All Posts Tagged With: "solar"

A guest post by Hans Wittich, President of Solar Gaines, a solar panel installation company in Baltimore, Maryland.

Quick, which country has installed the most solar panels? Is it your country? Where does your country rank globally for solar panel installations?

If you’re not sure, you aren’t alone. A recent survey by Applied Materials finds many consumers don’t know how well their country has embraced solar power. According to the survey:

• 57% of Americans think the United States has installed the most solar panels
• 43% of Chinese think China leads the world in solar panel installations
• 52% of India’s population think India has installed the most solar panels

Now, here’s the reality: The top solar installations per country, in descending order, are Germany, Italy, Japan, United States, Spain and China.

Among all respondents worldwide, most (26%) thought the United States leads the world in solar panel installations. Respondents in Japan were most likely (35%) to correctly identify Germany as the world leader in solar panel installations.

Solar Panel Costs on the Decline

Consumer perceptions about the price of solar may be shifting. According to the survey:

• 55% of respondents believe solar energy is less expensive than traditional energy sources.
• 68% of respondents in India believe solar power is less expensive than traditional energy sources.
• 51% of respondents in Japan believe solar power is more expensive than traditional energy sources.

Among consumers who believe solar power is more expensive, 39% believe solar will compete with traditional energy sources on price within a decade.

So how much does solar energy cost? The cost of solar panels is now less than $1 per watt. Given the significant decrease in solar panel costs, 2012 could be the year when residential solar panel installations see their greatest growth to date.

But can solar energy compete on price with coal and other traditional fuels? Yes, and soon, says the research. Applied Materials concludes solar energy will reach a point of price-competitiveness by the end of 2012, much earlier than previously expected.

Conclusion: Education About Solar Energy Still Needed

Consumer understanding of solar energy is improving, but education is still needed. With greater awareness of solar power’s affordability, adoption rates should rise.

When I work with clients, whether on a design project or a sustainability initiative, I notice that people tend to go straight to technologies, strategies, and solutions. These certainly have their place, but they are not enough to sustain the project or the change campaign over the long haul.

Why not? In any creative venture when multiple variables are considered, we hit walls. Roadblocks. Stumbling points. Especially in collaborations, which basically covers everything in the world of business. (Isn’t it odd how effective collaboration is not generally taught in school? More on that another time.)

The most efficient way out of those impasses is a clear sense of purpose – in other words, knowing your “why.” Organizations that have a clear sense of why leave people inspired and excited about solving tough problems. On the other hand, if you are overly invested in specific what’s and how’s, it is very difficult to see new possibilities when a problem inevitably arises.

The importance of knowing not only WHAT we are creating, changing, or doing, but WHY, is put very elegantly by Simon Sinek in his book, “Start With Why.” Full disclosure: I haven’t yet read the book, but his website has some great video and downloads that explain the very simple concepts.

Sinek’s “Golden Circle” is a great visualization: three concentric rings with “why” in the center, then “how,” and finally “what.” Why is, fittingly, at the core. In his words, “why” speaks directly to our emotions, which is the place in our brain where decisions are made. When we align intuition and emotion with abstraction and planning, it’s a powerful combination.

As an example, Sinek points out, Martin Luther King had strong beliefs about justice and human rights. That was his “why.” He happened to live at a time when a great movement was stirring; that was the “what.” In his many inspiring speeches, he spoke about what he believed, and that became contagious. When he stood up to make his famous speech on the Mall in Washington, D.C., he didn’t say, “I have a plan.” He said, “I have a dream.”

I recently asked a client – a commercial photographer – to tell me her “why.” Here it is: “I suppose my “why” has to do with living what I believe, despite the personal costs. When I die I want to know that I have lived a life without hypocrisy. My success will not be measured in dollars, but rather in promises I have kept.”

I know her to be someone who conscientiously walks her talk. In her photography work, she switched to digital before anyone else – motivated initially by the environmental benefits. When she hired me to help them renovate an old barn into a gorgeous photo studio, the priorities were energy efficiency, salvaged and non-toxic materials, and solar hot water heat. She just seems to have an innate sense of how to prioritize and live her values through all aspects of her business. As she says in a recent blog post, “I have come to a cross roads on my career path and want now more than ever to wade into good-for-the-world commerce.”

What’s the “green why” in your project, green campaign, or brand? How clear is it to your clients, customers, and employees – both present and prospective?

One way that businesses can implement green projects is to partner with entities offering incentives. Not just government, but also industry — in particular, utilities — have been getting into the act. The Mid-Atlantic has been long overdue for such programs.

Constellation Energy (NYSE:CEG) announced February 16 that it will support the development of commercial photovoltaic power systems with a $90 million solar capital commitment. To maximize the value of government renewable incentives, the $90 million set-aside will be available for customer-sited solar installations of 500 kilowatts or larger which begin construction before mid-year 2010.

“Constellation Energy’s solar capital commitment provides the resources to make photovoltaic power a simple and economical proposition for commercial and governmental customers who want to support clean, renewable energy at their facilities,” said Michael D. Smith, senior vice president of green initiatives for Constellation NewEnergy. “Our solar business model gives customers a single source for every step of the process, from financing to planning and permitting, construction and long-term maintenance of the system. By working with Constellation Energy, customers can make meaningful and immediate impacts on their carbon and sustainability goals.”

The capital commitment enables Constellation Energy to finance, design, construct and own solar installations for customers and supply the power generated on-site to the customer. This structure makes it possible for customers to deploy on-site solar and meet sustainability goals without incurring upfront costs. Approximately $18 million of the capital commitment has already been committed to projects soon to begin development in Maryland and New Jersey.

Constellation Energy has committed to expanding solar project development over the next several years. The company currently has approximately 25 megawatts of solar power systems installed or under way in the U.S., ranging from customer-sited rooftop installations to a 17.1-megawatt large-scale project in Emmitsburg, Md., that will be among the largest in the U.S.

Constellation Energy has developed photovoltaic installations for retailers, manufacturers, government facilities and universities nationwide, with a focus on projects in Maryland, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and California where solar incentives and credits make development particularly attractive for customers financially. Solar renewable energy credits (SREC), which are granted to solar projects for every megawatt-hour of electricity produced, help make on site solar projects economically attractive. With SREC values scheduled to decline over time as states require the development of more solar generation, the next several months represent the optimal time to begin construction of on-site solar with the strongest project economics.

Structured correctly, today’s photovoltaic power systems can generate electricity that is priced at or below the cost of power from the grid. Qualifying projects of 500 kilowatts generally require at least 100,000 square feet of roof space or two acres of open ground. Organizations interested in developing solar projects can contact Constellation Energy at Sustainable-Solutions(at)constellation.com or 1-877-427-2005.

Brad Heavner at Environment Maryland just sent us this email:

This is not the type of "green job" I want to create through President Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan. The big coal companies want to build factories — factories that can cook coal at nearly 1,300 degrees Fahrenheit, producing black, gunky coal tars that they can process into liquid fuels for war planes.

During the process, they’d release far more climate-changing greenhouse emissions than an oil company would to drill, refine and transport an equivalent amount of petroleum.

And they want you and me to pay for it.

That’s right, industry lobbyists have conspired with a few key members of the U.S. Senate to tack on $50 billion in loan guarantees to the president’s recovery plan — $50 billion that, instead of creating green jobs building wind turbines, or installing solar roofs , or weatherizing homes and other buildings, would subsidize things like coal liquefaction and nuclear power plant construction.

What am I missing? Didn’t we just work like crazy to elect a pro-environment majority to set a course for the cleaner, greener energy economy of the future? Why on earth would we want to subsidize not-so-clean coal , especially if doing so accelerates global warming?

That’s not the green recovery we’ve been fighting for. And that’s why I’m hoping you’ll join me and thousands of our friends and supporters in calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to keep President Obama’s recovery bill clean and green.

As you might have already guessed, this $50 billion giveaway is buried in the fine print of the Senate’s version of the recovery plan, the better to avoid public scrutiny.

Fortunately, our friends on Capitol Hill tipped us off, and now you can help us scrub the recovery bill clean of this dirty provision.

Click here to tell Sen. Reid to take action today.

It was an exciting weekend at the 2008 Baltimore Bioneers Conference, held at the Maryland Institute Collage of Art. Julie and I were able to screen our video first thing Friday morning to open the event. A short 8 min. animated slide presentation of the transition from some of the issues Baltimore faces, socially and environmentally, as a post industrial city, combined with inspiring solutions that are cropping up all over town. I’d like to thank everyone for the positive response and we hope to upload a version to the website as soon as we can.
Some personal highlights from the conference came from a keynote by mycologist and author Paul Stamets, and two breakout sessions on Urban Agriculture as Urban Economic Development and Visionary Green Design and Development.

Read more about each one… Continued

Sidwell Friends School is the greenest school on the planet. Its middle school is the only Platinum LEED institution of its kind to have been brought to fruition. Most of the materials used in construction were either recycled or salvaged, like cedar wood re-used from wine casts. And 78 percent of the materials were manufactured regionally (within 500 miles) to minimize energy from transportation. All plants for landscaping purposes were native. The rooftop houses an array of photovoltaic panels. Low-VOC paints, glues, and adhesives were used in classrooms to improve air quality.

Passive solar design reduces the air conditioning load through natural ventilating and shading. A green roof reduces the "urban heat island effect" and removes pollutants from rainwater. And about 95 percent of the school’s water is recycled through perhaps the most impressive feature of the middle school: its artificial wetlands. Continued

Eco-Green Living , located on NW Church Street in Washington, D.C., is an ideal stop for anyone looking to be a bit more green-minded in their home or personal purchases, offering a wide range of products from bamboo flooring to organic bedding to fair trade chocolate. They feature products from multiple lines of green vendors, like natural light systems from Solatube , tankless and solar water heaters from Rheem , and body products from Perfect Organics .