D&E GreenWorks! Gets Front Page for Solar Install

The GreenWorks! club at Davis & Elkins College netted front page coverage in last Saturday's Inter-Mountain for their new solar PV array.  The 3.24-kW PV array is on the Eshelman Science Center at D&E's campus in Elkins, WV.  The Inter-Mountain covered the ribbon cutting ceremony and printed a press release that you can read here.

The GreenWorks! group has worked for a couple of years to build support for solar on campus.  The twelve panel solar PV array was constructed by club members and is the largest solar PV array at any residential college in West Virginia.  The club has completed a number of projects in the past including solar lighting of a gazebo on campus, re-lamping, LED exterior lighting retrofit, and electronics recycling.  GreenWorks! is a great club and a fantastic group of people to work with.

I Love the International Space Station - It's Off-grid with a 110-kW Solar Array!

I can't give a presentation about solar without mentioning the International Space Station.  It epitomizes off-grid living at its most extreme.  The New York Times recently featured a beautiful video that shows views of our planet from the ISS, "Earth, the Marvelous Blue Orb." 

"One of the little-known benefits of the space station is that it is at just the right altitude to photograph things on Earth. Every week, the astronauts aboard the space station record images of things that would spew headlines if we saw them on any one of the thousands of planets that we now know circle other stars." 
-NY Times 4/2/15


 The video has footage of our planet; thunderstorms, city lights, volcanic eruptions.  It is also fun to watch the solar arrays on the ISS as they move from shadow to sun.  You can learn more about the ISS electrical system on Wikipedia.  NASA also offers a site to help you spot the ISS in the nights sky. 

It's up there, and it's off the grid!

Solar Powered Chickens! The 11th Annual West Virginia Small Farms Conference Feb 26 - 28

The 11th Annual West Virginia Small Farms Conference is again featuring an Energy Track on Thursday February 26.  This day features a series of sessions focused on making and saving power.

Topics include:

8:30-9:20

MicroHydro: Producing Electric Power with Water Power

            Mickey Janowski - Off-the-grid Homeowner

            Webster Springs, WV

            Mike King – Morris Creek Watershed Association, Inc.

            Montgomery, WV

“We use creek water to power our house….”.   This letter to the editor appeared in the Charleston Gazette in January 2013.  Hear the author; Mickey Janowski, as well as Mike King from the Morris Creek Watershed Association discuss their respective small-scale hydro-electric projects.

9:30-10:20

Ground Source Heat Pumps

            Dan Halloran - Long-time HVAC/Geothermal Contractor

            Charleston, WV

Dan will talk about installing and using a ground source heat pump to heat and cool a residence.  The overview includes a discussion about how the technology can be adapted  to a range of sites to provide a more efficient means of heating and cooling in some parts of the state.

10:30-11:20

Solar Around the Farm: Pump water, re-charge batteries, and have power where you didn’t use to

            Matt Sherald – PIMBY Energy, LLC

            Thomas, WV

Use electricity from the sun to supply power to places far from utility lines.  Go beyond fence charges to uses such as pumping water, shop lighting, and running power tools. This talk includes an introduction to basic off-the-grid power system components required for producing, storing and using electricity.

LUNCH

1:30-2:20

Energy Efficiency: Reducing Costs for Small Farmers in the Home and in the Field

            Emmett Pepper – WV Citizens Action Group/Energy Efficient West Virginia

            Charleston, WV

Energy efficiency projects can be an inexpensive way to reduce your monthly bills and enjoy a more comfortable home.  Energy Efficient West Virginia is an advocacy group that promotes the adoption of energy efficient policies in the state.  Emmett Pepper will discuss the group’s work including their 2013 block-by-block energy efficiency competition in Charleston’s East End neighborhood.

2:30-3:20

Grid-tie Solar PV: Becoming a Solar Power Plant

            Matt Sherald – PIMBY Energy, LLC

            Thomas, WV

Did you know that you could own your own electrical power plant?  The price of solar PV modules is at a historic low and federal incentives are excellent – this makes solar more affordable than it has ever been.  Hear how home and business owners in the state have invested in solar to off-set their future electricity costs through the generation of clean energy from the sun.

3:30-4:20

Federal Grants, Loans & Tax Benefits for Efficiency and Renewable Energy Projects

            Jesse Gandee – USDA Rural Development

            Morgantown, WV

            Mark Ribas – Pennsylvania Tax Institutes, Inc.

            State College, PA

Are you interested in how you might fund a renewable energy or energy efficiency project?  Find out if you have a project that might qualify for federal grant dollars or guaranteed loan and get a full understanding of how you can take advantage of tax credits and depreciation to make the most of your investment. 

Solar Panels: What About Hail.........?

I just worked on a solar PV install with a group of students in GreenWorks!, a club at Davis & Elkins College.  As with other jobs I was asked about the durability of the solar PV modules.  The modules somewhat  resemble big windows so I think people are curious about how well they will hold up to wind, snow and my favorite, "What about hail....?"
SolarWorld created a fun video that highlights the stresses that their modules can withstand.

JP Auclair - My Mother-in-Law's Favorite Post

JP Auclair Street Segment (from All.I.Can.) from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.
 
My mother-in-law visited recently.  She's the best.
With her arrival came some of the first flakes of the season and she shared that not only did she love the JP Auclair "Street Segment" video that I linked to years ago, but she also had found a great video that focused on the making of the "Street Segment".  My mother-in-law doesn't even ski!


The Creative Seggy: Behind the Scenes of the "JP Auclair Street Segment" from Sherpas Cinema on Vimeo.

RIP JP.  Thanks!

Energiewende - The Energy Transition

Sun and Wind Alter Global Landscape, Leaving Utilities Behind

"Electric utility executives all over the world are watching nervously as technologies they once dismissed as irrelevant begin to threaten their long-established business plans. Fights are erupting across the United States over the future rules for renewable power. Many poor countries, once intent on building coal-fired power plants to bring electricity to their people, are discussing whether they might leapfrog the fossil age and build clean grids from the outset."

New York Times - September 13, 2014

My parents sent me this article.  It is very good.  If you are interested in reading the whole piece you can click here.

Triple Tracker Turns in 70K

Richard wrote on Halloween to note the 5-year anniversary of his solar PV power plant.  This was a fun project, and worth revisiting here on the blog.  The system is connected to Dominion Power's transmission system in Goochland Co. VA and has now generated more than 70,000 kWh.

The full post on the project which uses three dual-axis trackers from Array Technologies, SolarWorld PV modules, and SMA SunnyBoy inverter equipment was posted in September of 2011.  You can check it out by clicking here.