We set up the anemometer far off from the road behind the playing fields of Osgood House. Between all of our collective experiences (Mark, Mike, Levi and myself) and our years at IMS we all agree that there’s good wind potential there. The fields are obviously wide open with good distance from any trees, the perch is right where the fields begin to slope down into the valley before coming back up onto the mountain. It seems like pretty much a perfect spot – this is also a great place for the turbine because the school has no plans and the area is not an ideal place for building – as the school expands over the coming decades this is not going to be their first choice of where to build. It’s out of the way, not where students typically walk or play… even with a 80 or 100 foot turbine the odds are basically zero that anyone is ever going to see it from the road, so all in all… let’s see what happens.

 

The plan is to take reading through the holidays and then do our first data check in mid-January when the students are all back and we can show them how to analyze the data, what it all means. What they can expect, etc… and of course see what the economics might be.

 

So, stay tuned for mid-Jan and I’ll post the results as I get them.

I went to The Indian Mountain School from 7^th through 9^th grade, while it may seem early for some to be away from home, I thoroughly enjoyed boarding school and had a great time there. Over the years when I’ve come back to Lakeville, having a house down the street from the school, I’ve gone hiking on the mountain and wandering around in the woods, same as I did when I was younger. It’s been a pleasure to see the school grow and prosper over time. So, needless to say I contacted Mark Devey, the Headmaster and Mike Brown Head of the Science Department to see if they had a renewable energy plan for the school and suggested it would be interesting to do a wind and solar study on campus to see what the prospects were. Both were excited for the idea, put me in touch with Levi who’s in charge of their “green” program and earlier this morning – after we had just had almost 9 inches of snow earlier in the week we tramped out into the back fields at the school and set up one of our anemometers and we’ll see what we get. Here are a couple of the photos from the set up, tomorrow I’ll post a little bit more about the positioning on campus and why we chose the location.

So, it’s a beautiful day in NYC, Nikki and I are walking around central park, tomorrow is Thanksgiving and we’ve come in from Lakeville for a few days. We go to the zoo late morning and then we’re headed off to the champagne bar at the Plaza and coming out of Central Park I am struck by what????

Yes, two electric Mini’s!!! These are the same EV Mini’s that I posted about back in early August. I don’t know if this means I’m a total loser or not, but I am just really excited to see these. I’ve pondered on occasion how NYC would incorporate EV charging into the cities infrastructure. New York is a vertical city where pretty much every square inch of space is used up, if you can park on the street maybe you get an hour or two, or you park over night on the side streets, parking in the city sucks. When I lived there after college and kept a car, I had a garage, the car disappeared into the garage after I used it, I called up and it appeared. Most of the garages there do not have parking spaces, all the cars are just crammed in together. Of course since the parking industry works on a “How many cars can I get into the lot” type business model, maybe with the added revenue from EV charging they might be more open to fewer cars new revenue stream… or how’s about the city gives tax breaks for garages that have EV charging to offset the high cost of per-square-foot real estate in the city… there are lots of different options – I’m just glad to see these on the road, it’s a good start in the right dirction.

While I am in CT visiting family, Chris & Spencer have been enjoying the South Florida fall weather and it seems have been politicking in the name of Electron. I got these photos sent to me by Chris the other day after he and Spencer went to hear Al Gore speak in Boca Raton. Chris had a chance to say hello and introduce Electron and what we’re doing in Florida, I don’t think Gore’s handlers allowed the photographer to take the shot of the Chris and Al high-fiving…

Any public figure, especially one who has a political resume such as Gore’s is going to be followed by a lot of controversy. Whether you love him or hate him, think him a hypocrite or hero – let’s not forget that Al Gore has really done a lot to bring the plight of the environment more into the public eye than ever before. Gore’s financial interest and ownership in Current Media, Kleiner Perkins, and Generation Investment Management are no secret – it would be a shame for us to stop listening to him or ignore his message outright – there can be little doubt that pollution, deforestration, our dependence on foreign oil, etc,, etc… is a problem. So whether you’re a treehugger, or you simply hate paying a lot of money to fill up your SUV it’s hard to deny the overall message. His lectures may be a little repetitive but it’s good that we have someone who seems focused on getting the message across – regardless of his personal interests.

Care to read about his reception, here's an article from the Palm Beach Post

Obviously from the past posts you can tell that I seem to have this thing for EV cars and have been obsessed by them for months. I guess it all stems back to that day last January where I got to test drive the custom converted EV Porsche out in Palm Beach and was a convert to the EV car – so I wait with baited breath until they are available to market. However, until EV’s start rolling off the assembly line in mid 2010 we still have a lot of work to do infrastructure-wise. Today, the City of Miami Beach gave Electron a nice mention in the Sunday Herald that we would be helping them to install the first charging stations from Coulomb Technologies in the city with the idea to build out the network over time. This is a project I’ve worked on for about 4 months now, so I’m super excited that perhaps by the middle of December we’ll see the first stations out there. Last hurdles to overcome, final contract with the City and vote by the commissioners at their meeting in December. Follow this link for the Herald Article.

Had a great little article written about myself and Nikki in South of Fifth and The Islands Magazine that came out the other day. In their own words – “South of Fifth & The Islands showcases and influences the passions, pastimes and purchases of the discerning private island residents and luxury condominium dwellers who live in some of the world’s most exclusive waterfront communities hugged by the azure waters of the Atlantic Ocean and Biscayne Bay, comprising the extravagant “suburbs” of Miami Beach.”. Fair enough. While not quite as famous as some of our other North Bay Road neighbors (Matt Damon, Michael Bay and Market America’s JR and Loren Ridinger)I guess Nikki and I made the cut as the Green Team…

There’s a great article in Green Tech Media yesterday – “Balance Energy Wants to Build Microgrids, Starting With San Diego”. Microgrids, covering cities and townships are necessary - it’s a great way to take pressure off of the national grid, keep power somewhat localized, reduce lose in transmission. Hopefully we’ll see more efforts like the San Diego initiative across the country.

A newly launched effort of BAE Systems that's employing one of

San Diego Gas & Electric's former smart grid gurus is now seeking to build and own "microgrid" projects across the country.

Balance Energy is a San Diego-based initiative of the U.S. arm of British defense contractor BAE Systems PLC. Though it has a short history, it launched its plans with great fanfare Tuesday in an after-hours presentation at the GridWeek conference in Washington, D.C.

"We supply end customers with renewable energy, and package it up into a microgrid," Terry Mohn, Balance Energy's chief innovation officer, said Tuesday.

Mohn until recently held the title of Technology Strategist for Sempra Energy, the parent company of utility San Diego Gas & Electric (see Smart Grid Q&A: Terry Mohn).  

So perhaps it's not surprising that Balance Energy's first project is intended to be with San Diego Gas & Electric.

Mohn described it as a $212 million project aimed at providing the University of California at San Diego with its own microgrid – a self-contained electricity generation and distribution system that can serve as an island of stability amidst a wider-scale power grid.

The Frankfurt Auto Show is arguably the big European auto event of the year (some might disagree and instead hold that title in reserve for The Gumball 3000)... This being an odd year, 2009, the show concentrated on passenger cars. While I did not attend the show I always love looking at all the photos of all the new cars, what's coming to market, what might be coming to market, ideas and concepts... well, the news this year is kind of amazing. Honestly read all the news stories you can on this - why? Because this year every auto manufacturer was out there showing off their all electric or hybrid electric vehicles. To note the picture below is Volkswagen's chief executive Martin Winterkorn showcasing the E-Up! (Photo credit to Ralph Orlowski/Reuters ).


So, if there is any doubt in anyone's mind as to where the auto industry is moving, well this should help solidify that, in The New Energy Economy fully EV or PHEV cars are the future and we should be psyched for it. As I've said all along, electric car are great, I loved riding around in the custom Porsche this past January and I can't wait for these guys (slightly more affordable) to be on the road. It also means that for our industry  we (Electron Solar Energy) really need to also focus our energy (excuse the pun) on helping to enable this new infrastructure. Businesses and municipalities that want to stay ahead of the curve need to start thinking about how they are going to accomodate these vehicles - simple as that.
Here are a couple more photos, the Plug In Hybrid Prius and the electric Smart Car...

And here are a couple links to photo galleries that I've found of the show...
One from ABC News and the one from Green Tech Media

There are a lot of panel options out there on the market - there performance and specifications don't need to be learned by everyone - that's for your installer / sales person to know. But I feel it is important that people know what options are out there. Yes, I used thin film flexible on my roof, not because they were the most efficient, but because they were easy to install, I had more than enough room on my roof and they had a Miami-Dade County NOA for hurricane ratings - no engineering needed.

However, one of my favorite panels these days which have not yet become commonplace are bi-facial panels - this is basically a panel where the wafers are sandwiched between two layers of glass but there is no need for a backing so that the wafers kind of hover inside the panel frame allowing light to come through. What makes them "bi-facial" is that the wafers absorb the reflected light from the other side of the panel too boosting their efficiency. I could go into a more technical explanation, but the whole idea here is keep it simple so that we all understand the application and their usefulness. So - a photo being worth a thousand words... check this out.



Very cool, great integration into the built environment - using the panels to help create a shaded area for the deck, allows light to sprinkle through...

Note : I don't think the Hong Kong School that I wrote about earlier uses bi-facial technology, I think they're just regular wafers custom designed to "float" between the layers of glass... for the photo you can see that the wafers are staggered in places to give it a more "artful" effect...

Broadly speaking the Home Show this past weekend at the Miami Beach Convention Center was a success. While the remnants of Hurricane Erika probably kept some people at home on Friday and Saturday, overall turnout was good. I’m happy to report that our booths were generally pretty crowded. While there were definitely a number of “window shoppers” who were simply curious about solar and renewable technology, there were a lot of people who were beginning to feel like they might want to start spending money again. The sticker shock for solar PV still gets people, butwith the rebates and tax incentives currently offering almost a 60% rebate off the sticker price people were interested in getting quotes and having follow up visits at their homes. One thing I noticed were a lot of first time home buyers who were taking advantage of the depressed real estate prices to purchase homes, particularly young couples who wanted their homes to be energy efficient and eco-friendly.

 

There was a lot of interest in solar hot water, which isgreat. Solar hot water is an easy technology and bang for your buck, at an installed price of $6,000 to $7,000, is a great way to get clients familiar with solar technology – savings off of your electric bill are typically in the20 - 25% range. When clients see how effective solar hot water is typically they’ll come back to us to find out what other energy saving tricks we have up our sleeves.

The Home Show is targeted to residential consumers, however, in such a small community many of the business owners also live in the neighborhood. The show also provided an excellent opportunity for us to catch up with some of our outstanding commercial / business owners with whom we have outstanding contracts, a number stopped by to visit our booth and chat with us. Thank you to all of them and we look forward to follow up conversations this coming week.