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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.

Let's just give up…

01 Nov 07 | Commentary

I have been involved in a rather lengthy discussion on my other blog about Small Wind Turbines.  Basically, I posted about the new zoning ordinance being debated in my town.  The crux is the new zoning ordinance proposes to only allow small wind turbines on lots that are 5 acres or greater.  I feel this is much to restrictive for the average homeowner, most of whom reside on a 1-2 acre lot.

A commenter called to question my use of pictures (one picture of a wind turbine, the other of a coal fired power plant).  Basically she (or he) stated that the pictures where ridiculous and not a fair comparison.  Amongst all this, the commenter stated:

Your example of 20% residential “penetration” of wind (plus solar, plus inverters and banks of batteries) is a matter of only 4-5% of total electricity use. Still just camping. And the coal (or nuclear, or big hydro) plant’s still there.

Okay, small wind power will never provide all the electricity we need.  Neither will solar, so lets just give up.  The hell with it, why even bother.

My reply is:

A 4-5 percent reduction is a good start. A small amount of a huge quantity is still a very large number…

I think that people need to realize that we are headed for a lot of trouble.  There are the environmental issues; global warming, pollution, extraction etc.  Then there are supply problems, finite resources being consumed at alarming rates.

Eventually (if we haven’t already) we will hit peak oil production.  As the Hubbert graph shows, things go downhill from there.  Natural gas supplies will also run out, this will be a huge hit on the agricultural sector as natural gas supplies the ammonia for fertilizers needed to grow all the food that we eat.  Coal is abundant and cheap but is a very dirty fuel source, dumping mercury, uranium, thorium, sulfates and nitrates into the air, not to mention the ever present CO2.

The anti-environmentalist all jump up and down and say the change in climate has nothing to do with human activity, then offer some theory on why this is.  Fine.  Even so, what does it hurt to install solar panels, or a small wind turbine?  By installing this equipment, does it hurt anyone?  Does it damage anything?

So let it be, you go your way and I’ll go mine.  (In the long run, I’ll bet I am right, though).

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01 Nov 07 | Commentary | Comments (0)

Solar DHW on my own house

14 Oct 07 | Solar Hot Water

Before I had the idea to get into the solar business, I always wanted to put some sort of renewable energy system on my house. First I thought of a wind generator as we have a lot of wind around my house. The problem is that there are also a lot of tall trees. For a wind generator to work properly, it needs to be at least 30 feet above any objects within 300 feet. I would need a 120 foot tower to meet this requirement, which is very expensive and not likely to win any friends around the neighborhood.

Then I looked into photovoltiacs, which are still an option. Before installing a photovoltiac system however, I wanted to reduce our electric use as much as possible. We heat our water with electric. What better way to reduce electricity use than a solar thermal system. I did quite a bit of research and found the following:

  1. Solar thermal systems are more efficient than photovoltiacs. For the same area about three times the energy can be extracted.
  2. Solar thermal is less expensive than photovoltiacs.
  3. Solar thermal has a shorter payback period, depending on the federal and state incentives, a simple payback period of between 2 to 4 years, versus about 10 years for photovoltiacs.
  4. Solar thermal works well in this climate, provided adequate freeze protection is built into the system.
  5. Solar thermal is slightly harder to install.

Last summer I set out to install my solar thermal system, I purchased the parts individually on line and installed them myself. It was a fun project and works very well, so I am happy with it. It is the basic system outlined on the “How Solar Works” page.

Solar domestic hot water system

Next year I will likely to 2 KW of photovoltiacs on tracking mounts. It is important that I believe in the technology that I am trying to sell and install on other people’s houses. There is no better way to demonstrate that than to install and use it myself.

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14 Oct 07 | Solar Hot Water | Comments (0)