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In our continuing series of Sustainability in the News we hand-select a few well-written gems, pull out some quotes and give some comments on each. Enjoy! -Harry

• Most of these articles are from Green Tech Media, a trusted news source at our Grass Valley office.

#1. Hydropanels!

Off-grid solar technology that pulls water from the air is ramping up.   In the article BlackRock Leads $50M Investment Into Off-Grid Solar Technology That Generates Water, we learn about a new take on this technology that can create 12 bottles of water a day for 15 years.

Although the article has a funding tone, a few gems of knowledge about Hydropanels are dropped in.

Explaining what is a Source Hydropanel:

The 340-pound Source Hydropanel contains a small photovoltaic array to power the system. The heart of the technology, though, is a set of nanomaterials designed to suck trace amounts of moisture out of the air — even in desert environments like the company’s home base of Tempe, Arizona. The panels use the heat of the sun’s rays to evaporate the water from the absorption materials. The system condenses the water, adds minerals to enhance the flavor and pipes it out for consumption.

A home installation of two Hydropanels in the U.S. costs between $5,500 and $6,500 for both equipment and installation labor, according to the company website. That system promises 12 bottles of “delicious water” per day for an operating life of 15 years, yielding a price of less than $0.15 per bottle.

Sure this technology might not be as necessary in our region as we have access to water, but in other regions, this is a groundbreaking, lifechanging concept.

#2.US Solar Plants Now Expected to Run for More Than 30 Years: Berkeley Lab

There are some really great quotes about utility scale large solar energy projects in this article.

Big solar plants are getting cheaper to run and expectations for their useful operational lives keep getting longer, according to a new survey of U.S. solar industry professionals. … By the end of 2019, a cumulative total of 76 gigawatts of solar had been installed in the United States …!

For these larger solar projects they will not leave the same solar panels in operation as long as we would at a home. But even in large scale circumstances…

The assumed useful life of projects now averages 32.5 years, up from 21.5 years in 2007, according to a canvass of solar project developers, sponsors, asset owners and consultants conducted by researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The cost for these plants has gone down significantly!

Berkeley Lab finds that the levelized cost of energy of U.S. utility-scale PV projects declined from an average of $305 per megawatt-hour for projects built in 2007-2009 to $51/MWh for projects built in 2019.

Check out more by reading the article here -> 

#3. The 4 Things PG&E Must Do to Survive and Thrive Post-Bankruptcy

A pretty deep look into what is on the horizon with our energy and PG&E. Read the article here.

One blinding underlining idea is that purchasing energy from PG&E is not going to get cheaper. They are going to have to pick up the slack from years of neglect and do a lot of work to get ready for fires and avoiding PSPS’s (power shutoffs).

Making sure yourself, and all your friends and family get solar at their homes and businesses before the tax credits expire in 1.4 years is what we should all be thinking about after reading this article.

PG&E faces a long and difficult road ahead. … It’s struggling to find cost-effective ways to protect millions of customers from fire-prevention blackouts that may need to continue for years. … And all of this must happen without excessively raising customer rates if it’s to avoid political and customer backlash.

Many more long-term challenges await PG&E, such as adapting to large portions of its customer base being served by community-choice aggregators, or its natural gas network being rendered obsolete by the state’s mandated target of zero carbon by 2045. But first, PG&E must deliver on every utility’s core responsibilities, said Isaac Maze-Rothstein, grid edge analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables — “the pillars of safe, affordable and reliable” service.

“They need to not cause any more fires,” Maze-Rothstein said, adding, “they need an alternative to almost all PSPS events” (which stands for “public-safety power shutoffs”) to avoid subjecting millions of residents to multiday blackouts in the name of fire prevention.

 

#4. Second Life uses for Lithium Batteries from Electric Vehicles are ramping up.

At some point when a car battery in an electric vehicle does not have enough juice to run efficiently it will need to be used somewhere else. Some say, incorrectly, that they will all go straight to the landfill. That is just not the case, especially when these batteries still hold value after they are used in these vehicles.

Check out the article Second Life: Carmakers and Storage Startups Get Serious About Reusing Batteries

Podcasts from the Energy Gang:

#1. Have you heard of fugitive methane gas emissions at natural gas extraction sites? No? 

Well it might be time to hear why Natural Gas is not that “natural.” Not to mention fracking and it’s tainted history of contaminating ground water and surrounding bodies of water. Earthquakes anyone? Here is another reason why solar is simply a cleaner alternative.

According to researchers, methane leakage across oil and gas operations in the U.S. are 60 percent higher than government estimates. Put another way, the methane leakage from oil and gas has the same warming effect over a 20-year time period as all America’s coal capacity in 2015.

Natural gas has been vital to lowering power-sector carbon emissions. Are methane leaks reversing that progress?

Check out the podcast on fugitive methane gas here -> 

#2. A 90% Clean Grid Can Be Achieved Quickly. What’s Holding It Back?

They are estimating a possibility of a 90% clean grid in 15 years. Their must be more to that, right?

Most decarbonization proposals play out over 30 years, aiming toward 2050. But a new roadmap from researchers at UC Berkeley and the policy firm Energy Innovation shows the grid can get to a level of 90% clean in just 15 years’ time.

Dig in and listen what the energy gang thinks is possible here -> 

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Part of SEG’s Sustainability in Media Series, where we share good media about sustainable energy and living to help our community learn and thrive during interesting times. 

Before you go straight to the article (link below), here are some points that I feel are re-affirmed by this concise, to-the-point interpretation. 

1. Solar is cheaper than coal (and better for the environment)
2. Regardless of how cheap solar is becoming and how much utility companies are installing, utility companies like PG&E still raise prices yearly by about 5%. With fire risks that is not going to change. Therefore, owning (not leasing) solar for you home is the best way get all the benefits.
3. We only have 1.5 years left of the solar tax credit and it may not get renewed because of these dropping costs.
4. We will need to combine other energy sources and storage (batteries) with solar to help deliver power when we need it most, at night.
5. Solar should not be political, it’s an economical, environmental and simply a morally better energy solution than carbon based fuels.
6. Solar creates local good paying jobs.
7. Solar produces clean energy for at least 25+ years.
8. We must de-carbonize our country and industries as soon as possible. Understanding that burning trees, drilling oil and fracking gas is not the solution.

Check out the Forbes article by Enrique Dans.

www.forbes.com/sites/enriquedans/2020/05/21/what-the-post-pandemic-world-needs-is-a-solar-energy-revolution

Not able to read the full article?

Here are some quotes:

“In reasonably sunny places, it (solar) is by far the cheapest form that we humans have managed to invent for generating electricity.”

At the time, “solar plants routinely win power auctions with bids that reach 4 cents per kilowatt-hour, a price that is no longer cheaper than a coal plant: it’s cheaper than coal itself.”

In conclusion

” Those who … continue to rely on the old way of generating energy using fossil fuels will surely be missing out on the most transformative technology we have seen in a long time.”

Please let us know your thoughts on social media or email us at info@seg.energy.

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Of course you are. We all are. That’s not really what this is about though. It’s about the opportunity to pay less.

Whether you have solar, are planning to go solar, or never plan to go solar, it may be possible to reduce your electricity cost simply by changing your PG&E rate plan. Invest a few minutes of your time to ensure you’re not losing out on possible savings.

Even if you’re not currently on a Time-of-Use plan, know that PG&E will be transitioning all customers to a TOU plan soon.

• All Customers with TOU-A (Time of Use – A) will be transferred to TOU-C in the Summer of 2020. The only way to avoid that is to sign up for TOU-B before May 1st, 2020.
• All customers on the E-1 rate schedule, will be switched to TOU (Time of Use). So, if you’re thinking of getting solar, consider locking in TOU-B rates by May 1st, 2020.

If you are working with us, getting solar or backup power, we can help you understand what is best for you with a site visit or phone call.

This seems complicated, but it will become clearer when you check and review your current PG&E rate plan. Below are instructions on how to navigate your account as well as compare and change rate plans. If you don’t have an online account yet, set one up; the information you’re missing out on could cost you more than you might think! (here is the link to login and on the bottom left, register for a free online PG&E account)

Begin by looking at your “rate schedule” on page 3 of your bill (see red arrow).

Next, explore your options by clicking “compare rate plans” (see red arrow). Once you’re on the comparison page, scroll down to find your rate plan options.

Before you change your plan, there are a few additional considerations. Many plans begin with “E-TOU,” which is an abbreviation for “Electricity-Time Of Use”. With time of use, the price of electricity is based on the time you’re using or generating power (with solar). Each rate plan specifies high-priced “peak” times and lower-priced “off-peak” times.

If you’re an existing solar customer on “E-TOU-A” PG&E is planning to transition you to E-TOU-C on July 1st; or September 30^th, depending on what PG&E documents you’re looking at (they’re not always crystal clear about things). When you’re comparing rate plans, E-TOU-C doesn’t currently show up as that, instead it will say “Time-of-Use (Peak Pricing 4-9 pm Every Day)”. In contrast the E-TOU-B is similar but is called out as such and says “Peak Pricing 4-9 Weekdays”. Note the difference between “Every Day” and “Weekdays”. There’s also a difference in the price you pay during winter and summer as well as peak and off-peak periods. It sounds confusing, I know, but fortunately the comparison page will show you the cost difference between “B” and “C”.

If you’re not a solar customer, but are considering going solar, you should consider E-TOU-B before it closes to new customers on May 1^st, 2020. Once you’re on it, you’ll be able to keep it for at least five years. In PG&E-speak, you’ll be “grandfathered in”.

This is important because E-TOU-B may be more favorable than E-TOU-C once you’ve gone solar. The only way to really know is to have a solar professional use a cost-benefit analysis tool to see how much power you’ve used during different times of day and month in the past, then evaluate solar for you.

Believe it or not, PG&E knows how much electricity you’ve used every fifteen minutes going back years and years! This information, called “interval data”, can be downloaded from your PG&E account. Beware though, it’s a huge amount of data! Fortunately, we can download that huge data file into our advanced analysis tool and it crunches the numbers for us very simply.

Lastly, even if your home isn’t solar and never will be, we encourage you to compare your options, it’s pretty easy and doesn’t take much time.

The post Are you paying PG&E more than you should? appeared first on Sustainable Energy Group.

Last May, the California Energy Commission (CEC) announced a ground-breaking update to the state’s building energy efficiency standards.

Starting January 1, 2020, all new buildings in California must have solar.

The standards (according to Title 24, Part 6, Building Energy Efficiency Standards) also contain a number of energy efficiency updates that together with solar will cut energy use in homes by more than 50% and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the building industry. Even though California has been updating standards with the intention of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40% below 1990 levels, this update comes as a surprise to many. It’s apparent that California is taking a quantum leap in building standards.

The state aims to “reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 700,000 metric tons over three years, equivalent to taking 115,000 fossil fuel cars off the road”, according to the California Energy Commission. This estimate is based only on adding solar to homes built under the 2019 standards. It doesn’t factor in energy efficiency for homes or new standards for commercial buildings, which will be expected to comply with similarly ambitious standards in future code updates.

For now, the 2019 standards apply to all new buildings as well as additions and alterations to existing ones. While the energy efficiency standards apply to both commercial and residential buildings, the solar photovoltaic requirement only pertains to residential.

Specifically, it mandates that single and multi-family residential buildings up to three stories tall are built with enough solar to offset annual energy needs.

The size of the solar system ultimately depends on the building’s floor area, location in terms of climate zone, and energy demand.

In California, there are 16 different climate zones that are based on temperature, not necessarily solar radiation, so energy demand for heating and cooling is important.

There are six exceptions to the 2019 standards that allow for the solar system to be reduced in size or, in some cases, eliminated entirely.

Certain exceptions may apply when energy efficient appliances and technologies are installed in the home. For example, single and multifamily homes may have a smaller solar system setup, if all thermostats have demand-responsive controls. Similarly, single-family homes with more than three habitable stories qualify for smaller systems. Other exceptions apply depending on solar access and shade.

The standards are such that efficiency comes first, then solar, in order to avoid over generation of energy and reach zero net energy in California buildings especially in specifically in our Nevada County service area. Builders and developers are encouraged to improve efficiency cost-effectively through high performance attics, walls, windows, and lights alongside developing technologies such as battery storage and heat pump water heaters. Then comes designing an appropriate solar array to offset any remaining demand.

Who is responsible for designing and installing the solar system? How much does it cost? Who pays for it?

Builders and developers are responsible for complying with the 2019 standards and absorbing the costs of doing so. They can either work with a trusted solar company or take the solar design and install process in-house. Fortunately, incorporating solar into new homes at the start of construction is more economical than installing solar after the fact; the California Energy Commission notes that the new standards increase construction costs by $9,500, but will save $19,000 in energy and maintenance costs over a 30 year mortgage period (single page info sheet). In turn, the increased cost of homes will fall on homeowners and renters, however so too will the increased long-term savings.

Overall, the 2019 standards push sustainability to the next level via building electrification and self-sufficiency.

They flip the relationship between buildings and the power grid, turning homes into local energy producers as opposed to energy consumers and opening doorways for further advancements in the energy and building industry.

SOURCES

California Energy Commission

Building Energy Efficiency Standards – Title 24

Building Energy Efficiency Standards for Residential and Nonresidential Buildings

Frequently Asked Questions: 2019 Building Energy Efficiency Standards

2018_Title_24_2019_Building_Standards_FAQ.pdf

2018 – Title 24 2019 Residential Standards.pdf

California Energy Maps: CA Building Climate Zone Areas

California Public Utilities Commission

Zero Net Energy

News

LA Times | Starting in 2020, all new homes must come with solar panels. Builders are getting ready. 

Greentech Media | Everything You Need to Know About California’s New Solar Roof Mandate

Greentech Media | California’s Rooftop Solar Mandate Wins Final Approval

In Northern California solar and energy efficiency it’s important to understand what policies are in effect like Net Metering in California, the tax credit decreases and in this case the Title 24, Part 6, Building Energy Efficiency Standards for California mandating that all new buildings in CA must have solar to sized to net out annual KW energy usage.  This effects our area and solar installations in Grass Valley, Nevada City, Penn Valley, Auburn, North San Juan and Lake Wildwood, as well solar energy systems installed by our solar company in Nevada County, Placer, Yuba and El Dorado County. 

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This Q & A pertains to California’s Quantum Leap in Building Standards. The questions answered here come from inquiries into concepts, technologies and standard specific rhetoric found in our article on California’s rooftop solar mandate.

What are heat pump water heaters?

A heat pump water heater is an electric household water heating system that takes heat out of the air and puts it into a tank to provide you with hot water. What you have is heat being transferred from air to water. It compares to an air source heat pump, which takes heat from inside or outside to regulate the temperature of a building; in this case, you have heat being transferred from cool outdoor air to a warmer indoor space.

What’s a thermal envelope?

A thermal envelope defines the conditioned (heated or cooled) space in a building. It normally doesn’t include the attic unless there’s no attic floor insulation, in which case, the insulation is placed in the roof instead. This is often done so that ducting can be placed in the attic, making it part of a building’s selectively heated or cooled space to reduce duct heat loss in winter and heat gain in summer. Generally, the envelope is bounded by the roof/ceiling, walls, floor, doors and windows.

What is demand-responsive technology?

Demand-responsive technologies, also referred to as demand-response controls, coordinate the hours of operation of building systems and appliances so that they harmonize with the grid. That is, demand-response controls shift electricity usage to off-peak periods in order to balance supply and demand, and eliminate the need for “peaker” power plants. Demand-responsive technologies are incentivized by time-of-use rate schedules, which will be implemented in California across the board in late 2020. They are meant to save utility companies and customers money, while at the same time reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

How can people be more demand responsive without technology?

People can play the role of a demand-response technology by timing their use of household systems and appliances during peak usage hours, which are from 4pm to 9pm. For example, do laundry outside of peak hours, or run the air conditioner at a lower temperature in the morning, then turn it off and allow the house to warm up throughout the afternoon before turning it back on in the evening (or simply open windows if it’s cooler outside). Ventilating the house with cool night air in the summer can dramatically reduce air conditioning energy as well.

How can grid-tied homes have battery backup systems?

Yes, my own home feeds excess electricity back to the grid but, should PG&E go down, I can run off the batteries for a few days. If the outage lasts longer I can power my home and charge my batteries with my generator. What differentiates systems like mine from the majority of grid-tied solar systems is not only a battery bank but other additional components including a special kind of inverter.

Under the new Energy Efficiency Standards going into effect in January 2020 for new homes, there’s a mandate that a grid-tied solar system be installed. While this is an additional expense, it will save utility customers money over the course of their mortgage.

Read about California’s new solar mandate:

California’s Quantum Leap in Building Standards

It’s Officially Official: California Has Approved the Mandate for Solar on All New Homes Beginning In 2020

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What are CCAs?

CCAs are “nonprofit public entities formed by local communities working together to supply the electricity needs of their residents.” Nearby in Placer County, the regional CCA is Pioneer Energy. Currently, there are 19 CCAs in California, which are actively displacing PG&E and other IOUs in their regional service areas.

Today, 42% of PG&E’s customer base has been lost to CCAs, and by 2025, the California Public Utilities Commission estimates that the percentage of bundled load loss will increase to 85%.[2].

Since 2015, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has been investigating PG&E to assess how the company’s governance and organizational culture administer and protect public safety. Given the costly liabilities associated with numerous recent California wildfires, PG&E has filed for bankruptcy protection.

In a fragile energy marketplace highly dependent on only a few utility companies, the future of PG&E and its inherent consequences for California’s energy landscape are highly uncertain. However, the utility will continue to manage transmission and distribution of power in California in the foreseeable future. But it may not continue to be the dominant electricity provider (essentially an unregulated monopoly) for much longer.

On February 14, 2019, a coalition of six Northern California CCAs known as the California Community Choice Association filed a report to the CPUC arguing that it should take over the responsibility of power generation and procurement for the communities it serves, and that PG&E should only be responsible for transmission and distribution of power.

In the report, the association claims that locally regulated energy service providers can offer greater choice, affordability, and public safety for the grid. “The joint CCAs strongly endorse a restructuring that allows PG&E to focus where safety improvements are needed most—delivering electricity across the energy grid—while allowing locally-controlled public agencies to safely, reliably, and cost-effectively purchase the energy Californians rely on,” said Beth Vaughan, executive director of the California Community Choice Association (CalCCA). [3]

Because CCAs, generally speaking, have a high renewable energy portfolio, they are able to offer electricity at more competitive rates to their customers.

As locally controlled, decentralized power producers, in addition to being more responsive to specific community needs, CCAs are more responsive to technological innovation in the rapidly-evolving energy industry, and climate change. The association promotes renewable energy generation and widespread adoption of electric services, through partnerships with local governments to remove barriers and facilitate electrification of municipalities.

In January 2019, Governor Newsom noted at his State of the State address, “We must map out a longer-term framework, not just for the utilities’ future, but for California’s energy future, to ensure that the cost of climate change doesn’t fall on those least able to afford it.”

CCAs pave the way for a more democratic energy landscape, offering alternatives to IOUs that provide reliable, cost-effective, and greener energy sources for a more resilient energy grid in California amidst a changing climate.[4]

To read more about the Community Choice Association’s filing to the CPUC and PG&E’s current stance, check out Green Tech Media’s recent article on this topic.

Community Choice Aggregates are diverse and are not all created equal. Instead, they are locally controlled by the governments they are partnered with. For example, some CCAs have different approaches to crediting customers for electricity generated; it depends upon on whether or not they have approved the Net Energy Metering tariff.[5]

For more details about the policies and benefits of a specific CCA, visit the website or contact the representative of the CCA. However, CCAs provide a welcome breath of fresh air in terms of new competition in the electricity marketplace in California, which is highly centralized and in need of diversification.

The post CCAs and California’s Changing Electric Energy Landscape appeared first on Sustainable Energy Group.