“Walking the Walk” About Solar…

Often I am surrounded by forward-thinking people. People, like me, who recognize that there must be a shift to renewable energy in this country, and this world. Fortunately, many people realize this. However, most, myself included, are talking about solar and renewables, but are not quite practicing it. “We want solar, but we do not know how long we will be in our house.” “When things slow down, I would like to get an estimate for solar on my house…” “After that next project/job/etc., we’ll be able to afford solar…” Meanwhile, every bit each of us does…now…within our means…matter.

Let me introduce Bob Hodash. Bob is a teacher at Sierra Middle School in Bakersfield, California. He has written and won grants from both the PG&E solar Schools program and the BP A+ for Energy program. He is the “Kids for Solar Energy” Club advisor and on the PG&E Solar Schools Program Teacher Advisory Board. This summer, Bob installed a 3.8kWh AC system. The picture of his installation was taken 08-26-07. The temperature outside was 92 degrees Farenheit, and the system was generating 3,085 watts at 2:30 pm.

As you read his story, think about how ideal your home or work is for solar. The change to renewables does not happen overnight, but one installation at a time…

Story submitted by Bob Hodash

722kwh in June! (722 Thousand-Watt-Hours!) That’s the amount of electricity my roof mounted solar panels produced in the first month of use, July 2007. Not bad for not even being at home. I was actually on vacation in upstate New York and my roof was producing electricity, providing the grid with extra power and making me money. PG&E credits the energy that my solar panels produce in excess of what I use and since I was away and anything consuming power was unplugged, it was all excess power. It’s actually more of a credit, and California has full retail net-metering which allows me to get maximum financial benefit for my solar production.

Of course for the globally minded, I saved many tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere. On a hot day like today in California, my solar power and fellow solar power deployers may have helped the state avoid rolling brown or blackouts.

The image above was pulled off of the California Independent System Operator (ISO) website. The green line shows what was available, and the red line shows what our usage was… Today was a spare the air day, and may of my fellow schools along with businesses were asked to voluntarily reduce loads (turn off uneeded lights, increase the air temperature thus requiring less energy to cool the air, etc.). It’s unbelievable that our load went up over 50,000 MW, but there was my energy contribution…on a day like today, let nobody doubt that every individual contribution does make a difference.

I added no pollutants to the earth or the atmosphere and possibly convinced two others neighbors to follow my lead. More if this short article convinces others.

The process was a bit lengthy of choosing a contractor, the panels and the inverter, and then applying for a home equity loan. I went with a California company (SolarCity) to install, and California companies that made the panels and inverter (SolarWorld and Xantrex, respectively). Think Globally and Buy Locally! Once the decision was made the installation went very quickly and with only minor communication issues, which were quickly solved. The rebate from the Public Utilities Commission & PG&E was handled by the company (almost $9K) and the Feds will be chipping in at least $2K in April.

My advice for those who have panels installed, communicate with your contractor, make sure plenty of cold water is available to the installers (we invited our installers in for pizza lunch, which was of course was gladly accepted), and keep all of your paperwork organized, so you know what equipment you purchased, and try to work with one person as the job coordinator.

Would I do it again, yes! Do I feel good about it, yep!! And, do I brag to other people about it, please see above!!!

If you have specific questions please e-mail me at bhodash@bak.rr.com.

Thanks and “The Future is Clean Energy!”

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 30th, 2007 at 6:34 pm and is filed under California, General Info, Teacher Perspective . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.