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Sun Volt

Sun Volt Solar

earth, the final frontier

Clean Energy, Clean Environment

We are at a cross roads in human history, we can choose to continue on as we have been, or we can make a change to improve our future and quite possibly the future for several generations to come. We are here to promote energy independence, a better environment, a secure future and a higher return on investment for your hard earned dollar. It is what I believe in, it is why I am in the solar business.

Green jobs effort destined for wretched failure

31 Aug 10 | General

At least, according to one conservative talk radio host.  Yesterday, I was tuning around on the radio when I heard an interesting conversation.  The talk show host, we’ll just call him Denis, because, that is his name, and a caller were lamenting the about the green jobs effort.  The gist of the conversation was this; in ten years, nobody will remember the so called green jobs and it is a monumental waste of time and money.  They then went on to compare it to things like New Coke, Clear Coke, etc.

The specific reason for failure:  Re-hiring laid off workers.  This is where it gets interesting.  It seems that laid off workers are some combination of lazy, feckless and inept persons.  That is why they were laid off in the first place.  Any worker that was worth his/her salt would still be employed, regardless of the economy.

Ahh, so that’s it.  It has nothing to do with the technology, but rather the people who work in the green economy.

This is what I like to call “The great American disconnect,” where pundits of all stripes make broad general statements that they are little qualified to make; having no background, education, experience or training in the subject about which they are proclaiming.  Denis Miller is a stand up comedian, for God’s sake.  He was a journalism major.  What practical knowledge does he have of the economy, business, employment, renewable energy, green technology,  or really anything at all.

According to Webster’s Dictionary, a pundit is one who gives authoritative opinions on matters, usually through the mass media.  Sadly, I doubt Denis Miller has even an inkling of the electrical generation and distribution grid.  The very same system that allows him to sit in an air conditioned studio behind a microphone making such statements, which are then relayed across the country via satellite and broadcast out on any number of AM radio stations.  I doubt he knows that the electrical power generation system is about 29% efficient.  I further doubt that he cares much at all about energy independence, self reliance, pollution reduction or any other side benefit of green technology.  It is easier to cast dispersions on things not understood, than to go about learning truths, some of them painful, for long held beliefs.

I know several hard working people who were laid off, who would like nothing better than to gain meaningful employment and contribute to society again.  Sadly, in this time of record corporate profits, companies would rather sit on their hands than commit to re-hiring workers.  More sadly still, the highly partisan congress fiddles while main street burns.

The old system is being chipped away.  When it comes to green technology and renewable energy; either lead, follow, or get out of the way.

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31 Aug 10 | General | Comments (0)

Renewable Energy Storage, pumped hydro electric systems

23 Aug 10 | General, Technology

One of the issues with renewable energy, as opposed to fossil fuel based energy, is energy storage.  The sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t alway blow.  On any given day, solar and wind output can vary by large percentages.  With large grid interconnected generating systems, this can lead to large swings in output which need to be smoothed out by some type of conventional generating system.  In peak demand situations, it can lead to serious shortfalls in the electricity supply which need to be acted on quickly, or else a blackout will ensue.

On a small scale stand alone systems, liquid electrolite batteries are an acceptable solution.  A lead acid battery bank can store excess electricity generated by a wind or PV system for when it is needed.  The battery bank can be sized for known weather conditions to meet minimum autonomy requirements.  That is a pretty well known formula.

On a larger scale, battery banks are not practical in either expense or physical size considerations.  Imagine the size of the battery bank required to run New York City during a four day blizzard.

In a large scale setting, some other energy storage device is needed.  A hydro electric plant and can be designed to come on line quickly and run on a sliding output scale while depleting it’s reservoir up to 60%.  During peak solar and wind production times, when both of those systems are generating excess energy, that energy can be used to turn pump motors to fill up the reservoir.   When there are peak demand periods, the water will be discharged though generating turbines.   As the water level decreases, the amount of kinetic energy output also decreases, at some point, the turbine attached to the energy system will no longer function.  Since neither matter nor energy can be destroyed, the potential energy is equal to the height of the retaining dam, the volume of flow and the efficiency of the generators and pump motors.

Hydro electric does have some environmental aspects.  Creating dams and reservoirs floods previously ruins habitat for people and animals.  Frequently draining the reservoir down to 40% levels would have serious adverse effects on any marine life contained in it.  It would also be expensive to construct.  On the other side, using nuclear or fossil fuel baseline generation creates environmental impacts from mining, processing, shipping, storage and consumption.  The bottom line is, if we want to continue with our modern society, then choices (compromises) need to be made.

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23 Aug 10 | General, Technology | Comment (1)

Energy Storage

17 Feb 10 | General

One of the main problems with solar power is that of storing energy for non-solar periods.  On any given point on earth, there are an average of 12 hours of sunlight per day over the course of a year.  Unfortunately, it is the times when the sun is not shining that we need it’s power the most.

With grid connected systems, during sunny periods, excess power is dumped into the grid, for a credit to be used later.  The problem with this approach is first, the grid has to be present.  If the electric utility is out, then no power is being generated by the solar array.  In most parts of the US, at least right now, this happens only occasionally, so it is not a big concern.  The second consideration is with fossil fuel based grid generation, there is something called the spinning reserve.  That is to say, a generator running at one half it’s rated capacity has the other half in reserve.  With any fossil fuel based generator, as the output from the generator drops, the efficiency drops as well.  Therefore, saving 1 kWh of electricity does not automatically correspond to a 3,412 BTU reduction in fuel input (or 5,732 BTU if considering 32% grid efficiency).  It would be some fraction of that, which is one of the reasons why renewable energy is such an up hill battle.

The real answer is better batteries.  The lead acid battery technology we are currently using has not been improved in over 100 years.  There have been some strides with things like laptop batteries and cell phone batteries, but those are relatively small.  The main issue is power density, e.g. very heavy large batteries storing not enough electrons.  In order for renewable energy to really be meaningful, better energy storage needs to be developed.  This would also help out things like plug in electric vehicles (PEV).

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is on it.  They are working on batteries for vehicles, but by extension, that technology could be applied to renewable energy as well.  This is one of the critical steps in solar development.  You can keep up on developments by following Venkat Srinivasan’s blog, This week in Batteries. He explains things much better than I ever could.

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17 Feb 10 | General | Comments (0)

Google searchs show what the public is thinking about Solar

18 Jan 10 | General

The search engine known as Google has a handy auto complete function. If you start to type in a phrase, it tries to guess what you are looking for and complete the phrase before you can, thus making your searches easier, at least in theory. The auto complete part of the phrase is based on what people have searched for in the past.

With all of that in mind, I typed: “Why is solar…”  In the search box and let the auto complete fill out the rest.  This is the response:

why is solar...

It is Martin Luther King Jr. day, which explains the graphic at the top of the search results.  It is heartening to see that people are looking into reasons why solar is important or good.  I’d expect result #4, “Why is solar so energy expensive?” to be number one primarily because it is a question that is asked at least once on every sales call.

I believe that the general public is beginning to catch on in that most searches are looking for positive aspects of solar energy.  There is still a long way to go until the preception of solar moves from “alternative energy” to “main stream energy”  source.

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18 Jan 10 | General | Comments (0)

The role of utility companies in a green economy

16 Aug 09 | Commentary, General, Solar Electric

I have been watching with interest the ongoing petition by our local utility company, Central Hudson Gas and Electric for rate increases.  This is the second request in as many years.

They have been not making as much money as in previous years.  Meanwhile, Xcel Energy has come right out and said it:  Customers who have PV panels installed are getting a free ride.  They would like to charge those customers for energy that they might use, which in the face of things sounds a little off to me.

So what is the role of a utility company for those customers who choose to install renewable energy systems?  Are they a giant battery, ready to give and receive power at the whim of a customer?  Can they charge for goods and services that might or might not be used?

This leads to several questions about the way we distribute electrical power in this country.  The customer who invests thousands of dollars to generate a portion of his own power should not be penalized because he doesn’t use utility company power.  On the other hand, utility companies incur significant expenses maintaining the distribution grid.

Then there are the power generators supplying the grid.  Those companies have to anticipate load demand and start or stop entire generating facilities to meet that demand.  Power plants cannot be simply switched on and off, it takes a good deal of effort to get some of these facilities on line.

Clearly some type of working arrangement needs to be implimented between small renewable energy generators and traditional utility companies.  Most of the PV systems being installed today, at least in my area, are grid interactive.  Take the grid away and the system shuts down.  Perhaps some small fee for storing the renewable enery system’s excess kWh until they are used would be fair.  After all, if not grid interactive, the other option is to install a battery storage system, which is expensive and maintenance intensive.   The utility grid is not free for the utility company, they should get something for providing a storage service.

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16 Aug 09 | Commentary, General, Solar Electric | Comments (0)

Oil 101

11 Jul 09 | Commentary, Environment, General, General Business

Back in the mid 1980’s, there was a book that was all the rage called The Art of War, which had been written in china around the 6th century BCE by Sun Tzu.  It might aptly be subtitled “Common sense for the military strategist.”  One of the chapters deals with knowing your rival better than you know yourself.

oil-101

To that end I purchased a book called Oil 101.  It is, indeed, a fascinating book that details the complexity of our current energy structure.  The book is an excellent primer on the oil industry, it is well written and easy to understand.  Anyone who drives a car, uses oil to heat their house, uses plastics or any other petroleum product should read this book.  That is to say, everybody should read this book.

What strikes me is how much effort is put into exploration, extraction, refining and shipping.  We take all of this for granted in this country, but any failure in any one of those steps would create a disaster of epic proportions.  Think Hurricane Katrina for the whole county.  The fact that so much of this energy depends on technology, specialized methods, and huge capital outlays should be at least slightly alarming.  That, and our entire economy is build on the availability of cheap energy.  As we have just seen, economic down turns can really put a damper on large cumbersome corporate operations.

It may seem natural to be angry at the oil companies when gas is $4.25 a gallon and electricity is $.20 a kWh.  However, when I read about all of the work and investment these companies have to make, all of the variables from bad weather to bad governments they have to deal with, it also makes me respect the oil companies for all that they do.

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11 Jul 09 | Commentary, Environment, General, General Business | Comments (0)

Typical day for a solar installer

06 Mar 09 | General

For those who might be interested in a solar job, I thought I would write down some of the things I do on an average day.  A solar installer is a specialty contractor, as such, we behave much like other contractors.

For me, the day starts right after I finish my shower, around 6 am.  I turn on the laptop and check my e-mail.  As the business owner, it is important that I keep abreast of events like equipment shipments, appointments, work schedules and so on.  All of that is organized on line through iGoogle. It makes like much easier to keep track of.

After I look at my appointments, I get dressed, shave and head out into the big world.  I look at my appointments before I get dressed so I know the appropriate attire.  Placing solar collectors on a roof, Carharts and steel toed work boots.  Meeting somebody for a sales presentation, a nice shirt and kakis.

On my way to the “office” I pick up a cup of coffee.  I only started drinking this stuff about 4 years ago when I turned 40.  I find the day starts better when I have a medium with milk and 1 sugar.

Yesterday, the job involved finishing a warranty repair on a SDHW system.   Seems one of the collectors sprung a leak in the manifold header.  We had to remove it from the roof, bring it back to the shop, braze new parts in, cart it back to the work site, place it back on the roof, then pressure test and refill the system.

I also installed a flow balancing valve in the attic, which involved crawling over pipes and insulation, cutting 3/4 soft copper tubing, soldering in two 1/4 turn ball valves, all the while being careful not to set the very old dry wood or attic insulation on fire with the torch.  I have a hard rule that fire extingushers are on hand and ready to be used whenever torches are lit.  Very important not to burn the customer’s building down as that type of activity will give a company a bad reputation.

I also took the time to explain to the customer what happened, what was done to fix it and what they should to if it happens again.

Once the system was up and running, a grabbed a bite to eat for lunch.  I came back and watched it run for a little longer then labeled all of the valves and tanks, and cleaned up the floor in the mechanical room.

On the drive home, I returned a few calls on the cellphone.  Once home (the other “office”), I checked and answered e-mail again.  Set up my schedule for tomorrow, typed up two proposals for photovoltaic systems, printed out receipts for this years tax filing, and read a few trade news items on line.

In between all that, I had dinner, gave my kids a bath and did their night time routine (read books with my son, tell stories to my daughter), watched a little news, paying close attention to the weather forcast.

I switched off the laptop at about 9:30 pm.

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06 Mar 09 | General | Comments (0)

Research&Development of Solar Selective Coatings Pays Off

07 Nov 08 | General, Solar Electric

From just up the road a short distance, researchers at RPI (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) have discovered a process that greatly increases the absorption of sunlight by photovoltaic panels and allows those panels to use the entire solar spectrum from nearly any incident angle.

“To get maximum efficiency when converting solar power into electricity, you want a solar panel that can absorb nearly every single photon of light, regardless of the sun’s position in the sky,” said Shawn-Yu Lin, professor of physics at Rensselaer and a member of the university’s Future Chips Constellation, who led the research project. “Our new antireflective coating makes this possible.”

It is possible by using nano technology to create seven layers nano rods.  Each layer is designed to transmit a specific wave length (color) of light.  The result is an absorption efficiency of greater than 96%.  This is indeed great news for PV cell producers, as the current light absorption efficiency is about 67 percent for the typical PV panel.

The seven layers, each with a height of 50 nanometers to 100 nanometers, are made up of silicon dioxide and titanium dioxide nanorods positioned at an oblique angle – each layer looks and functions similar to a dense forest where sunlight is ‘captured’ between the trees.

The major implication for solar manufactures is smaller more powerful PV cells can be produced with less raw material.  Is this the breakthrough the solar industry has been waiting for?  Maybe.  In any case, it certainly seems like a step in the right direction.

The one problem I see with all of this is the efficiency of the photovoltaic cell itself.  A PV cell is essentially a large exposed transistor.  When a photon strikes a P-N junction, one of four things happens; it bounces off, it passes through to the other side, it gets converted to heat, or it knocks an electron free.  Of course the first situation is mostly cured by the selective coating.  The last situation is the desired outcome.  Conversion to heat remains a problem.

Currently manufactured PV cell technology has roughly a 15% efficiency from insolation rate to electricity production.  As we learned above, some of this efficiency loss is due to reflection of light from the surface of the PV cell.  A comparison of the total light reaching the PN junction (67% of the available sunlight) compared to the output of the PV cell, shows that the actual conversion efficiency of the PN junction is about 22%.  The remainder either passes through the PV cell substrate or generates heat.  The selective coating applied to a PV cell will increase the heat in the PN juction by 25-30%.

Heat is a major problem to semiconductors.  Heat reduces efficiency and lifespan of a traditional silicone based PV cell.  The computer industry has gone to great lengths to improve the heat tolerances of the semiconductors used in computer chips, therefore, this is not an insurmountable problem.  It does, however, need to be addressed in cells that will use the selective coating developed at RPI.

It will likely take several years for this technology to make it onto the general market.  In the mean time, every watt of installed PV is one less watt generated by fossil fuels.

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07 Nov 08 | General, Solar Electric | Comments (0)

Yahoo Groups

14 Mar 08 | General

Several months ago, I was messing around on Yahoo! and found that there were several groups relating to solar energy, wind energy and so on. These groups post messages and exchange e-mails on ideas, questions, projects and the like. For someone who is just getting interested in solar energy, or someone looking to “Do it themselves” they are an excellent way to learn from people who are doing though open information sharing.

The Yahoo! groups that I belong to are:

  1. awea-wind-home. American Wind Energy Association, a great place to learn about wind power from the pros
  2. axialflux. This group is dedicated to making small axial flux wind turbines and using them. Good if you want to learn how to make your own well designed wind mill
  3. Biodiesel. Self explanatory
  4. microhydro. For those interested in small hydro electric generation projects
  5. homeenergysolutions. A good resource for renewable energy around the house, plus great ways to save energy by making conventional systems more efficient.
  6. SolarHeat. Solar thermal people talk about their heating projects.

There where also numerous PV groups, but I didn’t join any because it seemed like they were discussing old news.
One caveat, not everything that is published there is correct or the best was to do things. I have found that there are a few people that are attempting to sell snake oil. There are also a few well meaning people who don’t know what they are talking about. Generally speaking, however, the majority of contributors do know what they are talking about and are a valuable resource for somebody who want to do it themselves.

14 Mar 08 | General | Comments (0)

Photovoltaic manufacturing starts in Kingston, NY

26 Feb 08 | General

More good news on the local renewable energy manufacturing front. From Mid Hudson News Network:

A projected 400 jobs could be coming to Ulster County within five years with the signing of Prism Solar Technologies to the Solar Energy Consortium.

For everyone who believes that the way forward is to build better renewable energy systems, this is a very good thing. From their web site:

Prism Solar manufactures a new type of photovoltaic module that uses transparent holographic optical elements in its design. This innovative, patented holographic technology, collects and spectrally selects useful wavelengths from the sun and focuses them onto the cell to create electricity.

They look like this:

holographic optical photovoltaic panel

Damn, now you have to admit, that is cool. I’d put a big array of those on a couple of tracking mounts in my front yard and call it “Performance Art.” The basic explanation of how they work and why they are better than plain old ordinary PV panels is:

(By) increasing the optical efficiency increases the structures ability to trap more of the light by better controlling the angles that the light is diffracted within the laminate. Through this process, Prism Solar can tap the sunlight at its most advantageous point in the spectrum.

This allows for several innovations:

  1. Lower cost – uses fewer cells per watt of power.
  2. Reduces the amount of silicon required up to 85%.
  3. Transparent properties, can be used as skin on large skyscrapers without completely blocking light into building.
  4. Intelligent Passive Solar Concentrator (IPSC), uses both sides of PV cell.

More information is available on Prism Solar Technology Page.

When will this start happening? Soon. Soon…

They will start production soon at their current location at the Center for Innovation on Grant Avenue in the Town of Ulster. Plans are to eventually move to Tech City. Prism Solar CEO Rick Lewandoski said production will begin as soon as machinery is installed, and that could be within just a few weeks.

Lewandowski said positions from secretaries to engineers and scientists are already in the application process, and that employment figures in the county have already been affected by the joint venture.

Courtesy of Mid Hudson News Network.

Yes, I’ll take more technology, please.

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26 Feb 08 | General | Comments (3)
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