If it rained oil
Author: Robert Orsello
Principal Engineer and CEO
Triage Corp “It’s an Emergency”™
www.triage.com Copyright 2008
Publish Date: 8/01/08
If it rained oil, wouldn’t we put buckets in
our back yard?
I live in Arizona and especially in the summer,
we Arizonians understand how much energy
pours down on us from the sun. Like an eternal
solar monsoon; it’s a real hot bed, so to speak.
I spent years living in Oregon before I relocated
to the “Valley of the Sun”. In Arizona, unlike
Oregon, most of the state is blessed by this
solar bounty. Why don’t we, as a collective
group put out our buckets?
The buckets are expensive! Yeah, no kidding,
but someone has to start the trend. Shouldn’t
Arizona be the flagship? Ironically, Oregon has
some of the best state incentives for the
development, production and implementation of
solar based energy solutions in the nation. Go
figure!
Incentives bring market, market brings business
and innovation, business and innovation
improve cost and availability, cost and
availability bring market and business.
You can bank on one thing. The sun is going
to shine brightly in AZ. I hope the light bulbs
are shining bright over the heads of our
legislature.
My bucket is out. It’s a 9Kw (kilowatt) PV
(photovoltaic) solar system, which was switched
on in November of 2006. This system cost
about $6.00 / watt (ouch), of which my power
utility provider, kindly paid me $3,000 / Kw in
exchange for my green credits. Green credits
don’t do us homeowners much good, but they
seem to be worth about $3,000 / Kw to
Renewable Energy deficient power utility
companies.
So now I have $27,000 into the deal. The US
gave me a $2,000 tax credit and the state of AZ
gave me another $1,000, which leaves me with
a system cost of $24,000.
What does a 9Kw system do for $24,000? After
two years of operation, I feel qualified to tell you
that first and foremost, wash off your panel
array on a regular basis. The dust and
whatever else that constantly collects on
surfaces around here makes panel production
go to near zero if left to build up for a month.
I can also tell you that during this period, my
system produced on average 36 Kwh (Kilowatt
Hours) each day, 365 days per year. Note that
my system does not track the sun, which costs
significantly more and takes up more room, but
would yield about 25% more total collection.
Return on my investment? My energy is
obviously produced during the day, which is the
most valuable time to use, or create electricity,
called “On Peak” for you utility savvy linguists.
Using “On Peak” rates and the new Net
Metering payment schedule, value to me
calculates to around $2,000 per year.
Basically, at today’s “On Peak” costs, take your
system size in rated Kw, times a factor of 0.22,
and that should be your annual savings in
thousands of dollars. Don’t forget to wash your
panels every two weeks.
Author: Robert Orsello
Principal Engineer and CEO
Triage Corp “It’s an Emergency”™
www.triage.com Copyright 2008
Publish Date: 8/01/08
If it rained oil, wouldn’t we put buckets in
our back yard?
I live in Arizona and especially in the summer,
we Arizonians understand how much energy
pours down on us from the sun. Like an eternal
solar monsoon; it’s a real hot bed, so to speak.
I spent years living in Oregon before I relocated
to the “Valley of the Sun”. In Arizona, unlike
Oregon, most of the state is blessed by this
solar bounty. Why don’t we, as a collective
group put out our buckets?
The buckets are expensive! Yeah, no kidding,
but someone has to start the trend. Shouldn’t
Arizona be the flagship? Ironically, Oregon has
some of the best state incentives for the
development, production and implementation of
solar based energy solutions in the nation. Go
figure!
Incentives bring market, market brings business
and innovation, business and innovation
improve cost and availability, cost and
availability bring market and business.
You can bank on one thing. The sun is going
to shine brightly in AZ. I hope the light bulbs
are shining bright over the heads of our
legislature.
My bucket is out. It’s a 9Kw (kilowatt) PV
(photovoltaic) solar system, which was switched
on in November of 2006. This system cost
about $6.00 / watt (ouch), of which my power
utility provider, kindly paid me $3,000 / Kw in
exchange for my green credits. Green credits
don’t do us homeowners much good, but they
seem to be worth about $3,000 / Kw to
Renewable Energy deficient power utility
companies.
So now I have $27,000 into the deal. The US
gave me a $2,000 tax credit and the state of AZ
gave me another $1,000, which leaves me with
a system cost of $24,000.
What does a 9Kw system do for $24,000? After
two years of operation, I feel qualified to tell you
that first and foremost, wash off your panel
array on a regular basis. The dust and
whatever else that constantly collects on
surfaces around here makes panel production
go to near zero if left to build up for a month.
I can also tell you that during this period, my
system produced on average 36 Kwh (Kilowatt
Hours) each day, 365 days per year. Note that
my system does not track the sun, which costs
significantly more and takes up more room, but
would yield about 25% more total collection.
Return on my investment? My energy is
obviously produced during the day, which is the
most valuable time to use, or create electricity,
called “On Peak” for you utility savvy linguists.
Using “On Peak” rates and the new Net
Metering payment schedule, value to me
calculates to around $2,000 per year.
Basically, at today’s “On Peak” costs, take your
system size in rated Kw, times a factor of 0.22,
and that should be your annual savings in
thousands of dollars. Don’t forget to wash your
panels every two weeks.
So what would you rather have, $24K in hand or
$2K per year?
Obviously it doesn’t pencil out right now. It’s just
equity on being savvy; or responsible. Nobody
at the club ogles my panels. Not yet.
The choice to change is in our hands, or our
governments. That statement use to be
synonymous. “Hint of cynicism”
As sure as the sun will shine in Arizona, the U.S.
has the brains and brawn to create solutions. It’s
a matter of commitment.
When we wanted a nuclear bomb for our national
defense, our government poured every resource
into its creation and boom, (no pun intended) it
was done.
When we wanted to go to the moon, our federal
government once again, blasted off a program to
conquer space. Within a decade, the Eagle
landed.
Instead of spending American lives and trillions
of dollars on oil and effort abroad; can’t we
decide once again that it is in our national
interest to focus like a magnifying glass, on the
development of solar technology?
Standard solar panels are about 12 % efficient,
and by the way, few are produced in the United
States. By just doubling the efficiency and
kicking up Federal Incentives for domestic
manufacturing, the cost and payback structure
would quickly flip.
I am an optimist!
I hail from the high tech industry of computer
chips, dating back to 1984, when a basic
personal computer had no hard drive, a single
floppy drive and cost $2500. Five Megabyte
hard drives constituted huge storage and were a
supreme luxury. Now, 25 years later, personal
computers are one fourth the cost and one
thousand times more capable. A premium hard
drive now has 500 Gigabytes, or 100,000 times
more storage than my old Five Meg beast.
Back then, main frames ruled the world and
industry dogma was that individuals had no
need, nor concern to access computing power,
networking or data storage.
Mr. Bill Gates wanted a computer in every home.
In accomplishing that feat, he ended the control
of information and computing and we all saw the
mainframe giants topple.
Well, in the spirit of good old Bill; I want a solar
power plant in every back yard or rooftop. Then
who would control energy and what giants would
topple? I’d start plugging in my electric car and
watch the Oil Giants scramble. Energy storage
would follow. Like Digital Storage, energy
storage would become the booming business of
this new millennium.
I do love the idea of all renewable concepts, but I
am partial to solar. It’s not just because I live in
Arizona. I lean toward solar for one reason. The
sun shines on everyone. Personal access to
energy should be every person’s right. In
Arizona, stand in one place with your arm
outstretched and trace a circle around yourself
on the ground. That circle of ground receives
about 5Kw hours of solar energy on average,
every day, 365 days per year. It truly is raining
oil. Get your bucket out there!
$2K per year?
Obviously it doesn’t pencil out right now. It’s just
equity on being savvy; or responsible. Nobody
at the club ogles my panels. Not yet.
The choice to change is in our hands, or our
governments. That statement use to be
synonymous. “Hint of cynicism”
As sure as the sun will shine in Arizona, the U.S.
has the brains and brawn to create solutions. It’s
a matter of commitment.
When we wanted a nuclear bomb for our national
defense, our government poured every resource
into its creation and boom, (no pun intended) it
was done.
When we wanted to go to the moon, our federal
government once again, blasted off a program to
conquer space. Within a decade, the Eagle
landed.
Instead of spending American lives and trillions
of dollars on oil and effort abroad; can’t we
decide once again that it is in our national
interest to focus like a magnifying glass, on the
development of solar technology?
Standard solar panels are about 12 % efficient,
and by the way, few are produced in the United
States. By just doubling the efficiency and
kicking up Federal Incentives for domestic
manufacturing, the cost and payback structure
would quickly flip.
I am an optimist!
I hail from the high tech industry of computer
chips, dating back to 1984, when a basic
personal computer had no hard drive, a single
floppy drive and cost $2500. Five Megabyte
hard drives constituted huge storage and were a
supreme luxury. Now, 25 years later, personal
computers are one fourth the cost and one
thousand times more capable. A premium hard
drive now has 500 Gigabytes, or 100,000 times
more storage than my old Five Meg beast.
Back then, main frames ruled the world and
industry dogma was that individuals had no
need, nor concern to access computing power,
networking or data storage.
Mr. Bill Gates wanted a computer in every home.
In accomplishing that feat, he ended the control
of information and computing and we all saw the
mainframe giants topple.
Well, in the spirit of good old Bill; I want a solar
power plant in every back yard or rooftop. Then
who would control energy and what giants would
topple? I’d start plugging in my electric car and
watch the Oil Giants scramble. Energy storage
would follow. Like Digital Storage, energy
storage would become the booming business of
this new millennium.
I do love the idea of all renewable concepts, but I
am partial to solar. It’s not just because I live in
Arizona. I lean toward solar for one reason. The
sun shines on everyone. Personal access to
energy should be every person’s right. In
Arizona, stand in one place with your arm
outstretched and trace a circle around yourself
on the ground. That circle of ground receives
about 5Kw hours of solar energy on average,
every day, 365 days per year. It truly is raining
oil. Get your bucket out there!
