I am writing this while exiting California – the land of sunshine and salt air (if you are on the coast). Living and doing most of my work in the solar industry on the east coast, California was often the land of solar myths in my mind, but I was struck by one thought continually throughout the last two weeks as we covered the state, “Solar has just begun here and there is no end to opportunity!
From the stately Redwoods of northern California, the hipster vibe of San Francisco, the wilds of Yosemite, to the bustle of Los Angeles and the laid back cool of San Diego, solar is in evidence, but in most places it is barely penetrating the scene.
PV lust nearly made me drool as I drove through vast, treeless California neighborhoods where barely 1-2% of the ranch houses had solar. Parking lots occasionally were shaded by an array – the theater in Bakersfield and a few lucky rows of cars in the desert area Walmart north of LA on I-15 – but most lots were untouched leaving millions of cars roasting in the mid-afternoon sun.
Sure, we passed a utility scale solar array near the agricultural center of Vasalia in the valley west of Sequoia National Park and another in the desert east of San Diego, but most land was virgin.
Many think of the coast when they think of California, but in reality California is a vast wilderness of desert, forest, and mountain complimented by a couple of extremely verdant agricultural valleys and a densely populated southern coastal region. The proximity of the southern California population to the desert that bounds the area on the east sets us a perfect opportunity for production from the desert to be piped to the coast and the preferred ranch style home in treeless neighborhoods lends itself to a solar explosion. Nevertheless, there are challenges hindering this golden land from reaping a full harvest from the sun. Here are a few that need to be overcome.
The first is solar’s intermittency: Supplying a modern population is a complex dance that cannot always be governed by formula or algorithm. In energy terms that means that power must be available when demanded by the whims of an ever changing, growing, and evolving customer base. Three solutions represent pieces of this dilemma.
First – with education and practice we can achieve a shift in demand from hours outside of the scope of solar’s ability to supply. Experiments across the country with peak events and peak charges have shifted habits and resulted in smarter technology that can kick on and off energy suckers at key times. This only improves things marginally, but it begins to shift the balance and move us in the right direction.
Second – a sophisticated and rigorous application of available battery technology in new building standards. While installing solar is often more efficient in large batches like utility scale arrays in the dessert, demand response can be very efficient scaled to the end user. For the average Californian new build, adding a 10-20 year lithium iron demand response battery system allowing the home to soak up extra energy from the grid when it is sun-powered and releasing it after hours or during demand spikes would result in a net increase to the home price of 2-3% while providing a significant peak savings if rates were adjusted to reflect the bell curve of a technology like solar.
Third – complimenting solar with other renewable technologies less dependent on the sun being up. Wind, while not utterly dependent, can function across a wider spread of hours. Better designs that are lower to the ground and less impacting on the visual landscape are now in production and should increase the favor of this modern application of an ancient technology. Landfill generation, bio-mass, and other newer technologies are emerging, but we must crush the anti-incentive mentality that forgets that all of the forms of power generation we enjoy today were once incentivized to bring them to commercialization. This perspective is not really anti-incentive, it is actually anti-innovation and anti competition.
The second challenge is the disconnect between current building standards and technologies like solar. New build after new build rises from the dirt every day in places like California – but 99% of them ignore simple practices that, for pennies now, would save future dollars by properly preparing a home to receive solar. Applying roofing technologies that work well with solar or embedding future solar flashings in the original install of the roof would not perceptively change the cost of a new home, but would save thousands later when solar was installed. Even better – why not require that new homes embed energy generation and management. In over 80% of situations the additional cost in the mortgage would be offset by the savings in the monthly energy costs.
As a second generation contractor, I can attest to the reluctance of the trades to embrace change. It takes us a while to get our crews doing things right and it can be irritating to revamp a process or do something different once you have a way to do it that is swift and efficient. Unfortunately this attitude means that change must often be driven by code requirement rather than by best practices embraced without government demands.
I would venture that a well-built home embracing both efficiency and energy generation always results in a net savings to both the homeowner and the environment in the long term (10 years and longer). Wouldn’t it make sense to require structures with more than a 10 year life to be build according to standards that are better in the long haul?
A third challenge preventing solar from starring in the energy market is poor financing models. Despite the fact that solar is a proven and reliable technology with over 50 years of deep use in technologies demanding ultimate reliability (think spacecraft and satellites), banks still charge high interest rates and demand payment terms more in line with disposable items like automobiles. The truth is – every house lender will finance a common asphalt shingle roof into a 30 year home loan knowing full well that that roof will need to be fully replaced in 20 years. Why hesitate to finance a solar array into the same spread at the same interest rates when the array will still be producing after 50 years with less maintenance than any roof ever demanded?
As long as solar must be financed in a special category it will remain outside the mainstream and require a bit of a pioneering spirit or a deep pocket to get it done. While those members of our society are appreciated – they represent 2-3% of the whole at best. We need to get technologies like solar to the middle and lower classes where they can do the most good.
California was much more to me than the sum of its solar! I could wax poetic describing the exhilaration of breathing in salt air while sailing the San Diego Bay or conveying the awe and wonder at standing at the base of a majestic redwood who has lived through the rise of the ancient Roman empire to witness the modern marvels of Silicon Valley. These treasures will be better preserved if we learn to apply the principles of conservation to our daily lives – they cannot last if applied only in the occasional context of a remote wilderness.
Democratizing solar and complimenting efficiency technology is one available way we can drive a mindset of conservation that touches and influences us daily. I cannot but hope that a sustainable populace would envision and preserve greater areas of our world for the enjoyment of future generations.
PV lust nearly made me drool as I drove through vast, treeless California neighborhoods where barely 1-2% of the ranch houses had solar. Parking lots occasionally were shaded by an array – the theater in Bakersfield and a few lucky rows of cars in the desert area Walmart north of LA on I-15 – but most lots were untouched leaving millions of cars roasting in the mid-afternoon sun.
Sure, we passed a utility scale solar array near the agricultural center of Vasalia in the valley west of Sequoia National Park and another in the desert east of San Diego, but most land was virgin.
Many think of the coast when they think of California, but in reality California is a vast wilderness of desert, forest, and mountain complimented by a couple of extremely verdant agricultural valleys and a densely populated southern coastal region. The proximity of the southern California population to the desert that bounds the area on the east sets us a perfect opportunity for production from the desert to be piped to the coast and the preferred ranch style home in treeless neighborhoods lends itself to a solar explosion. Nevertheless, there are challenges hindering this golden land from reaping a full harvest from the sun. Here are a few that need to be overcome.
The first is solar’s intermittency: Supplying a modern population is a complex dance that cannot always be governed by formula or algorithm. In energy terms that means that power must be available when demanded by the whims of an ever changing, growing, and evolving customer base. Three solutions represent pieces of this dilemma.
First – with education and practice we can achieve a shift in demand from hours outside of the scope of solar’s ability to supply. Experiments across the country with peak events and peak charges have shifted habits and resulted in smarter technology that can kick on and off energy suckers at key times. This only improves things marginally, but it begins to shift the balance and move us in the right direction.
Second – a sophisticated and rigorous application of available battery technology in new building standards. While installing solar is often more efficient in large batches like utility scale arrays in the dessert, demand response can be very efficient scaled to the end user. For the average Californian new build, adding a 10-20 year lithium iron demand response battery system allowing the home to soak up extra energy from the grid when it is sun-powered and releasing it after hours or during demand spikes would result in a net increase to the home price of 2-3% while providing a significant peak savings if rates were adjusted to reflect the bell curve of a technology like solar.
Third – complimenting solar with other renewable technologies less dependent on the sun being up. Wind, while not utterly dependent, can function across a wider spread of hours. Better designs that are lower to the ground and less impacting on the visual landscape are now in production and should increase the favor of this modern application of an ancient technology. Landfill generation, bio-mass, and other newer technologies are emerging, but we must crush the anti-incentive mentality that forgets that all of the forms of power generation we enjoy today were once incentivized to bring them to commercialization. This perspective is not really anti-incentive, it is actually anti-innovation and anti competition.
The second challenge is the disconnect between current building standards and technologies like solar. New build after new build rises from the dirt every day in places like California – but 99% of them ignore simple practices that, for pennies now, would save future dollars by properly preparing a home to receive solar. Applying roofing technologies that work well with solar or embedding future solar flashings in the original install of the roof would not perceptively change the cost of a new home, but would save thousands later when solar was installed. Even better – why not require that new homes embed energy generation and management. In over 80% of situations the additional cost in the mortgage would be offset by the savings in the monthly energy costs.
As a second generation contractor, I can attest to the reluctance of the trades to embrace change. It takes us a while to get our crews doing things right and it can be irritating to revamp a process or do something different once you have a way to do it that is swift and efficient. Unfortunately this attitude means that change must often be driven by code requirement rather than by best practices embraced without government demands.
I would venture that a well-built home embracing both efficiency and energy generation always results in a net savings to both the homeowner and the environment in the long term (10 years and longer). Wouldn’t it make sense to require structures with more than a 10 year life to be build according to standards that are better in the long haul?
A third challenge preventing solar from starring in the energy market is poor financing models. Despite the fact that solar is a proven and reliable technology with over 50 years of deep use in technologies demanding ultimate reliability (think spacecraft and satellites), banks still charge high interest rates and demand payment terms more in line with disposable items like automobiles. The truth is – every house lender will finance a common asphalt shingle roof into a 30 year home loan knowing full well that that roof will need to be fully replaced in 20 years. Why hesitate to finance a solar array into the same spread at the same interest rates when the array will still be producing after 50 years with less maintenance than any roof ever demanded?
As long as solar must be financed in a special category it will remain outside the mainstream and require a bit of a pioneering spirit or a deep pocket to get it done. While those members of our society are appreciated – they represent 2-3% of the whole at best. We need to get technologies like solar to the middle and lower classes where they can do the most good.
California was much more to me than the sum of its solar! I could wax poetic describing the exhilaration of breathing in salt air while sailing the San Diego Bay or conveying the awe and wonder at standing at the base of a majestic redwood who has lived through the rise of the ancient Roman empire to witness the modern marvels of Silicon Valley. These treasures will be better preserved if we learn to apply the principles of conservation to our daily lives – they cannot last if applied only in the occasional context of a remote wilderness.
Democratizing solar and complimenting efficiency technology is one available way we can drive a mindset of conservation that touches and influences us daily. I cannot but hope that a sustainable populace would envision and preserve greater areas of our world for the enjoyment of future generations.
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