentives and financing for solar electric projects?

In the United States, states have tried various approaches to provide incentives to spur development of the solar industry. The first was the rebate approach. With this type of incentive system, the state provides  grant funding upfront to a project to lessen large initial costs and funds the rebate program with a small charge on the monthly bills of electric ratepayers in the state.  New Jersey used this approach very successfully to become the second leading state in the United States for installed solar projects. Some policymakers wanted to move beyond a rebate system and others favored a more market-based approach.

This led to the second approach to state solar incentives: the solar renewable energy credit or SREC approach. Under the SREC system, the government does not provide financial assistance upfront to finance the solar project.  Rather, after a business or residence has constructed the solar system, and put the system into operation, it will qualify for credits based on the systems production:  for every 1000 kilowatt-hours of power generated, the system owner receives one solar credit which in turn can be sold for money on the open market.  The demand for the purchase of such credits and is created by a state requirement that a certain portion of all electricity sold in New Jersey be generated from clean, renewable sources. As a practical matter, this means that the entity selling power must either have its own renewable energy generating systems or must purchase solar credits.

New Jersey is an example of the state that moved from rebates to SRECs.  About two years ago, New Jersey terminated all rebates and moved exclusively to an SREC approach. At first, the SREC system worked because the credits had enough value on the open market to provide incentives for the construction of solar systems. Unfortunately, New Jersey’s lack of structure for the SREC market place permitted new construction to outpace the reasonable availability of demand for credits. In response, the value of SREC’s crashed in 2012. This has resulted in an extreme slowdown in the solar construction in New Jersey and has imperiled thousands of local, solar jobs.

In the past year or two, there has been a new movement toward the development of a long-term contract incentive approach. In this incentive system, project developers bid in competitively for long-term SREC contracts. For example, in a developer may submit a bid saying that it wishes to contract with an energy seller if the entity will  guarantee a specified SREC value for a specified period of time.  The state acts as a mere broker and the decision whether the bid will be accepted is wholly up to the energy seller. This approach is market-based because the price is set by private parties making decisions in an open market. It also has the value of establishing an income stream over a long-term which is what is required for developers to be willing to construct new projects since they know what they will receive in SREC income.  This allows them the ability to calculate if the project will provide a return on investment and that in turn provides a substantial advantage over the current SREC system where, as in New Jersey, the parties have no way of knowing what the value that SREC will be more than 3 or 5 years out for a system that will be in operation for 20-30 years.

Delaware, Connecticut, New York, and Massachusetts are all piloting long-term contracting programs.  New Jersey, in addition to having its SREC system, does permit a small portion of the industry to be provided incentives through long-term contracts via its EDC program. However, the small size of the program, means that it has not reached its full potential there.

Whether competitively bid, long-term contracting will be the next big trend in solar remains to be seen.  It must be said that it does try to target certain weaknesses that have been revealed in the SREC approach.

The US budget sequestration will reduce grants for the solar industry. While the sequestration, which went into effect today, will not impact the 30% federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for commercial or residential solar projects, it will reduce the federal grant program (Section 1603 grant in lieu of ITC). The amount of the grant reduction has yet to be announced by the US Treasury Department.

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

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.