The Home Depot

We are proud to announce that, in partnership with UR Solar, we are a now a ceritfied installation partner with the Home Depot. We are selling systems from several Home Depot stores in the Central Ohio area. Another validation from a leading organzation that we are trusted leaders in the solar arena.

AEP Rates Stun Small Businesses

Today the Dispatch posted an article about how new AEP rates have hurt small businesses. Some of them have seen increases of upwards of 45%.

This is a factor of many different influences and an increasingly complicated Ohio electricity market. Some day when we have more time we can share our perspective, but for now I want to focus on solutions for small business owners.

This rate increase is most likely a result of your load factor. A load factor is a way of comparing how much total energy you use versus the most you use at any one time.

Note: Utility tariff nerds leave me be. I'm focusing on explaining this at a level the average business owner needs to understand so detailed techical innacuracies need not be sent my way :)

On a utility bill you are charged for electricity in different ways. To make it simple I'll say that you are charged for how much you actually use and how much the utility has to keep ready that you might use. This second part is known as demand. Fior example, if at one time during a month you need 75kw of energy then the utility basically assumes that you could need that much at any time. So they have to have it available. If however that 75kw is a rare occurence and you use much less energy the rest of the time you still have to pay for the utilities need to be prepared.

That difference between your peak use and average use is known as your load factor.

There are ways to improve this. Looking at when and how you run machines in your workplace, looking at moving certain processes to off hours time, controlling your demand are all ways to improve this.

Solar energy, used correctly, can be a way to improve this.

Here is an article that goes into more details about load factor and potential solutions.

If you'd like to learn more about how you can reduce your bills please contact us and we would be glad to present solutions and see if we can help. As a small business ourself we know how unexpected cost jumps can be very painful.

Good luck to you!

Energy Information Administration Studies The Impact of Clean Energy Standards (CES)

The Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently released an analysis of the economic and other impacts that would result from the enactment of a number of different Clean Energy Standards. The analysis was done at the request of U.S. Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), Chairman of the Senate Energy Committee. There are a number of interesting findings that arise from the study, including the dramatic impacts that enactment of a Clean Energy Standard (CES) would have on emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants compared to the relatively modest impact on electric prices and the economy. Specifically, Chairman Bingaman requested an analysis that compared a Clean Energy Standard that he is expected to offer next year (called the Bingaman Clean Energy Standard or BCES) with the Base Case from the EIA's 2011 Annual Energy Outlook. A number of alternative cases based on policy ideas that have been previously considered in Washington were also analyzed. As expected, the analysis finds a significant impact on the mix of technologies used to generate power:

The BCES policy changes the generation mix, reducing the role of coal technologies and increasing reliance on natural gas, non-hydro renewable and nuclear technologies. Coal-fired generation, which in the Reference case increases by 23 percent from 2009 to 2035, decreases by 41 percent in the BCES case over the same period. Relative to the Reference case, where natural gas generation grows steadily throughout the projection period, natural gas generation in 2025 is 34-percent higher and 53-percent higher in 2035. Under the BCES policy, non-hydro renewable technologies grow at the fastest rate, increasing from 146 billion kilowatthours in 2009 to 601 billion kilowatthours in 2025 and 737 billion kilowatthours in 2035. These totals are 60 percent and 75 percent greater than the 2025 and 2035 Reference case projections, respectively.

Also as expected the impacts of annual electricity sector carbon emissions are dramatic.

Under the BCES, projected annual electricity sector carbon dioxide emissions are 22 percent below the Reference case level in 2025 and 43 percent lower in 2035 (Figure 3, Tables B1 and B2). In the Reference case electricity-sector carbon dioxide emissions increase modestly over the projection period, reaching annual emissions of 2,345 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (MMTCO2) in 2025 and growing further to 2,500 MMTCO2 emitted in 2035. Over the 2009-to-2035 period, cumulative CO2 emissions are 20 percent lower in the BCES case than they are in the Reference case.

Finally, the report also found that in the early years, the impacts of the BCES on electricity prices is negligible, but grows as the standards ratchet down.

The BCES has a negligible impact on electricity prices through 2022, but prices rise in later years. In the early years of the projection period, there is negligible impact on average end-use electricity prices, as the requirement to hold BCES credits is modest. As shown in Table 1, the share of total sales that must be covered by credits does not exceed 45 percent until after 2030. This is important because, while coal-fired plants do not receive BCES credits, efficient combined cycle plants receive 0.48 credits for each megawatthour they generate, more than retailers purchasing their output are required to hold until after 2030. This effectively reduces the cost of most natural gas-fired generation until the later years of the projections. Electricity prices do grow later in the projections, reaching 21 percent above the Reference case level by 2035 in the BCES case.

The report can be found here.

MIT Scientists Discuss Potential for Solar Energy

A friend who is an MIT Alum forwarded me this from the MIT News about some of the research going on in solar energy at at the Institute.  It is good to see and hear about the different paths of research that some highly intelligent people are pursuing to make solar more efficient and cost competitive.

Lots of interesting tidbits in here.  I've heard it before, but it bears repeating that 173,000 terawatts (trillions of watts) of energy strikes the Earth continuously -- more than 10,000 times what we currently use.  The challenge is harnessing and moving that power when we need it.

Since solar energy is, at least in theory, sufficient to meet all of humanity’s energy needs, the question becomes: “How big is the engineering challenge to get all our energy from solar?” Taylor says. 

Solar thermal systems covering 10 percent of the world’s deserts — about 1.5 percent of the planet’s total land area — could generate about 15 terawatts of energy, given a total efficiency of 2 percent. This amount is roughly equal to the projected growth in worldwide energy demand over the next half-century. 

Read the whole article here.

Flannagan's of Dublin Leads Columbus Restaurants With a 57KW Solar Array

Flannagans of Dublin restaurant became the first restaurant or bar in Central Ohio to deploy a large scale solar array. The 57KW installation will generate nearly half of the electricity for the restaurant/bar/beach volleyball facility in northern Columbs. To see live monitoring of the array and see how much it's generating at any time, click on the image below: