The Real Issue With Solar Energy

A lot of people who read this blog may not realize that my late father and I ran 'The Solar Company' before his death. In his infinite wisdom, it was a sole proprietorship and hardly worth salvaging after his death - but we did try. And I did learn quite a bit - even powering my own computer systems until I sold those last panels and batteries.

What did I learn? First of all, the then government is made up of elected officials that like kickbacks - nothing new, and something that apparently hasn't changed. My father and I weren't too interested in the underhanded, so... no government contracts, though we did bid on the lighting of the highways and showed the cost effectiveness in the long term for the nation - and thus, the taxpayers.

But aside from the normal Banana Republic sort of behavior of government - be the bananas fruit or petroleum products - the main issue was and remains cultural change as this article quotes Jerry Wolfe, CEO of privately held groSolar:

The technology is in place and improving every year," he said. "We're finding that residential and commercial buildings are less expensive (with solar panels) than (if powered only by) a utility. People don't understand that. Our biggest problem is that solar requires a cultural change and acceptance. That's our biggest hurdle."

And that's exactly right. First, there is the education issue: people who continue to talk to me about solar energy fail to understand that the proper design of a solar system includes rethinking the way of just about everything. Decisions about running inverters and the AC powered appliances they own instead of converting to DC powered appliances is a large example. Most people, it seems, don't know the difference between alternating current and direct current. They don't understand that converting between the two typically means wasting energy.

And they don't understand exactly how much electricity that they presently use in terms of renewable energy: If you want an idea, look at your electric bill and see how many Kilowatts you use. Then divide by 100 watts as an estimate. Divide by the number of days in the month. Now you have a poor guess at how many panels you need.

Then there is the issue of being more aware of how one uses electricity: it is a culture. A solar system doesn't permit you to simply pull more power from a grid; you have to design your system for your peak use - which means you need to forecast your peak use and make sure that the solar energy source - or any renewable energy source, for that matter - can accomodate the needs.

Last but not least, renewable energy typically requires a higher start up cost than an AC connection from a electricity supplier. Banks are only now cluing in on this; when the Solar Company first started here in Trinidad and Tobago our applications for loans were turned down (in this very same decade!) were turned down because 'solar energy is untested'. This from Trinidad and Tobago banks - all of them. Amusing in retrospect, frustrating at the time.

So yes, cultural change is needed. But if you can't teach people how to use Facebook without stabbing each other, how can you teach them about renewable energy? That, amongst other examples of how technology is abused and remains unused, is really at issue. How do we change that?

I suppose it should start with the few of us who want to change it.