OAKLAND, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Solar energy is coming to Denver and Boulder in a whole new way for homeowners looking to save money on their electricity bills. Today, getting a solar power system for the home is just about as easy as purchasing a book on Amazon, and is more affordable than ever before. Sungevity, the California-based company that’s behind the national campaign to get solar on the White House, has “virtually” arrived in Denver and Boulder to roll-out its one-of-a-kind online solar home solution.  

In three easy steps, homeowners can log onto Sungevity.com, receive a firm “iQuote,” see what the solar panels will look like on their roof using a mash-up of satellite and aerial imagery, sign a contract using electronic signatures and schedule an installation – all paid for with a no-money-down lease.

By using solar energy, Sungevity estimates that most homeowners can save 15 percent off their electricity bills from day one and have a new residential solar panel system on their roofs, giving owners the satisfaction of using clean energy. Sungevity pioneered the ability to accurately engineer and design a solar system for the home without making a site visit. The Sungevity approach uses satellite and aerial photos to size and design the solar system within 24 hours. Solar consultants from Sungevity are available to speak to potential customers from 9 a.m. - 9 p.m., seven days a week, toll-free at 866.SUN4ALL. Finally, local contractors that Sungevity has partnered with then perform the installation.

“We believe that homeowners in Colorado will enjoy the benefits of ‘going solar’ at home,” said Neal Lurie, Director of the Colorado Solar Energy Industries Association. “Coloradans are savvy when it comes to solar, and through the trend of democratizing solar energy, we welcome this helpful service that will make it easy for homeowners to take that next step.”

“The time is right to bring the simple, pain-free approach to getting a solar solution for your home to the Denver and Boulder areas,” said Sungevity Founder, Danny Kennedy. “The online approach is an ideal way for people who are thinking about – but never wanted to be hassled with – the planning of a solar home solution. Sungevity makes it as easy as a click-of-the-mouse to secure the best lease for solar energy in the market.”

Sungevity processes all the paperwork and takes all the hassle out of going solar, with an operating lease that includes a performance guarantee for the system plus complete maintenance including cleaning and insurance. Moreover, Sungevity will soon be offering it’s hassle-free iQuote service online in a Spanish-language format designed to meet the needs of Hispanic homeowners in the Denver and Boulder communities.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–REC Solar, Inc., one of the largest installers of government, commercial, utility-scale, and residential solar projects, announced today it was awarded a second contract to design and install a turnkey 2.9 MW solar electric carport-mounted system for the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System (SAVAHCS). The largest of its kind in the U.S., the installation adds to a 302 kW single-axis tracker mounted system that REC Solar is scheduled to complete for SAVAHCS this month.  

After a competitive bidding process, REC Solar was awarded the new project as part of the Veterans Affairs’ commitment to utilizing renewable energy at their facilities. The combined PV systems will significantly offset energy demand from the local utility grid for the more than 900,000 square foot medical center – generating over 5,200,000 kWh annually, the equivalent of the carbon dioxide emissions from consuming over 420,000 gallons of gasoline.

“As a top national solar integrator, we have time and again demonstrated our capacity to accurately design and install custom systems for a wide range of customers,” said Kam Mofid, president of REC Solar. “REC Solar is one of the few solar companies that can meet and exceed the rigorous standards required by our customers. We’re pleased to support our customers in their efforts to advance solar integration across the nation.”

Both projects by REC Solar represent the application of cutting edge system design and engineering. The existing 302 kW single-axis tracker system increases overall production by changing its orientation to directly face sun throughout the day, a first for the VA facilities nationwide. The 2.9 MW carport will cover seven separate parking areas to become, in aggregate, the largest carport solar system in the country.

“Solar power is a natural fit for our home state. This installation offers a tremendous opportunity for Arizona, and acts as a model for the rest of America. It is becoming more and more evident that solar addresses some of the largest challenges we currently face, and SAVAHCS is proactively addressing these issues,” said Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords regarding Southern Arizona VA and REC Solar’s project.

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Yesterday Illinois Governor Pat Quinn signed into law HB 6202, a “Solar Ramp-Up Bill” that would help the state and utilities meet renewable energy requirements established under the renewable portfolio standard. The bill requires 6 percent of utility energy to come from solar power by 2015.

Governor Quinn and state legislators passed this new bill in the hopes of assuring achievement of state renewable energy mandates, while ensuring that a healthy percentage of that energy comes from solar. Utilities must get at least one-half percent of their power from solar by 2012, with that total doubling each year (tripling between 2012 and 2013) until it reaches 6 percent in 2015.

HB 6202 amends the state’s net metering laws, making the date by which Illinois’ two largest utilities, Commonwealth Edison and Ameren, must begin purchasing solar power. The new 2012 deadline is three years earlier than previously required.

Also signed into law yesterday was HB 5429, preventing homeowner’s associations from blocking installation of solar panels on member rooftops.

Governor Quinn expects the two bills to add 5,000 new solar energy jobs in Illinois.

Solar Manufacturing Plant Opens in Rockford, PV Plant To Follow

Yesterday Governor Quinn also attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony at a new 200-acre solar manufacturing plant opening in the city of Rockford. Wanxiang America Corporation begins production at the plant with an initial workforce of only 12 workers, but plans to add over 40 new second- and third-shift workers in the immediate future. Another 300 workers could be hired over the next few years, when the plant reaches full manufacturing capacity.

In a very busy day for Quinn and Illinois solar power, the governor also announced $4 million in stimulus grants to help build a 62-MW solar power plant at the Wanxiang site. It will be the largest PV plant in the Midwest and one of the largest in the nation. The plant will produce enough solar electricity to power over 10,000 homes.

Photo Credit: National Instruments & Wikipedia

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Date: 2010-08-18, 3:01PM CDT
Reply to: job-rkm9r-1906089533@craigslist.org

The Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a, non-profit organization based in Washington , DC seeks a Project Manager to oversee its solar electrification projects in Haiti.

The position will be based in Haiti with possible travel in the US. The Project Manager will assess project sites, design appropriate systems, manage the procurement and installation processes, prepare financial and project reporting for donors, manage a local staff/office, and assist with development of new projects.

Eligible candidates will have, at a minimum 3 years of extensive experience in the design and installation of off-grid PV systems with generator back-up, training experience in PV, experience working in developing countries, and demonstrated ability to manage complex projects. Candidate must be fluent in English; proficiency in French and/or Creole strongly preferred.

Application instructions: Ability to follow instructions is a crucial qualification. Please include in your cover letter a thoughtful explanation of why SELF’s mission is exciting to you and how you are uniquely qualified for the position.

Email cover letter and resume to email address included in this listing or by mail at 1612 K Street, Suite 402, Washington, DC 20006. No phone calls.
 
Location: Haiti
Compensation: TBD

• This is at a non-profit organization.
• Principals only. Recruiters, please don’t contact this job poster.
• Please, no phone calls about this job!
• Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.

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Another of SPP’s installations, this one in Ventura County. Photo: SPP

The young students sauntering into Grant Elementary School in Redding, CA this year may not notice much difference from last year. They’ll line up at the same doors and drinking fountains, play tag on the same playground and learn under the same light fixtures. The difference will be that those lights will be powered by the sun above Grant Elementary, and even if the kids go about business as usual, school administrators will certainly notice a sizable difference by the end of their first utility billing cycle.

Over the summer break, Grant Elementary had a 202.50-kilowatt solar photovoltaic (PV) system installed through a power purchase agreement with Solar Power Partners, a solar installation company out of Mill Valley, CA. Under the agreement, the school pays no upfront costs for the solar array, and will only pay for the electricity it produces at a fixed rate over the term of the contract.

“As with any public school, we’re under pressure to ensure we make wise choices about expenditures that also benefit the community and provide educational value to students,” said Grant Elementary Superintendent John Krinkel.

“A PPA with Solar Power Partners meant that the school does not spend any cash to install, operate, or maintain the system, and we know that a portion of our electricity bill will remain stable. Incorporating renewable energy has been cost-conscious now and for the future.”

The school expects to save $600,000 over the 20 years for which the PPA is contracted. The solar system will produce well over 290,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity in its first year of operation, equivalent to removing 40 passenger cars from the road each year.

733 students, ranging in age from preschool to eighth grade, will benefit from the solar electricity at Grant Elementary.

Via Business Wire

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You guys are gonna love this. Some “Unknown Conservative” blogger decided that an article Putting Solar Myths to Shame, written by CalFinder’s own Brittany Mauriss and Taylen Peterson, was fit for debunking. He or she (he from here on out—an educated guess) did so in perfect Rush Limbaugh fashion, full of coarse words, suspicious sound bites and skewed logic. While I’d often disregard such antics as the desperate pedantry of a dying breed, sometimes when you’re singled out, you have to fight back. So here it is: our response to one Climate Change denier.

Each myth is on a new page so click the link below to move to the next page. Here are each of the myths:

1. Solar only works in hot areas
2. More pollution comes from manufacturing panels than is offset by solar energy
3. Solar is too expensive
4. Solar can’t meet the nation’s energy needs
5. The Sahara Desert could power Europe
6. Solar is too unreliable
7. Create your own panel with DIY sites

Please feel free to comment, in favor or opposition, to any point given below. Here’s to open dialogue!

#1 – Myth: Solar systems only work in really hot areas of the world

We’ve taken screen-shots of the original myth-buster answers and his responses. Below each is our rebuttal.

The point is not that solar could be the dominant source of energy in all climates around the world, but rather that it serves a legitimate function and is viable in any climate. Simply look at use of solar panels in Antarctica by government scientists, for example. Some locations are best for wind, some geothermal (see Iceland or East Africa), and some solar power.

Of course, weather plays a factor. Again, Unknown Conservative is missing the point. Different solar power systems are conducive to different climates with different weather patterns. But designed wisely, a solar system can be beneficial in any climate—solar thermal systems in climates that reach “two degrees above zero” utilize a propylene glycol (anti-freeze) solution to protect against freezing and enable the system to operate even in the cold. Admittedly, the system will work best on a hot, sunny day, but it will still work otherwise. And solar thermal systems, unlike many of their PV cousins, can provide solar energy on cloudy days, as the sun is still transmitting heat. PV panels, however, work MORE efficiently the cooler it is—a good reason some innovators are working to marry the two technologies. See here and here for examples.<

Germany is the world leader in solar power, which certainly makes up a small percentage of Germany’s total power production (coal still being number one), but coal has had a 100-year head start, and to ignore solar’s growth is to be ignorant and unattractively dismissive. In 1990, photovoltaics provided just 1 gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity to Germany’s national grid, according to Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. By 2009, that total had increased to 6,200 GWh of PV and counting. That’s a 6,200% increase in less than 20 years!

Solar power may never provide all the energy for a cloudy country like Germany, but it will, based on the country’s aggressive promotion of the technology today, provide a significant portion. Already, combined with other resources, renewable energy contributes over 16 percent of total energy consumption in Germany.

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Yesterday was a day for the solar history books.

The country’s first community-owned solar installation began delivering clean, renewable electricity to the grid in El Jebel, Colorado. The 340-panel solar installation is unique because it is owned by an array of local residents rather than any single person, utility, developer or corporation. The El Jebel “solar garden” represents a budding trend, pioneered in Colorado, toward community solar power. The benefits are many, including lower costs and the distribution of clean electricity from the sun.

Better yet, the El Jebel facility is built on otherwise unusable land in the Roaring Fork Valley. It will produce 77.7 kilowatts of solar power at peak. Year-round and seasonal residents of the valley purchased individual portions of the array, which was developed by Clean Energy Collective and grid-connected in partnership with local electric cooperative Holy Cross Energy. Holy Cross collects the power produced by the solar garden and then directly credits owners’ utility bill each month at a rate of $0.11/kWh, with some owners paying as little as $725 per panel, or $3.15/kW, up front.

“It’s great to get local renewable energy off the ground,” said Del Worley, CEO of Holy Cross Energy. The utility has plans to meet 20 percent of its power through renewable resources by 2015 — a goal more than twice as aggressive as statewide mandates for utility cooperatives in Colorado.

Clean Energy Collective (CEC) devised, promoted and developed the community-owned renewable energy installation, a specialty of the company, which itself is a member-owned cooperative venture focusing on building, developing and operating community-based clean energy stations. The El Jebel solar garden represents CEC’s first working model of a pathway to renewable energy it believes will spread like wildfire.

CEC predicts that the community solar breakthrough will increase regional solar adoption by 67 percent over the next five years.

The company has developed proprietary technology, known as RemoteMeter, that automatically calculates owners’ monthly credits and integrates with the utility’s billing system to ensure discounts are given easily and accurately for the renewable energy produced.

While the El Jebel community solar garden is the first of its kind in the nation, it is not the only solar garden on the way to Colorado. Two larger systems, a 900-kW system in Rifle and a 2-MW array near Vail, are already in the development or construction process. Upon completion, the Vail array will be the largest privately-owned solar installation in the state.

With power flowing from the El Jebel facility, community solar “gardening” is now officially a pathway to affordable solar power. But it also represents an opportunity for those typically left out of the solar movement — renters, condo residents or shaded homes — to adopt and save with solar energy, because the need to own a rooftop or large swath of land is now unnecessary.

Colorado and several other states have legislation or incentives that help promote community solar power, i.e. feed-in tariffs, net metering or equal eligibility under tax incentive programs, but support at the federal level would be ideal to facilitate a nationwide movement. For this reason, Colorado Senator Mark Udall introduced the Community Solar Gardens Bill in the U.S. Congress, which would legally allow homeowners to collectively install solar arrays in their neighborhoods; overriding any state legislation that may bar solar garden development.

Photo Credit: Pink Dispatcher & Colorado Energy News

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The basis for solar energy is absorbing light and then effectively disassociating electrical charges. Researchers report that conjugated polymers are excellent materials for such a system, thanks to their light absorption and conduction properties.

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Here’s a nifty article at CNN about Clarian Technologies latest DYI solar power for your home or small business. If what they are saying proves true, you’ll be able to set up your own small solar power generation system simply by plugging it in to a typical outlet. This is for smaller applications right now such as appliances but it is expandable.

You purchase 1, 2 or more solar panels, plug them into Clarian’s module-plug that into your usual outlet and you have engergy from the sun. Their circuit monitor must be plugged into the outlet first and then the module. The power module syncs to the circuit monitor and then starts generating power. The power module will support up to 1 kilowatt or 1,000 watts which means you can run a small appliance off of it. They’ve designed it so you can start with a 200 watt system and then add to it as you go.

Their estimate is that if you use their system and expand it you’ll wait about 4 years or less for the systems to pay for itself.

Their systems is expandable as you can add panels as your budget affords. They’re talking about a $600 entry fee for a single panel system right now. Their working on a mounting which would hold 20 or 30 panels. Otherwise you can position this systems anywhere you wish as long as it’s facing the sun naturally. Great for renters-if you move you take it with you-it’s not attached to the structure of the house.

Their estimating they’ll have these first beginning systems available on the market in Spring of 2011.

Check out the interview with Clarian’s president Chad Maglaque at CNN.

Here’s Clarian.

Here’s Clarian’s quick view of their system:

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August 17, 2010

Editor’s Note: In light of SunRun’s recent launch in Pennsylvania, we’ve decided to write a series of blog posts focusing on the energy situation in the keystone state. This is the first of the series, and it will focus on the widespread practice of fracking.

Can you light your tap water on fire? If you live in Pennsylvania, there’s a good chance that your water is about to combust. This is because of the dangerous and toxic practice of “fracking.”

What is fracking? Short for Hydraulic Fracturing, fracking is the process of injecting millions of gallons of sand and chemicals (many of them toxic) into the earth and extremely high temperatures to break up rock formations, and release the natural gas inside.

Why is fracking dangerous? The natural gas that’s released by fracking must be piped to compressor stations before they can be sent to power plants and other end consumers of energy. At these compressor stations, the volatile organic compounds and dangerous chemicals are burned off into the air. The remaining fracking fluid is stored on-site as wastewater; part of the wastewater evaporates into the air, and the rest stays underground. Toxic gases and chemicals can and have contaminated nearby water supplies.

Fracking can devastates communities. Earlier this year, Vanity Fair covered the dangers of fracking in the small Pennsylvanian town of Dimock. Over the last two years, Dimock’s fresh water aquifer became severely contaminated, turning the water brown and making residents sick. One woman’s water spontaneously burst into flames and animals began losing their fur. High levels of iron, aluminum, and methane were found in people’s water wells, causing dizziness, sores, tumors, neurological impediments, among other health problems.

In addition, fracking is extremely energy intensive. Three to eight millions of gallons of water are used for every shale-gas well and fleets of trucks used to ferry the fracking fluid.

Why all the fuss now? Fracking has been practiced for many decades and the impact can be seen all over the West, including Colorado and New Mexico.  But, talk of fracking in the Marcellus Shale has renewed interest, and fear, in the region. The Barnett Formation shales in Texas is currently the most prolific source of unconventional gas in the continental U.S. The Marcellus Shale covers several times more area than the Barnett, stretching 600 miles to Barnett’s 170.

Although many people promote the use of natural gas because it supposedly burns more cleanly than coal or oil, its supplies are finite, which means that much of that natural gas has to be accessed by fracking. 90% of all gas and oil wells currently use fracking.

In a 2004 study, the Environmental Protection Agency gave fracking a clean bill of health. This finding was immediately questioned and Weston Wilson, a former E.P.A official, immediately blew the whistle, calling the study “unsupportable.” The E.P.A is undertaking a new study, to begin in early 2011, and the response has already been overwhelming. According to a Huffington Post editorial by Michael Brune, the executive director of the Sierra Club, a public hearing in Syracuse, NY was postponed because officials were concerned that the venue wouldn’t be able to hold the 8,000+ citizens expected to show up. Back in July, a ballroom set up for 800 in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, overflowed with stakeholders both against and in support of fracking. And just last week, the New York Governor David Patterson stated that there would be no fracking in New York’s Marcellus shale region unless it could be proven that the water supplies would be safe.

Where does that leave Pennsylvania? The state’s fracking industry is pushing for the enactment of a law that would force Pennsylvania property owners to sell their natural gas rights to a drilling company, if their neighbors were doing it, too. This is called a pooling bill. Although no pooling bills have been introduced to Pennsylvania legislature yet, several bills are in the drafting stages.

According to a report by the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association, there have been 1,435 violations by 43 different Marcellus Shale drilling companies since January 2008. 952 of them were identified as impacting the environment. Another analysis by Clean Water Action reports 565 violations at Marcellus Shale gas drilling sites just between January 1^st and June 18^th of this year.

With the demand for energy growing exponentially, it’s important that we identify new and viable sources of energy. Brune says it best: “We need to reach a clean-energy future, but let’s do it without destroying communities and ecosystems along the way.” We here at SunRun wholeheartedly agree and are ready to get the nation there with clean, renewable home solar power.

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