Hurricane (Blizzard) Sandy

It's hard to believe, but if you live in the highlands your truck probably looked like this last week.......

We lost power and got snowed in.  Everyone coped with the situation differently.  This guy picked up five gas cans and seven cases of light beer. Getting loaded and keeping the generator running  is a common strategy when dealing with mother nature at her worst.

After installing super slick battery backup systems for others I was forced to engineer a less glamorous and and far more limited version of my own simply to get the heat back up and running for a couple of days while MonPower worked to restore the juice.  It's not pretty, automatic, code-compliant or otherwise sustainable, but it kept us warm (until the old batteries I had lying around finally pooped out and we had to go stay with mom and dad).

Great photos of Autumns arrival at the Sheeps and Peeps Farm blog!

FirstEnergy Looks to Saddle West Virginia Customers with Worst Energy

I bet reporter Pam Kasey considered the above title for her recent piece in this weeks State Journal,

FirstEnergy wants to transfer coal-fired generation to Mon Power

Bottom line..............MonPower wants to add a surcharge to your bill to cover the purchase of coal-fired power plants that have been made economically obsolete in neighbor markets like Ohio.  MonPower would like to force you, the "captive ratepayer", to pay for the purchase through a new surcharge and then saddle you with paying for coal-fired power which is no longer price competitive with natural gas. 

MonPower is a FirstEnergy subsidiary.  FirstEnergy owns utilities in many states but it is consolidating its liability in our state and asking the Public Service Commission to make West Virginians pick up the tab. 

I could maybe get behind this move if it involved a rate hike to cover the capital expense of the power plant purchase.  At home we make most of our own power with solar.  My wife and I made an investment in power generating equipment.  We chose a generating technology that has a fuel cost of $0.  We should not be paying for either  FirstEnergy's shell game or MonPower's investment in an already outmoded and out priced  piece of generation infrastructure.  Certainly, we should not be paying a surcharge on our bill.

This piece of news is worth keeping an eye on as it concerns everyone with an electric bill in the State of West Virginia.  Take a minute to read Pam Kasey's article and keep an eye out as this story progresses - it is one of many stories that is growing out of the rapidly changing energy market, the rise of natural gas, decline of coal and shifting political power in West Virginia.

Solar Power Came in Handy During Outage - Charleston Gazette

Pat Browning submitted a beautifully written letter to The Charleston Gazette about her family's experience with their solar backup system during last months outages.  She writes,

 "When the power went off, our solar storage batteries took over, powering us through the night, recharging by day.  We did not lose refrigerated and frozen food, our fans continued to cool us, our lights, radio and television still worked, and our water still pumped without a noisy, smelly, polluting generator."  

Her piece appears next to another well written letter from a WVU alumni, Ted Bitterwolf, who reminds readers that coal is being priced out of the market place by natural gas, not by the Obama administration.  Both are well worth reading as they highlight how our energy infrastructure in West Virginia is undergoing a technological and an ideological shift which may gain us all a cleaner and more reliable energy future.

July Storms and Solar Power Backup Systems

...We were in fine shape with the solar. I think the power outages were such a lesson in energy independence.  I'm a believer and tell everyone about PIMBY.  Thanks so much for everything. 

Well, I was without power all weekend and the solar worked perfectly! Beautiful!! I was very happy not to lose all my food.   

 

I got a nice note.  Actually, I got a couple of nice notes and a few phone calls too from customers who rode out the region-wide power outages of this past month with battery backup.  

Matt,

Our backup system is working exactly as planned.  We were in NY over the weekend, and, of course, our battery system kicked in automatically after the Friday night storm.  We would have had to cut our trip short if we hadn't had the system, to come home and save our freezer.  As it was, we got home last night and everything is humming along.

Power in our part of Calhoun will be out until Saturday, at the earliest.  We used about .7 kwh last night after the panels quit generating.  At 5 kwh production per day, we should be able to continue like this indefinitely.  Well, the batteries might give out after ten years.

Just thought you'd like to know.  Thanks so much for all your help creating a really reliable system.

Bill

Bill, who penned the letter above, and his wife were without power for twelve days. Bill said that you could hear the generators running up and down the hollow at his neighbor's homes. 

Usually, folks opt for battery-backup because they live in a locale that frequently loses utility power (and may lose it for some period of time).  Battery-backup designed into a solar PV system can insure that critical loads like fridge, freezer, microwave, well pump, lights, TV, etc... continue to operate per normal when utility power goes down.  Some systems incorporate a generator in addition to help augment re-charging from the solar panels.  Some systems have plenty of solar to do without a generator.

Battery-backup system electronics in Morgantown, WV.  System is charged by a 1.44-kW PV array and propane generator.

 The flooded lead-acid batteries used to provide backup power during grid outages.

 4.8-kW solar PV array which keeps the lights on for Bill and Pat in Hillsboro, WV.

Electronics (inverters) used to condition solar power for battery backup and sale back to the utility.

New Solar Power Plant Installed in Hillsboro, WV

I haven't blogged about a solar project in a little while and I think this recent installation is well worth posting.  It's a 4.8-kW PV array built with Sharp 240-watt PV modules on a ground-mounted rack.  This system is wired to net meter with the local utility.  It was designed so that its annual production approximates the homeowners annual demand.

This is the stage at which it is important to step back and take some pictures while Chris keeps working and finishes the job. 

Bill and Pat, who own the system, have a nicely constructed home which is designed to benefit from  passive solar heating, but the roof lacked the square footage to mount the twenty solar modules.  That landed us out in the pasture adjacent to the yard which turned out to be a great spot with a clear skyview.

Bill and Pat are pretty energy conscientious.  They have energy efficient fixtures, heat with wood, and use a clothesline rather than a dryer.  That keeps their energy demand low and makes it less expensive to meet their annual demand with a solar PV system.  Imagine if all your neighbors made 100% of their own electric!

In addition to making clean power, the installed system includes a battery bank for supplying backup power in the event that the utility should experience an outage.  The battery bank has storage for 14-kWh of power which can be recharged by both the solar and a portable generator.  The upshot is that these folks can ride out a protracted outage while still having power for most of their appliances, lighting, well pump, heating system, etc...