Allan's Comments

I appreciate the perspective you offer in these key lines: "Solyndra and Evergreen have simply joined the club of pharmaceuticals, oil and gas companies, coal plants, and ethanol plants that have received some type of government support and failed. And let's not forget nuclear power plants that perpetually go over budget, requiring never-ending government support. Our government picks winners all the time, but sometimes the horse doesn't even show." This helps me maintain a sense of a larger context from which to view these events.
Here in New Mexico the little company I started on nothing in 1997 now has four offices, a dozen or so employee-owners, and supports nearly fifty families with a living wage. We'll be here for a long time. Once, about ten years ago, we even got a tiny bit of government support ourselves.
Allan Sindelar, Positive Energy

All of your categories relate to projects or technologies. I would like to suggest developing a category (or set of categories) for exceptional or exemplary companies. Our small (~40 employees) independent PV company has multiple full NABCEP certificants, employee ownership, a 3:1 ratio between lowest- and highest-paid employees, uses RE in operations, top customer reviews, etc. Being a great place to work is itself a recognizable achievement.

Mr. Scanlon has missed - or misled about - two fundamental points. First, as was addressed in one of the above comments, is that a 40% increase is a peak increase, usually achieved in summer, when days are long and a sunpath from NE to S to NW allow tracking to take advantage of the long sunpath. Winter gains are on the order of 15% (at our latitude of ~35 degrees N), leading to an annual production gain of about 32-35%, not 40%.

Second is that trackers don't give you more power, they give more energy. Hummpph!

To the editor: I'd like to suggest this this is an inappropriate post to this renewable energy forum. Large-scale hydro has never been within the scope of this publication; there are others for this topic. We in the RE industry have so much info to read, filter, review, and act on or delete that I'll suggest that a less broad scope is better in this case. Thanks.

The current issue of High Country News (www.hcn.org) has a cover feature about this project: "High Noon: As the climate warms, environmentalists square off over Big Solar's claim to the Mojave Desert". The journal is well respected for in-depth environmental reporting. The article challenges some of the solar-is-good assumptions and goes deeper about some of the politics and history of this and earlier thermal-trough projects.

Mr. Nuessle,
I am in New Mexico, but based on your suggestion I went to www.njcep.com to see New Jersey's feed-in tariff. All I could find, sir, were rebates. They varied from a current level of $1.00/watt up to 50 kW to $1.75/watt for up to 10 kW residential with energy audit. In past years it was as high as $5.50/watt or 70% of installed cost.

There was no mention of a feed-in tariff anywhere. A FIT is a performance-based incentive, based on purchasing measured production on a per-kilowatt-hour basis. New Jersey has rebates, based on a nameplate wattage basis, not on production.

As you sound quite sure of yourself, perhaps you can explain what I'm missing?

Now the ITC credit package has been added to the $700 billion "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008" - the Wall Street bailout package. There is sufficient public support for RE that the package has now been used as a sweetener for the bailout. Talk about a Faustian bargain! Faust sold his soul to the devil for vast riches.

As a solar professional, I yesterday received an email alert from national ASES telling me "if you only make one call this year, this is the one", as well as similar admonition from SEIA to call my congressman. I just can't do it. I respected my Democratic congressman for rejecting the bailout on the first vote on Tuesday, and I won't ask him to sell out now in order for my industry to gain the (substantial and essential) spoils of the bailout. I'm not willing to benefit from the egregious abuses by the Wall Street investment houses. That's a stain my soul can't wipe away.

My faith is that the RE incentives are popular enough that they will come up again and pass; likely by a new administration. Times will be tight, but they will be anyway - the bailout is at best a wild guess as to whether it will succeed.

I don't expect many to agree with me, but I hope to engender some lively dialogue here.

The microinverter approach requires rethinking how we installers approach grid-tie design. This is much like in 2001, when the high-voltage string inverter approach, pioneered by SMA in the U.S., replaced the 48V standard used by Trace SunTie and AEI GC-1000 up to that time. Who would now use a central inverter with multiple 48V strings?

Some of us will embrace this new approach; some of us, such as the ever-negative Mr. Gatti, will resist it. Best to try this approach and share our results openly; we in the industry are on a roller coaster, and the ride will only get wilder.

On a more technical note, I would like to see Enphase offer a 120V AC model of their microinverter (AC output of the current Enphase models is 240V AC), in order to serve a niche market: conversion of existing off-grid systems to grid-tie. We have seen several of our own off-grid installations, typically 8-12 years old, become functional orphans. This typically occurs when a residence gets a new owner and the grid is extended. Existing DC array input has 3 conductors: PV+, PV-, and ground. Many older arrays of 12V modules can't be rewired to produce high-enough DC voltage for most string inverters. The Enphase offers a simple solution, but needs 4 conductors: two AC hots, a reference/communication neutral, and ground. A 120V AC model would allow the existing DC input feed to be converted to carry microinverter AC from the array to the grid connection.

Yes, Mr. Melton, you can offer a free solar system, but you can't make good on the offer. By now, CitizenRe has been pretty well debunked as multi-level marketing vaporware. There's no evidence of the promised product, the promised manufacturing plant, or the promised funding. Please refrain from making claims that ultimately hinder the responsible growth of renewables.

As a RE dealer/installer of long standing, we get frequent employment inquiries from individuals looking for a career in RE. I have learned to ask if the individual has 1) an electrician's license, and/or 2) at minimum a one-year certificate in RE from San Juan College (or equivalent, such as most of the programs listed here; we happen to be in New Mexico). Such a certificate, degree, or license tells me that the individual is serious and not just a starry-eyed solar wannabe in need of on-the-job training. With such achievement on your resume, there will be many offers, as this is a rapidly growing field, although the boom is still very region-specific. Good luck, Joshua.
Allan Sindelar, Positive Energy, Santa Fe

As a long-time installer and RE business owner, I would like to add a key piece of advice. With the growing interest in RE, and with work in the field having a quality of Right Livelihood, we routinely get employment inquiries from people with great desire to work for us. While we would like to be able to train someone from the ground up, it's not practical for a small business. It's a technical field and there's a lot to learn.
Before contacting us about employment, show that you're serious by getting entry-level training in the field. Consider having a NABCEP entry-level certificate, or an electrical or mechanical journeyman's card, or a year's training in RE on your resume. We consider a one-year Certificate in RE from San Juan College in Farmington NM (or equivalent in another region of the country) to be a prerequisite to an initial interview. So far this approach has worked well.

In paragraph three there is mention of blending biodiesel with gasoline. I can only assume that that is an error, as biodiesel can only be blended with diesel, not gasoline. Or is there something new out there?

Jim,
Take a look at the Permaculture Credit Union in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The PCU exists to be a funding source and financial resource for people involved in real sustainability. It's five years old and is a success story in its own right. Check our www.pcuonline.org or call 505 954-3479.

Yes, actions speak louder than words, but a single action should not be construed as all action. To its credit, PNM has been quite proactive in encouraging customer-owned intertied PV. Their REC purchase program is a new, reasonable, production-based incentive in support of grid-tied PV, and they are installing a 25 kW PV "sunflower" array at an existing power plant right next to a busy interstate, in part in order to encourage public awareness of PV.

I share your concern about this news, but want to make sure that PNM is seen in a somewhat balanced light. I will also note here that as a NABCEP PV installer, I deal with them on a regular basis, have testified against them at the PRC in years past, and still occasionally butt heads with them. I'm not greenwashing the utility; PNM has earned my words of support here.

Allan Sindelar, Positive Energy, Santa Fe

Ona,
While I am sure that your query is legitimate, I would also suggest another step. You might publicize in your own country the negative effect of all the fraudulent e-mails that we U.S. solar dealers receive, usually from Nigeria. Always, it's a request to purchase PV modules, inverters, etc. with a credit card, to be shipped to your country. The credit card numbers are always stolen, and this is well known and publicised among reputable solar dealers in the U.S. This deceitful activity by others in your country makes it hard to distinguish and trust legitimate requests.