Too green, too soon? Renewables weaken electrical grid? Would you be willing to pay more for power?

I made a comment on LinkedIn in response to excellent questions located above and thought it would be fitting to share it also with those of you who read my blog.

It is likely that the intermittent nature of renewable energies will contribute to an occasional, localized destabilization of our antiquated energy grid. Grid however is of strategic importance to any country.

I’m sure everyone has heard the phrase “smart grid”, so new trends are actually desired leading towards more distributed power generation in urban / industrial areas with highest power demand, reducing transmission power losses, automation, generally making power generation, transmission, distribution, use, monitoring, management a more efficient affair.

Read up on what is going on in EU in terms of renewable energy, the grid, energy pricing, etc. In terms of trends, it is a perfect place to observe indicating what is coming to North America as they had to deal with most of the issues while we only start talking about these. 

In the long term, the renewables & grid issues may be a short term pain for a long term gain. I view it as a positive change and opportunity as it will lead to more investment, generated revenues based on value, innovation and job creation. So I don't view it as too green or too soon.

Would I be willing to pay more for power? 

I have kids, observe trends and I don’t think much about our need for an instant gratification, so you bet I would and I do! 
We are already on 100% clean, renewable power provided by Bullfrog Power and don't mind paying a few bucks more. I look at it as a very small, but significant investment into our collective future.
You can find my name and many others here under Bullfrog Founders Club:
http://www.bullfrogpower.com/powered/homes.cfm?province_code=on

The number of residential and business subscribers is growing by the day.

Hope you can join in too and help building a sustainable future.

Solar PV space in Ottawa

The race for capturing a slice of residential and commercial PV rooftop business is definitely heating up.
Solar PV OEMs and major players in renewables are spreading their networks and establishing new offices throughout Ontario, Ottawa not being an exception. New companies in the PV space are popping up like mushrooms after the rain.

In the recent days I have attended two shows to get a taste of the competitive landscape and talk to some of the folks on both ends of the spectrum. One show was the Go Green Ottawa, the second was the Spring Home show. Both were hosted at the Lansdowne Park. What I saw was an emergence of new, somewhat immature industry, where people are feeling their way through the darkness, not articulating the value proposition correctly, basically learning on the job. I haven’t seen this much energy in a long time, which is both exciting and somewhat disconcerting at the same time.

First, I applaud Ontario government for adopting the lessons learned internationally and implementing one of the most generous FIT (Feed-in Tariff) programs going in global PV field. In my mind it is no brainer to learn from something that works in other countries that implemented it, but for the Canadian government to take such a decisive action in times of crisis. For change, it shows a refreshing sign of leadership.

I’m not going to get into details of FIT and micro-FIT programs, you can find enough data about the programs on OPA web site http://fit.powerauthority.on.ca/

Over the next several months, I believe you will see materialization of a number of trends. Some will generate exciting success stories, some will have more negative tone. The up and downs are what makes watching this relatively new industry so fascinating.

On one side you will see new people getting involved alongside the established firms in harnessing the power of sun. It is the right thing to do in terms of sustainability as the sun is the only resource that drives all other sources of energy and life on our blue planet. It is the right thing to do and now can be economically very attractive. You will see more financial institutions jumping on the bandwagon and making pacts with installers which is a great news for the consumers as the finances are need to make projects happen. Capital costs of the projects is where I see a weakness in the current offering. The OEMs and installers are not articulating the value proposition correctly to the clients. They are pushing technology rather than sustainable, economic solution that is guaranteed for 20 years by government of Ontario. This type of agreement is hard to argue with if you are in finance, unfortunately it is a bit of a bottle neck at this time as it is a brand new trend to follow for financiers. It will get sorted out over time and more strategic relationships will get formed between OEMs, installers and finance.

The excitement needs to be balanced with responsibility to deliver a quality product. This may be a problem as I see people applying at high rate, but there is only a handful of qualified professionals to actually manage the projects, design and do execute the job.

Not too long ago there was only a handful of firms in the Ottawa’s PV space based more on the belief of doing the right thing rather than very sound economic models. I’m not knocking them down, quite the contrary. It takes guts to start a business you know is ahead of adaptation curve as your target market is very small. I hope all these folks that started early and have so much vested in the business will be successful, able to leverage their experience in the field.

You have heard many times saying: “the devil is in the details”. This is especially true for the PV projects as there is a great number of consideration, variables and distinct lack of experience I already mentioned.

You are crazy if you don’t do a correct assessment as the first thing. You need to consider your roof orientation, pitch, elevation, shading and factor in local insolation to start with. What is even more important is assessment of structurally sound your roof is and correctly estimate the time left before the roof needs to undergo a maintenance. Last thing you want is for the roof to collapse or get ripped apart by weight of the system, accumulated snow weight or wind load where your panels act as sails, thus stressing your roof structure. You also want to avoid removing your panels and fastening system to redo your shingle or membrane roofing systems.
I heard the first horror stories about installers using incorrect fastening systems. This goes back to lack of experience and presently practiced absence of adequate quality in construction. This paradigm needs to change immediately in Solar PV space. The efficiency of the system is fairly low begin with, so your system is going to be only as good as your design decisions, quality of the installation and finally the choice of equipment used.

Make sure the systems are designed and installed only by a qualified personnel. OPA lists the questions to ask your installers in the FIT program overview on their web site. Get informed first, cover your base, before signing up.

I can’t stress enough the importance of proper design and factoring quality into your project. Every detail counts and can’t be overlooked to get the expected performance as stated by installer and OEM. There will be a plenty of stories resulting in wasted money by systems improperly installed or installed in suboptimal conditions.
Technology is #3 on my list of priority after design and expert, quality project execution. The selection of technology is as important as design and installation, but all three pieces need to be present to maximize the program returns, meet the operator’s expectations and enjoy relative maintenance free operation of the PV system.

There are only a few vendors that current qualify for the Ontario content FIT requirement. These qualified OEM/vendors are the starting point. Then you examine total sum of efficiencies in all components – panels, inverters as stated by OEMs, length of conductors, connections leading to transmission loss before you even hit the renewable energy meter.

There is whole lot of technology out there, each claimed to be superior. Again, this is not a simple matter to settle.
What I would like to stress to you is that having a reputable and trustworthy installer that is not new in the space is going to be the key. Over time, most installers will gain experience, just don’t let it be on your account.

Do your homework, get references, talk to the clients that have the systems in operation for at least couple of years. Substandard PV system performance is one thing, leaking or damaged roof is entirely different story, but both will cost you big time...

So what panels to choose? Ontario qualified manufacturers currently specialize in mono and polycrystalline panels. I’m not aware of any thin film panels being offered just yet that qualify for the program. Thin film panels are cheaper to make and better at harvesting diffused or indirect light and may be a better choice for some installations where crystalline panel systems would suffer. There are of course some downsides too relating to projected longevity and the fact these have lower conversion efficiency ratings over crystalline products, etc.

Inverter space is a another story undergoing a bit of a revolution. There are many different types of inverters to start with, suitable for different applications dependent on the site and operator requirements. There are string inverters vs. microinverters. Some will allow per panel performance monitoring, eliminate panel mismatching or partial shading phenomena, where others won’t. There are many choices, many decisions.
What I’m trying to say is - if you are not an expert in the PV field, hire an expert!

One that is very familiar with pros and cons of each product, combination of products and can help you to reduce the risk of not achieving the desired performance. The PV contract length with OPA is 20 years, you want to maximize the system performance with minimum losses over the two decades, in order to meet your payback and revenue forecasts.
PV arena will be a very interesting place to watch. You consumer, developer, if you have south facing roof space without obstructions, get in, check out the FIT programs, see if these are right for you.

If yes, the sooner you do it, the better. OPA along with local hydro companies will eventually have to start rejecting applications as installations will lead to power grid destabilization. Some of the causes are related to intermittent nature of solar energy, state of transmission and distribution line capacity as well as total cost of the program. Achieving the adaptation goals, some EU countries have already terminated their very successful FIT programs.

The Ontario FIT programs will ultimately lead to inflow of investment, innovation in new, more efficient technology, redistribution of the grid, addressing grid challenges due to its age, creation of new jobs, but will also result just like every new industry in a consolidation and ultimately a survival of the fittest.

Exciting times...

Energy From Waste Technology

Not long ago, I was involved in the revolutionary field of creating Energy from Waste (EFW).
I was excited to have a hand in something that could leave a lasting legacy for the future generations.

Why?
Having a great interest in the subject of human impact on our planet, I’m troubled by the traditional methods of waste disposal that are costly, have a profound impact on the environment, our food chain and the future of our children.

Since we constantly generate waste, we have been disposing a very significant resource of renewable energy. The organic portion of the waste consisting mostly of Hydrogen, Carbon and Oxygen has a significant energy value that is literally convertible to cash.

Making energy from waste - What a clever concept!

 Instead of burying or incinerating the waste, feed it into a process that converts this organic matter into a gas, gas to electrical energy and other useful by-products without the environmental impact of the more traditional methods.

You ask what is this organic matter full of energy?
The organic materials, or your feedstock – consist of food waste, paper, plastics, carpet, wood, biomass even tires or coal can be used for the energy from waste conversion process.

Municipal solid waste also contains inorganic materials such as rocks, glass, metals, etc. things that will not burn if lit on fire under the normal circumstances.
Inorganic materials are sorted out prior to entering the process or pass right through it without much chemical interaction.

I mentioned word combustion under normal circumstances. I used the term on purpose, because this process doesn’t use combustion and I wanted to drive the point home. Combustion happens only in the presence of oxidant such as air.
Combustion in EFW process is mostly not desired, because oxidation at high temperatures creates toxic chemicals that you later have to get rid of at a great expense, not to mention that combustion significantly reduces the calorific value of your product – a synthesis gas, also called Syngas...

Here comes an important point and my opinion: EFW process should be an anaerobic process that happens in an absence of air. It is a thermal decomposition where complex molecules of solid waste are broken down to simpler gases such as Hydrogen, Methane, CO, CO2 and very small amounts of other more complex hydrocarbons (HCs).

The Syngas is then cleaned up of the more complex HCs and nowadays used as a fuel to run internal combustion engine generators or combined cycle co-generation, using gas and steam turbines. These giant machines are optimized to run on Syngas with extreme reliability and very low emissions. A small portion of electricity generated is used to run the process with the balance sold to the energy grid.

Really cool fact about the whole concept is that we are only scratching the surface. The potential for various methods of Syngas utilization and creation of future technologies on this foundation is immense. For example, Instead of using the Syngas for generating electricity, we could be using it to produce a pure Hydrogen, which can be used as a fuel for your future hybrid electric / fuel cell vehicle. Other alternatives include turning Syngas into Natural Gas substitute that can be feed back into Natural Gas distribution network. There is a great potential for production of various liquid fuels and other useful chemicals.

The waste heat from the plants can be used to generate more electrical energy, use it to heat greenhouses or other buildings. The waste CO2 can be re-used as a plant fertilizer or used to grow micro-algae. Micro-algae are great potential source of medicinal oils, liquid fuels, fertilizer, animal feedstock and who knows maybe a source for engineered food in the near future.

While this energy from waste technology is not easy or cheap to develop, the potential for closing the loop in our product creation, consumption and renewal cycle is there, which is very, very significant. It is of strategic importance to human kind to get this technology right to reduce our environmental footprint, assist with getting us off the fossil fuels, have renewable source of energy and yeah, somewhere I mentioned the food. For animals to start with...

I urge our government to continue supporting organizations in EFW business, helping them to complete the development and commercialization of this disruptive technology. We need to nurture and support these programs any way we can as an investment into our collective future, not to mention it makes an incredible economic sense and as an opportunity to put people to work in a new, greener economy.

I’m confident that EFW can turn into a major success story, put us on the course of more sustainable and responsible living. In the long term EFW programs will assist our shrinking planet with the cleanup and self healing, ultimately benefiting all its inhabitants.