Smart Grid: It Isn’t As Simple As You Think

By now, most of us know that the demand for solar continued to rise during the recession. Demand continues to grow throughout the world. A couple of days ago, the SEIA published The US Solar Industry Year in Review 2009. The opening sentence of the report stated: ”Despite the Great Recession of 2009, the U.S. solar energy industry grew— both in new installations and employment.” Reuters reported that the “industry surged on incentives.” In February, Todd Woody provided details of how California and New York utilities are playing a key role in solar growth in the New York Times Green Inc. blog. “Over the past few weeks, some 1,300 megawatts’ worth of distributed solar deals and initiatives have been announced or approved. At peak output, that is the equivalent of a big nuclear power plant” wrote Woody. Yes, it’s only one big nuclear power plant, certainly not “As Big As Coal” which needs to be the rallying cry of the Solar Revolution, but, nonetheless, in the midst of the financial meltdown, it’s something.

So, OK, we are moving in the right direction over the last several weeks…but we’ve got a long way to go. There is so much do to on so many levels. As much credit as some will give to the utilities, the truth remains that the Solar Revolution is a grassroots cause. The efforts of the cause as a whole depend on each and every one of us doing what we can to educate and promote the beneits…even the imperitive…of creating solar As Big As Oil. We cannot settle for less. Along these lines, in order to be most effective, we’ve all got to understand the magnatude of unresolved issues that stand in the way of our goal.

In the Solar Industry Magazine (April 2010, Volume 3, Number 3~it is only available via “deadtree media”) that I recently receved, Michael Coddington, Kate Anderson and Benjamin Kropski did a great job of summarizing a New York City case study assessing grid-level effects of distributed photovoltaics. The article identifies many of the technical issues that stand in the way of rapidly connecting distributive PV to the utility networks. On the front page of the same Solar Industry issue, Bob Powell presents a look at utility-scale financing components. I highly recommend these two front page articles. The NYC Study article describes that utilities use two types of electrical distribution systems. By far the most common is these is the simpler radial system, which is designed for electricity to go just one-way. In such a distribution system, a lot of hardware and software is devoted to detecting and protecting against “reverse power flow,” which is “indicative of an upstream supply feeder fault.” Needless to say, this is not good from a net metering and feed-in-tariff point-of-view. The article also discusses the problems caused by the highly variable nature of solar energy supply and the importance of the development of solutions that will make this source of energy more reliable (such as battery technology or eventually a national or worldwide smartgrid). The front page companion piece reminds us that regulators and legistlators are driving the utilities to do the right thng, “either through mandates such as enacted renewable portfolio standards (RPS)…or via less formal expectations that a utility has in response to climate change.” Failure to meet RPS standards will hit the utilities where it hurts them most: earnings. The challenge for the utility becomes how to finance all the change required to achieve the RPS. There is so much great information is these two Solar Industry Magazine articles.

There was also a separate blog by Tom Raftery in the greenmonk blog. First, I want to say, that this blog is one great example of what we each can do to do our part for the Solar Revolution. Tom’s catchy sub-heading says “green from the bottom up; sustainable from the top down.” On April 16, Tom writes about “Are Utility Companies Ready for Full Smart Grids?” Tom takes a look at the IT angle to the new way of doing business. He also has a video interviw with Chris King, the Chief Regulatory Officer of eMeter. Tom writes that he commonly asks “What is a Smart Grid? Almost all the interviewees talk about an infrastructure capable of full end-to-end, two-way communications. That is, communication from utilities down to the appliance level in-home, and from appliances back up to utilities.” Tom probes the challenges that smart grid poses to IT, appliance development and, probably most importantly, consumer education.

So, with this kind of perspective, how are we doing so far with our Big as Oil goal? Well, in a recent Greentechmedia research article titled “Can the U.S. or California Institute a Feed-In Tariff?” Eric Wesoff writes that the RPS in California has failed. “And the U.S. solar market remains thwarted by tight financing, fragmented policies, and spotty permitting, as well as restrictive access to public lands.  Arguably, policy trumps technology in matters of energy, and the U.S. has a long way to go in developing a favorable energy and solar policy.” Wescoff’s article covers an April 14 presentation made by Ted Ko of the FIT Coalition. “California’s renewable energy piece was 14 percent of the energy mix in 2003,” cited Ko in his speech to the Silicon Valley Photovoltaics Society, ”and actually dropped down to 13 percent in 2008.  Further, he asserts that there is little chance that will California achieve its goal of 20 percent in 2010 and 33 percent in 2020.”

The answer, according to Ko, is getting a feed-in tariff imposed in California and in the U.S.  Ko defined the feed-in tariff as a predefined, pre-approved PPA between renewable energy generators and utilities.  He called it “the most effective policy in the world for getting cost-effective renewable energy online. It’s simple, fair and effective.”

As they say, “the Devil’s in the details.” There are so many details to research and understand. We need to continue to feed one another with newly developing information and ideas. Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin are great communication tools for this. So are invididual, company and public blogs. Write your own; subscribe to this one and others. WholeSolar will be starting a blog list. Let’s all share what we’re discovering and believing. Find a solar or renewable energy meetup group in your area. If you can’t find one, start one. Please be a part of Vote Solar and other similar organizations, where our numbers create “power to change power.” And please encourage other to join you in signing the Solar Bill of Rights. Most importantly, take action (if you have not yet) and increase your action (if you have).

Duke Energy Model: It Makes Too Much Sense

We just got back from an RFP Conference with Southern California Edison, followed by the InterSolar trade show. Aside from keeping us busy, the two events were thought-provoking.

At the SCE RFP Conference, I learned a lot about the limitations that current transmission capacity has on expanding solar and wind power. SCE intends to purchase 250MW of renewable energy from private sources under PPA arrangements. one of the major criteria in awarding contracts will be interconnectivity. Much of their power grid is pretty close to being maximized. At the Intersolar show, we saw many, many German, Spain and China companies who are highly motivated to break into the U.S. solar market. One exhibitor had taped a handwritten sign that said “Solar Panels $1.50/Wp.” Although the name of the exhibitor did not sound like that of a solar company, it was an example of how competitive things are getting for the “have nots” in the industry.

All of this got me to thinking about the pilot rooftop program that Duke Energy announced several weeks ago, where they plan to rent rooftops of their customers and install PV solar modules, thereby creating a distributive solar energy capability. There are other utilities around the country who have announced similar programs. It makes a lot of sense. And while they’re at it, why not take advantage of potential new entrants into the U.S. market, thereby keeping the cost down?

There are very good companies, such as CEEG and Best Solar, offering top quality solar panels, offering insured warranties, who would make compelling bids to get their panels on the Duke Energy or other utility rooftops. And there are companies like WholeSolar, who could facilitate these types of deals and help to select qualified installers at the best prices to do the installations.

How Do We Change the Way the Culture Thinks of Solar Power?

Jeff is the CEO of groSolar, one of the fastest growing solar companies in America. He has put together a great team of professionals and recently acquired Borrego Solar’s residential operations. In addition to that, Jeff is one of the good guys in the industry. His point-of-view is to be much valued, as he is on the cutting edge of what’s happening in the industry. So when Jeff speaks, I listen. “Changing the Culture” is a pretty big order. How do we do that? What exactly is involved? Let’s try to break it down.

Well, to start with, the regular Joe or Jane on the street just isn’t thinking about energy. They aren’t thinking a whole lot about their future, or the future of their kids. But let’s keep the discussion just about Joe or Jane thinking about there own future. As I mentioned in my earlier blog, three years ago, I was right there with them. Fortunately for me, I got a wake-up call and jumped into action. So how do we wake up Joe and Jane? What does it take to make a cultural change? As Jeff stated, what is needed is “a concerted effort.” We’ve got to change “people’s thoughts on what is valuable.” Many years ago I heard Buckminster Fuller recommend that to bring about change it needed to be an “Each on, teach one” proposition. Hopefully, we can do this by many of us blogging and tweeting. I’m always in search of other blogs that further this cause and I have listed the ones I’ve found elsewhere on this page. Solar Fred has been blogging about how much sense it makes and how easy it is to “go solar.” He has a passion to which I can relate, he’s not on anyone’s payroll and integrity is just as important to him as going solar is. If you know some good blog sites, please shoot me an email at roy@whole-solar.com

Financing needs to be more readily available and easier to access. This is an area that holds great interest for me. I believe there are great investor opportunities to be had in solar in the down-market and I’m personally trying to put together some ideas that will be good to help change the culture. The 1BOG model of bringing community activism into the process to converting community energy to solar at a big purchase discount is definitely going to help change the culture in the communities they reach. The Berkeley First is another idea whose time has come, and more programs along these lines will advance the change in how we think of solar. The Duke Energy model of renting rooftops and installing solar panels has me scratching my head wondering why there are not more utilities following this course. I believe there are people like Mary Shields, and her new company UR Solar Power, who are focused on pushing the possibilities in this arena. All of these separate initiatives will undoubtedly make contributions to the change that is needed…and inevitable.

But for us, right on, let’s stay with the idea of “Each one, Teach on” or as I said in my last blog, “pass it on.” In the process, Joe and Jane will become more fully informed.