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You may have seen my recent post on how Florida utility companies are trying to spin the argument against Netmetering, the method by which millions of solar energy systems interconnect with the utility grid. The gist of the argument is that people who use less energy shift the cost of the grid’s infrastructure onto others. Of course, they don’t say it that way, but that is, in fact, what they are saying. I installed a solar water heater at my home yesterday. This solar energy product does not produce any electricity. It heats (or preheats) water to reduce the amount of energy used by anRead More →

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Let me start by saying that the solar energy debate has nothing to do with solar pool heating or solar water heating, which are traditionally the bread and butter of solar energy products in Florida. This debate is about solar electricity (photovoltaic panels). There has been a rash of articles recently describing a brewing battle between utility companies and the solar energy industry in Florida. Things reached a boiling point when the Public Service Commission refused to hear PUBLIC comment on issues that affect the solar industry. (read that again – it’s true – and it’s shocking). On one side we have the investor owned utilityRead More →

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Well, the match was great… A big win for the US team. Maybe Ghana should have let power lapse during the match… In case you missed it, I posted on Monday about how Ghanaians have a power shortage, and they “purchased power” from Ivory Coast to make sure TVs stayed on during the World Cup match against the United States. To tie this into solar power, I wanted to point out how Ghana can alleviate some (but not all) of their power woes – by installing solar panels, of course! Ghana’s power comes largely from capacity built up in a reservoir behind a dam. The Lake Volta reservoirRead More →

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One of the subjects that often comes up at the start of a solar electric (photovoltaic) system conversation is whether the utility company will “allow” a solar energy system to be installed. Is Lee County Electric Cooperative (LCEC) solar friendly in Cape Coral, Sanibel, Marco Island, and the other areas they cover? While there are challenges, utility companies are generally bound to Public Service Commission Rules, including Florida’s Met Metering Rule, which give consumers fairly broad power to install customer owned renewable generation equipment. LCEC is no different, and it’s actually quite easy to get a residential or small to medium commercial system installed. In fact,Read More →

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Unlike the southern tip, the northern end of North Captiva, FL, not accessible by land vehicles, actually has utility electric power available. Just like any mainland homeowner, this one wanted to offset increasing utility bills with solar energy. Working on an island is obviously a challenge, but our amazing crew pulled off this 4.6kW SunPower solar photovoltaic system in two days. This system is comprised of fourteen SunPower 327W modules, among the most efficient modules commercially available. Paired with a SunPower branded SMA SB-5000US inverter, this system is expected to cover the majority of this homeowner’s electrical consumption. The system was installed to meet theRead More →

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Net Metering, the concept and laws that allow solar electricity producers to connect to the grid and sell back energy, is under attack in the United States. Florida has been spared from the recent trend of utility companies working publicly to repeal or amend Net Metering laws. Utility companies in other states have taken various public and well-funded measures to repeal Net Metering laws or to make Net Metering less attractive to solar energy customers. For example, Arizona utilities recently succeeded in adding a fixed charged for solar producers based on photovoltaic system size. While it was opposed by the solar industry and the finalRead More →

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My wife will tell you that I was screaming at the TV last night while watching an episode of CSI. I’m one of those guys that points out every little factual mistake in TV dramas. The crack team of CSI agents were trying to determine which home in a neighborhood was using inordinate amounts of energy to identify a drug grow house. They had obtained the “energy” usage of a neighborhood of homes, and identified a home that consumed 5,300 “kilowatts” in one month – a sizable amount of energy supposedly. The problem is, a kilowatt is a measure of power, not energy. It’s beenRead More →

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It has been extremely exhausting, but I finally completed installing a 10kW photovoltaic (solar electric) system at my home in Fort Myers, FL today. The final interconnection was done by my electrician and we fired up the system. To my delight, even with dense cloud cover, my meter started spinning backward! I see this happen many times each year, but now I know the feeling of producing my own energy. I now understand why customers are so antsy and anxious about their installation schedules. It’s EXCITING to be your own power plant! I now understand why people want it, and more importantly, why they wantRead More →

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I’ve been relatively quiet about the 10 kilowatt solar electric (photovoltaic) system that I am installing at my home in Fort Myers, FL. Normally I would be writing incessantly about something like this, but honestly I didn’t think it would go the way it did. I decided that I would learn what the hard working men of Fafco Solar endure every day on rooftops while installing solar energy systems. In particular, I wanted to experience the roadblocks that come with installing a solar photovoltaic system, the most complex product Fafco Solar offers. Photovoltaic systems require the most planning, integration, skill, and physical labor of anyRead More →

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I received a question from a potential customer today about power production guarantees for Photovoltaic (PV) Systems. I realized that I hadn’t covered that issue on my blog, so I thought I would copy the question and response here (revised for clarity). Question: Is there a guarantee on the percentage  power output of the proposed photovoltaic system? Answer: The Canadian Solar CS6P-250P modules themselves have a power production warranty that states basically that they will put out a minimum of 97% of rated power at test conditions during the first year and degrade no more than 0.7% per year thereafter through a total of 25 years. ThisRead More →

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I just finished watching to the webinar from the Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, “Tracking the Sun VI: An Historical Summary of the Installed Price of Photovoltaics in the United States from 1998 to 2012.”  The data definitely backs the trends we are seeing locally in Southwest Florida. Here are some observations: Prices have continued a downward trend over the last decade, but have leveled off in 2013. With photovoltaic (PV) prices starting to tick back up, installed system prices are likely to increase in the near-term (installed price changes tend to lag PV module wholesale price changes). This is exactly what we are seeing andRead More →

Enphase Microinverter Solar Electric in Cape Coral

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One of my favorite solar electric systems to watch is located at a customer’s residence in Cape Coral. It’s a favorite because there are solar modules on roofs facing due South, East, and West. This provides an opportunity to validate that solar electric modules are best mounted on south roofs, followed by east, then west. That’s great news for us, because we are often faced with locating solar pool heating systems and solar electric systems on the same home. If there are clear east and west roofs, the solar electric system performs best on the east, and solar pool heating performs best on the west.Read More →

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Florida Power & Light loses about 8% of the energy it produces in transmitting it to your home. Right out of the gate, that’s a great argument for producing energy at or near the point of use. Locating solar energy systems at homes and business is often called distributed solar energy. That is, the production of solar power is scattered around the utility grid in a distributed manner. This is the opposite of utility-scale solar energy that is produced in huge solar fields typically long distances from the places where the energy is needed. Obviously there is a significant cost to moving energy around “theRead More →

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The Florida Solar Energy Industries Association (FlaSEIA) is voicing the solar industry’s dissatisfaction with the FPL Solar Rebate program. While touted as successful by Florida’s largest utility and a spectacular windfall for a few lucky rebate recipients, the solar rebate program has been disastrous for Florida utility ratepayers, solar energy contractors, and solar suppliers. Solar Southwest Florida is in receipt of a series of letters between FlaSEIA’s former President, Bill Gallagher, and Florida Power & Light’s Manager of New Product Development, Oscar Gans. The letters detail results from the latest distribution of 2012 rebate funds, FlaSEIA’s position on the rebate program, and FPL’s response. ThereRead More →

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With the fantastic monitoring tools available today, we can see exactly how much energy production drops on cloudy days and when storms pass by. Tropical Storm Isaac just passed by Southwest Florida, and I’ve been reviewing energy output from many of  the systems we have out there. Saturday and Sunday were completely cloud covered days. Sunday August 26, 2012 was not only cloudy, but it was dark and rainy virtually all day long. Despite the cloud cover, photovoltaic systems continued to put out significant amounts of energy. In general, most systems across Southwest Florida had production cut in half on Saturday and lost almost 3/4thsRead More →