The Utility Fox is Guarding the Solar Henhouse

Hardly a surprise the utility companes are  sabotaging this.

I wonder if there's a technical work-around? Like adding batteries to soak-up excess PV power and a uC controlled power switch to direct the load to either the Grid or the PV inverter.

BTW do you have Time of Use metering in CA. This could prompt the use of batteries for time shifting of power. 

Dale, Dale, Dale,

your article is putting a black mark on solar. I know that is not what you intended, but it is misleading people. We have systems installed and interconnected under CSI. PG&E is working on inspecting these jobs. To date they have inspected "NONE". The article in the Herald was not good for the solar business. Please be more careful in the future

Thank you all for your comments. Tell me more. I'm also hearing plenty more from my installer friends. As of June 5th, PG&E had still not updated the website I mentioned in the piece. Still not a single "completed" system noted on the website. A PG&E representative did call me to say that checks are now starting to go out. But I've not heard of anybody actually receiving a check. Have any of you? " Let me know and I'll gladly update below. Meantime, I've begun a petition drive. The petition says simply... 

"Hey California Public Utilities Commission... fix the C.S.I... before all of our best small solar companies... die!"

Please join my radio show listeners, other solar installers and solar supporters and sign the petition. E-mail me at contact@stardatesolar.com and I'll include a copy of your email, and send it along with your names on the petition.

Thank you..."Because the future is Renewable Energy!"

Dale Julin  

Hi All:

I am surprised PG&E is fighting the solar PV. Usually its the power companies that like it because it lowers the peak demand rate they have to pay the major grid providers in the Summer. Does anyone no who the grid provider is for the PG&E's region..??..

 .....Bill

PS: James, next time please leave out the "white space"!! and you don't need any special fluid to keep solar liquid thermal from freezing...its called drain back...

CA does have Time of Use metering - with a big fee for the meter itself. 

I had PV installed about 2 years ago and even then, after completion of the install PG&E took their sweet time to come out to inspect. It took so long that the company said 'go ahead, turn on your system, and we'll just turn it off the day they inspect'.... sad when you have to go to those lengths. 

Going 'green' for many companies is a way to appease the masses.. until corporate philosophies change and they realize the benefit to them of truly going green (and detriment of NOT 'going green') you'll have the ruse thats going on everywhere today. I'd love to see this article in the SF Chronicle!  Turn up the grass roots pressure on PG&E.

Dale,

Tell it like it is!  Perhaps it is time to put together a grand jury investigation on the members of the PUC.  If they won't push the buttons like the good monkeys they're supposed to be, then let's get some new monkeys.  What about that interest money?  Get it rolled back into the fund.  We live in a democracy full of apathy.  But...PG&E is a rich target for lawyers, they're not so apathetic.  Get a bigger hammer.

PG&E knows solar is the long term solution.  They're like chipmunks; save it for later, bury it for now.  Asia isn't waiting.  They intend to dominate the world market.  Not only are not putting up a fight, we're being forced, by our own policies to hand, techology to them to survive in business.  Like parking our ships in a row at Pearl Harbor, folding our hands and believing in the best is having dire consequences.  Although PG&E may not see it this way, PG&E's behavior is a threat to national security.

James,

Life is too short.  I enjoy watching the mistakes by our utility companies and our leaders.  It's our system.  It's still all about oil, coal, utilities and gov't's.  It will always be too expensive and we will always pay top dollar.  I am pleased Dale & California woke you up.  Especially when Germany, Japan and China are cashing in on our technologies.  I have been touting PV for years and am struggling to get paid by all involved with my projects.  We need to wake up and enjoy our lives and someday things may indeed change. 

Sam...

The problem is that California is afraid of a $25 utility meter on the output of the inverter and opted for an "expected performance buy back" EPBB instead of simply relying on a simple meter read.  EPBB has all of the disadvantages of a rebate program and a performance based program without any of the benefits.  The disadvantages are high administrative costs, uncertainty of actual performance, and uncertain production payments over an extended period instead of an upfront known amount. 

California has always done an inefficient job of leading the nation toward renewable energy and utility reform.  During the 1980s, the state offered huge tax credits for windpower based on installed capacity instead of production, and the result was fraud including "paper windmills."  The state ruined deregulation in 2001 by letting the utilities write the rules during the 1990s.  Now, the state appears to be trying to prevent the wind mistake with bureacratic rules for solar.  What they really need is to design a simple verifiable model to estimate actual production.

You think you have it tough down there?  Try coming to Canada!  There is NOTHING for someone like myself who is building an energy efficient, off-grid home.  We have tried to get grants, incentives etc., for the extra costs of building a well insulated, passive-solar designed home, and dropped more than 40K out of our own pocket for RE equipment....what do I get from my government (Federal, state or local??)....you guessed it....NOTHING.

 I would take a delay in a promise of money over nothing anyday....!  keep up the good fight people - we'll get there one day!

 Tom

Too many politicians insisting on bribes before they will pass legislation.

Too many corporations using their money to get government to pass legislation protecting old companies from new companies.

When lies are treated as truth, and the truth is deemed traitorous, should anyone be surprised at what passes for democracy?

 Thank you for speaking your minds.

Wow, its remarkable that someone has the guts to write the truth abouthow all the pencil pushers got involved in solar.

When I first started, in thermal around 1980, there were about120 companies, with  guys working in solar, Arco came out with their G series thinfilm,

Exxon was closing shop, so was Shell, and solavolt, and SolarEx and

Chronar were busy getting executives wicked women for contract signatures.

Now its done with more smoke and mirrors from Sacramentoand Washington and Scottsdale and Chicago and Osaka and Milan, the real sad aspect is that most of the solar companies were allowed to be sold to foreign countries with both democratic and republican jerk offs involved.  Yes that's right, Everyone was in it.

 The Uitlity groups were busy getting EPA air quality control permits,

by getting one or two kilowatt arrays, and everyone was telling

James Young and myself that we were crazy for trying to market

Sovonics which is now called UNI SOLAR, who knows what they will

call themselves next month.

My oh my, some things never change, from research forever  FSEC with their

3 million dollar leaking roof, and those cool condos nearby,

to the new trash center for SOLAR KING out of Waco [ speak it like it sounds ]

Texas, to the failure of Packerland Solar, to the new 200 thousand

unit solar thermal fiasco about to happen in San Diego.

 Get the word out, government workers drones, and there seems to be a whole lot  of them pushing their pencils, never, and I mean never make anything good

out of something worthwhile.

Everything the CEC does has something done wrong, in fact, not one solar array

in California is set up for a good cleaning wash during the dusty summer.

Very few systems are properly designed, because the inspectors

really have no clue about reflection, the gravity of the moon,

and lightning does not mix well with metal structures,

what ever happened to pull trusion fiberglass racks?

The only guys and gals making any real money in solar in California

are those office pencil pushers in Sacramento and places like LA, selling the concept that its okay for systems to be overpriced and that its okay to design tacky  systems for  commerical

end users, taking the money ear marked for home owners,

and then verbally overstating about how they are helping the planet.

I have seen the writing on the wall, back in 1990 in Austin

while looking out my hotel room at the crafty ones  planning their next takeover

from Sandia and Nrel and the like while at the Austin Solar whatever

back in 1990.

 One thing for sure, those pencil pushers sure are good at screwing the public.

China is now off loading solar with Japan through German owned companies

all over here in the USA, and everyone, and I mean everyone just sat

back and let it happen, including me.

 Now, the only way to get even with the Chinese, the Japanese and the Germans,

is to tax the solar being imported like crazy to pay the rebates.

As for solar hot water, unless you make the system totally freeze proof,

and that cannot happen with Glycol, it can happen with a refrigerant

that is already EPA approved, and there are a few jerks trying to capitalize

on another of my ideas, then you might make a go of things,

with solar hot water systems.

PV home systems will never pay off the ROI unless you change

the compressors from 240 AC to 24 volt DC, and even then you

need a large array with batteries.

Its funny how the utilities set up the design of inverters from battery charging

to only grid tie.

Amazing, simply amazing,.........

oh, by the way, I do know what I am writing about,

and there are only a few solar guys living on the planet who knows more about

radiation electron interphasing than me, ooops exvept

maybe Dr. Hauser of Etoy, Habbi over in Lebannon, ETA and their gadgets,

and Garrett in Fort Lauderdale-Miami, everyone else plays in the stuff,

we had to make our own 24 volt dc transformers, our own pump systems,

and our own solgans, like the future is now, and then find out about

other people capitalizing on our ideas.

I think if all the projects planned, and being designed were

to really work well, the first thing would be to tar and feather those

damn pencil pushers and replace them all with new pencil pushers,

at least that way some of the trash in governemt would get a toss.

Hmmmmm, did I get enough of you out there to start thinking again?

 Hey Scott, up in DC, hi there, and to Smitty at AAA in New Mexico,

James Seidel is back in the saddle and playing in the sun and I am

doing it my way too.

 Dale.

I can understand your frustration, we should all be hollering from the rooftop.

"Cut out the red tape and give us the green tape to forge ahead with a much needed solar programme"

Mike H. founder HYDROGENHEADS

Maybe it is............

TIME TO TAKE OUT THE BIRCH ROD! :

THE BIRCH ROD IN THE CUPBOARD

Franklin D. Roosevelt in a 1932 speech

"I therefore lay down the following principle:

that where a community, a city, or county, or

district is not satisfied with the service rendered

or the rates charged by the private utility, it has

the undeniable right as one of its functions of

government…to set up…its own governmentally

owned and operated service…the very fact that

a community can, by vote of the electorate,

create a yardstick of its own will, in most cases,

guarantee good service and low rates to its

population. I might call the right of the people

to own and operate their own utility a birch rod

in the cupboard, to be taken out and used only

when the child gets beyond the point where more

scolding does any good."

I wanted to update you all on what I've learned in just the past hour from P.G.&E's S.F. H.Q. "A small but rapidly growing number of checks are now going out. They also are going to update the state-mandated web page they run, the one still showing no "completed" systems, to reflect the fact that checks are now going out.

I invite you all to join me to talk about this and other solar issues on saturday's Stardate Solar Hour. You can use www.stardatesolar.com to get to the show. Just click in and tune in at noon west coast time. My guests are Bernadette Del Chiaro, Renewable energy advocate for Environment California. And Clint Wilder,  Contributing Editor for Clean Edge, and Co-author, The Clean Tech Revolution www.thecleantechrevolution.com

I invite all members of the Renewable Energy Access community to join us.  

Schwarzenegger Signs Legislation Fixing CSI "Flaw"
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger today signed AB 1714, which is designed to fix an unintended flaw in legislation passed last year hindering the California Solar Initiative (CSI). The program, administered by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), has been touted as the best in the country. But issues with Time of Use (TOU) rates have slowed applications for residential solar systems significantly.

http://mailcenter3.comcast.net/wmc/v/wm/466B09E80003F280000072FB221656627697049F9F9AAC0902070B04079ABD020A0A9DB99C9C0A9D9B9D01B0?cmd=Show&no=53&uid=25638&sid=c0

Hi Dale...

Just stumble upon your article and yes, it' been a wild ride this year. One very important point I'd like to make is that before the CSI some PV installers were selling systems that were too big, absurdly shaded, and very poorly installed systems. In Fresno I've seen roof mounted PV modules installed on wood, nylon ties used to bundle wires, cheap pvc conduit on the outside of homes, and systems that were shaded most of the day. 

The CSI, with all its flaws, is here to ensure the reputation of the industry. Remember back in the 1980's when Federal programs paid for most of the Domestic Hot Water systems? We had companies all over throwing up junk that eventually failed...sometimes in a very short time. The reputation of solar power (for most people there is no distinction between PV and DHW) suffered greatly and that bad taste in the public's collective mouth remained for decades and even now we are defending the durability of solar to too many people. 

So the CSI, in the longrun, will benefit the industry by weeding out the cheap installatiions and hopefully purging the solar "salesmen" and replacing them with solid solar professionals and knowledgeable solar consultants.

Cheerrs, 

John Richau

Design Consultant

Akeena Solar