Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2017 at Adelaide, Australia (presented at www.sunisthefuture.net)
Crowds awaiting for the arrival of solar cars at Adelaide, Australia (presented at www.sunisthefuture.net)
Finish Line at Adelaide, Australia (presented at www.sunisthefuture.net)
Awaiting for the arrival of solar cars at Adelaide, Australia (presented at www.sunisthefuture.net)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
On this gorgeous Oct. 12, 2017, sun drenched day, Victoria Square at Adelaide, Australia, was filled with enthusiastic solar or vehicle advocates, parents, solar car racers/students from 30 countries, and curious audience, awaiting for the first solar vehicles to arrive. Without further ado, allow me to share the excitement of participants and audience of Bridgestone World Solar Challenge 2017 at Adelaide, Australia, below:
More photos, videos, and posts about these and other solar vehicles designed, built, and raced by students from 30 countries will be presented in the following posts.
For more on history of World Solar Challenge, please feel free to refer to our previous posts, below:
Solar Cars on display for spectators and participants of World Solar Challenge 2015 in Victoria Square of Adelaide, Australia, on Saturday, October 24, 2015 (credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
Bridgestone, local volunteers, and event organizer Chris Selwood have all done a terrific job in facilitating for the success of this event, World Solar Challenge 2015. But the reality is that much work, time, energy, and expenses are required for these universities/schools, students, and parents in order for these teams to participate (from research, design, testing, obtaining material, to plane fare and hotel expense, etc.) As a matter of fact, some of the teams that were participating in 2013 are not here in 2015 because of the lack of funding support. So, I’d like to take this opportunity to share with you some ingenious methods (thought up by students and participants of WSC2015) of obtaining funding for future participation in World Solar Challenges.
First Method Example: Owl of Kogakuin University Solar Vehicle Project from Japan Is For Sale !!!
Owl of Kogakuin University Solar Vehicle Project from Japan, Winner of the Cruiser Class in World Solar Challenge 2015 (credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
A Historical Moment has arrived! The solar vehicle that has just come in first in the Cruiser Class of World Solar Challenge 2015, by Kogakuin University, is now selling it as a way to raise fund for future World Solar Challenge races. It is designed with a family in mind, traveling up to 100 km/h and with a carrying capacity for four. Any car collectors, car dealerships, educational institutions, or solar businesses would have a wonderful opportunity to acquire/showcase/support solar projects by considering to purchase this vehicle. If any of you out there is interested, please contact the Kogakuin Universtiy Solar Vehicle Project via email: kogakuin.solarcar@gmail.com
A shout out to Jay Leno (well known American talk show host who has a passion for collecting cars and is now running a show call Jay Leno’s Garage on CNBC)! Jay, this is the car for your show to usher in our Renewable/Solar Energy Age!!! Let’s all tweet to Jay: @jayleno and @LenosGarage to help him realize this fantastic opportunity at World Solar Challenge!
If any other Solar Car Teams will be interested in raising fund in this manner, please keep Sun Is The Future informed so we can help you to let the world know that there is such opportunity for car enthusiasts and organizations to obtain Solar Cars !
Second Method Example: Solis Bellator of Liberty Christian School Solar Car Team from U.S.A.
Above is a student (Cameron Mutis, the media consultant of Solis Bellator) from Liberty Christian School of Argyle, TX (of USA). These students are amazing! They simply got dressed and pitched at various organizations, companies, and individuals to gather $150,000 then designed, made, and participated in World Solar Challenge 2015. In this process, they have not only learned about the building of a solar car, but also various aspects of locating resources and funding an organization or project. What they have accomplished is not easy, especially when you consider that some of the other university solar car teams are running on a budget of multiple millions of dollars and with guidance from industries. I suspect their teacher/coach Brent Dragoo had contributed much to the success of the team, for between Oct. 20-21, their charge controller died and they had to order another from the company in Brisbane to overnight it to Coober Pedy. Truly resourceful! If you should be interested in helping to support this school and/or their solar car project, please feel free to contact Liberty Christian School at 940-294-2000 (USA) and/or Donate (with Designation specified for “solar car“)
Third Method Example: Fund Raising Campaigns globally via various Crowdfunding platforms such as Indiegogo or Kickstarter, etc. Remember that there are a lot of crowdfunding platforms out there. You may find one or more most suitable for your particular situation/school by googling. Keep in mind that tips on how to start or run a successful campaign may be obtained via youtube. Incredible as it may seem, one of the well known solar campaigns funded via indiegogo was by an Idaho (USA) couple who were designing for Solar Roadway. They were asking for $1 million but ended up receiving slightly more than $2 million by the end of the whole campaign. When any one team is running a campaign, it is important to try to let as many people know about the motivation and duration of the campaign. Sun Is The Future would be gladly help to assist in letting the world know about your campaign. But it is crucial that individual solar car team would set up their own campaign and provide their own web site with appropriate contact information before contacting Sun Is The Future at sunisthefuture@gmail.com . Sun Is The Future will help to promote campaigns but would not be involved with the collection of donations.
May there always be plentiful beautiful Sunshine and sufficient funds for these beautiful Solar Cars for many many more decades to come….
More coverage on World Solar Challenge 2015 in the coming posts and at our youtube channel….
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
Solar Independence Day, 2015 (credit: composite of The Spirit of’76 painted by A.M. Willard (L) & photograph by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker via photoshop work by Susan Sun Nunamaker)
(Please click on red links & note magenta)
2015 is a momentous year for us, the Solar Enthusiasts! That is why I wanted to create a special image for the July 4/5, 2015 weekend post (above). For this image, I learned to use photoshop during the weekend of July 4/5, 2015!
July fireworks behind the Washington Monument, Public Domain-U.S.Airforce Employee
I am simply ecstatic! In the end of June, 2015, I came across some data (for PV projects as part of a 600-megawatt procurement, some new data on developer bids was just released by Austin Energy) that I want to share with you. According to Austin Energy’s vice president of resource planning Khalil Shalabi, the utility received offers for 7,976 megawatts of project after issuing a request for bids in April. Of those bids, 1,295 megawatts of projects were priced below 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. During a presentation before the Austin city council, Shalabi displayed an exponentially declining curve for PV projects in Texas,
Austin Solar Prices (Source: Austin Energy)
he said, “If you continue the curve, you can see that if the cost points continue along this sort of exponentially declining curve, we expect to see prices out in the future that are possibly below $20 a megawatt-hour.” Wow! $20 a megawatt-hour translates into 2 cents per kilowatt-hour (between 2018-2019)! That is definitely cost competitive (costing less than any other energy source if the cost of the plants, insurance, environmental costs, and operating costs are all being taken into consideration) when compared to all other energy sources.
Another exciting break-through is the fact that Solar has reached the 1% mark of global electricity demand. The actual figure may be even slightly higher than the cumulative capacity (178 GW) that’s being presented below because some countries (such as USA) did not include distributed solar into the calculations. With such an exponential growth, it will not be too surprising if/when solar will reach 10% of global electricity demand by 2025. According to EPIA (European Photovoltaic Industry Association), in three European countries: Italy, Germany, and Greece, solar PV supplies more than 7% of the electricity demand.
Global Solar PV (Source: Solar Power Europe), Tweeted by Jigar Shah
Globally, Europe is the world’s largest player with more than 88 GW installed at the end of 2014. China is now the fastest growing solar country/market, installing 10.6 GW in 2014, followed by Japan with 9.7 GW, and the USA in third place with just over 6.5 GW in 2014. Solar Power Europe (SPE) indicates that capacity could reach 540 GW in five years’ time in a high growth scenario and would reach 396 GW in a low-support case.
In 2015, according toGlobalData, China is likely to retain its world leading status, with US becoming the second, Japan third, and followed by Germany and India, for annual solar addition. China has revised its annual target to 17.8 GW and is well on its way, given that about 5 GW of solar capacity was already installed in Q1. “In the US, annual installations are expected to remain high during 2015 and 2016 owing to tax incentives for power stations that come online before the end of 2016. Solar additions in 2015 are expected to hit 7-8 GW largely due to continued policy support.””Japan’s lucrative solar PV policies have been attracting an increasing amount of investment since 2012, with annual installed capacity in 2014 reaching 8-9 GW, the country’s highest ever installed capacity in a single year. However, annual installations in 2015 are unlikely to reach 2014 levels.” I just want to remind us all that the solar/renewable energy world would not have come thus far if it were not for spear-heading effort and policy by Germany’s Hermann Scheer. I am thrilled to see both China and India (two nations with the most populace on planet earth) are making a great deal of effort in development of solar future.
These are all signs of what is to come….the Solar Tsunami that will bring about the change of our entire planet’s energy matrix mix. Dear friends and viewers/readers of Sun Is The Future, time to wake up to and share the fact that cost of solar is dramatically lower than what it used to be. We are ready to unshackle ourselves from the fossil fuel, and be ready for a much healthier, cleaner, and brighter Solar Energy Future!
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
IT TAKES EARTHLY COLLABORATIONS (Greeenfield-Shunfeng-Suntech-Youmex) TO GENERATE SUNNY DISPOSITION FOR SOLAR POWER ! THERE IS HOPE & OPTIMISM FOR EARTHLINGS AFTER ALL!
It takes Earthly Collaborations To Generate Sunny Disposition For Solar Power (credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
(Please click on red links and note magenta)
Suntech and Greenfield Form a Strategic Alliance With youmex Providing a Complete Financial Package in the UK (Press Release)
Suntech will supply the alliance’s UK solar projects with its world-class panels
“We are excited to complement our partnership with Greenfield with youmex’s financial services to our customers. We believe that this alliance will serve as another catalyst for growth in the UK’s solar market,” said Eric Luo, CEO of Suntech. Luo, who is also responsible for Shunfeng Photovoltaics International Holding’s acquisition strategy, added that “through our partnership, Suntech and Shunfeng will be able to look at other acquisitions in the market as part of our strategy to become the largest integrated clean energy supplier globally.”
In the alliance, Greenfield will provide EPC services, while youmex will arrange construction loans and long-term project financing as well as selling the PV Solar Power Plants to investors.
“With its fully integrated transaction management of these three tasks, youmex speeds up and assures the whole process of financing and sales for one of the largest PV pipelines in UK,” explains Kai Hartmann, Head of Corporate & Structured Finance at youmex group. “We are very thrilled to be part of the alliance that unites the core competencies, experiences and strengths of these three complementary partners.”
“Together with the expertise of Suntech and youmex, our alliance is well-positioned to solidify a strong presence within the UK’s Solar PV market,” echoed Helmut Kube, Managing Director of Greenfield.
Among its many products for utility-scale projects, Suntech produces 60 Cell polycrystalline modules which are excellent for weak light performance markets such as the UK and are manufactured with advanced cell technology material making them highly resistant to Potential Induced Degradation (PID), thus allowing for high performance under extreme conditions for many years.
“We have great confidence in the quality and sustainability of our products for these projects,” said Luo. “Our polycrystalline silicon modules recently ranked above industry standards in a technical review conducted by UK-based consultancy OST Energy and received the VDE-Quality Tested certification, which recognizes high quality products that go beyond existing standards in the photovoltaic industry.”
About Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd.
Wuxi Suntech Power Co., Ltd., a company incorporated in the PRC in January 2001, produces industry-leading solar products for residential, commercial, industrial, and utility applications. Suntech has delivered more than 30 million photovoltaic panels or 8 GWs of installed capacity to more than 1 thousand customers in more than 80 countries. Suntech’s pioneering R&D creates customer-centric innovations that are driving solar to grid parity against fossil fuels. Suntech’s mission is to provide reliable access to nature’s cleanest and most abundant energy source.
About Greenfield
Greenfield Solar International GmbH & Co. KG is a German EPC company which configures, builds, operates, and maintains photovoltaic roof and ground-mounted installations across Europe and has gained a good reputation for planning, engineering, logistics with procurement and for the turnkey construction of solar farms. Greenfield has built solar farms with a track record of over 650 MW in the last years and brought them to the grid in major European countries such as Germany, Czech Republic, Italy, and United Kingdom.
About youmex group
youmex group, based in Frankfurt, combines special financing solutions with a track record of about 3.5 billion Euros. As a financing platform, youmex acts as a one stop shop by simplifying, accelerating and optimizing financing and capital market transactions for almost 15 years. The Project Finance area focuses on the Real Estate and Clean Energy assets. In particular, youmex arranges bridge, construction, short-term and long-term financing of wind and solar parks for project developers and investors throughout Continental Europe, United Kingdom (UK), South and Middle America. youmex also sells wind and solar power plants as an investment product. youmex is a German Stock Exchange (Deutsche Boerse) Listing Partner and is regulated by the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) as a financial services institute.
NUNA 7 of Nuon Solar Team of Delft University of Technology(Netherlands), Leading By The End of First Day (Oct. 6, 2013) of the World Solar Challenge 2013 (solar car race) in Challenger Class (Credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
Below is the video of beginning of the World Solar Challenge 2013 (Oct. 6, 2013), in front of the Parliament House at Darwin, Australia.
ARROW1 of Team Arrow of Queensland University of Technology (Australia) seen on Oct. 5, 2013, after dynamic scrutineering process at Hidden Valley Motor Sports Complex at Darwin, Australia (Credit sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
ARROW1 of Team Arrow of Queensland University of Technology (Australia) at starting line on Oct. 6, 2013, in front of the Parliament House of Darwin, Australia, also in fifth place of the Challenger Class by the end of the First Day of World Solar Challenge 2013 (Credit: World Solar Challenge 2013)
PROVISIONAL RESULTS DAY 1 of World Solar Challenge 2013
Team Nuon from the Netherlands, in their solar car Nuna 7, took an early lead in the Challenger Class of the 2013 Bridgestone World Solar Challenge and at the end of day one are approximately 633 kilometres south of Darwin. Just 32 kilometres behind at the Dunmarra Control Stop there is one minute separating second placed Team Twente in ‘Red Engine’ also from the Netherlands
THE RED ENGINE of University of Twente and Saxion, University of Applied Sciences-Solar Team Twente in Second Place by the End of The First Day, Oct. 6, 2013, during World Solar Challenge 2013, Challenger Class (Crdit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
and the 2011 Champion team Tokai from Japan, who as predicted, made up time early from 20th position on the starting grid.
TOKAI CHALLENGER of Tokai University (Japan)'s Tokai University Team in third place at the End of the First Day of World Solar Challenge 2013, Challenger Class (Credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
University of Michigan Solar Car Team’s-Generation, is in fourth place by the end of the first day.
GENERATION of University of Michigan Solar Car Team in Fourth of Challenger Class by the end of The First Day (Oct. 6, 2013) of World Solar Challenge 2013 (Credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
approximately 10 kilometres out of Dunmarra with Australia’s Team Arrow showing they can mix it with the elite international field just behind in fifth place. In the Cruiser Class team Bochum from Germany
POWERCORE SUNCRUISER of Germany's University of Applied Sciences Bochum's Hochschule Bochum SolarCar Team in the first place of the Cruiser Class at World Solar Challenge 2013 by the end of the first day (Oct. 6, 2013) (Credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
is in first place approximately sixty kilometres north of Dunmarra, with team Eindhoven from the Netherlands
STELLA of Eindhoven University of Technology (Netherlands)'s Solar Team Eindhoven in second place for Cruiser Class by the end of the first day (Oct. 6, 2013) of World Solar Challenge 2013 (Credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
just five kilometres behind in second place, the DAEDALUS of Minnesota Solar team from the University of Minnesota (USA) in third
DAEDALUS of University of Minnesota (USA) in third place of Cruiser Class by the end of the first day of World Solar Challenge 2013 (Credit: World Solar Challenge 2013).
place and University of NSW Sunswift team in fourth place
SUNSWIFT of University NSW (Australia) in Fourth of Cruiser Class by the end of the first day of World Solar Challenge 2013 (Credit: sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker)
approximately 100 kilometres north of Dunmarra. Leading the Adventure Class was Australia’s team Aurora who have never missed a solar challenge; followed by IVE from Hong Kong and Antakari from Chile.
For more photos and videos of World Solar Challenge 2013, please refer to links below:
Sunisthefuture Online Store at Zazzle
Keep in mind that the goal here at Sun Is The Future is to speed up the transition toward renewable/solar energy, for a cleaner, healthier, economically more prosperous, and safer planet earth.
~have a bright and sunny day~
gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any of your comments will be welcomed below or via sunisthefuture@gmail.com (please note if you do not want your email to be shared)
Please take advantage of the 3700 free $25 initial trials (for new users) still available at Kiva to join Sunisthefuture Team at Kiva, and activate this free $25 initial trial by lending it to an entrepreneur of your choosing, so we can combine our efforts to alleviate poverty, empower solar/renewable energy/energy efficiency/recycling entrepreneurs in USA and other countries of the planet earth! You may choose one entrepreneur to loan this free $25 initial trial to. Upon its return/refund, you may choose to relend this $25 to another entrepreneur. Please share this loan with the Sunisthefuture Team. Our team focuses our energy/loans in helping solar/renewable energy/energy efficiency/recycling entrepreneurs throughout our planet earth. So, join us!
Keep in mind that you can become a Kiva loaner/lender as well as a borrower (if you will be setting up a small business.). Kiva lends not only to developing countries but also to entrepreneurs in USA!
Allow me to share the video clip below on some updated information concerning Kiva by Premal Shah (Kiva President/founder) & Join Sunisthefuture Team at Kiva by clicking on: www.kiva.org/team/sunisthefutureand learn more about how Kiva works/get your free $25 initial trial at: www.kiva.org/invitedby/susansun9682
I’ve received some of your emails regarding questions/concerns in how to obtain funding to start a solar/renewable energy/energy efficiency small business. Here are some info/links that may be of assistance to you:
Furthermore, there are also several other avenues for finance one may consider upon starting one’s own business:
Self-financing
Loans from family and friends (agreement in writing is highly recommended)
Private stock issue
Forming partnerships (General Partnership: all partners are individually personally responsible for their debts and all partners has the power to manage the business; Limited Partnerships: only general partners have control over management, whereas limited partners are only responsible for the debts to the extent of their investment in the business and no influence in management of the business at all; Limited Liability Partnership: all partners have limited liability but all also have power to manage the business.)
Venture capital: supplied by the professional investors and given to new growing businesses with impressive business venture plans. Financing is done by third-party investors investing from the professionally managed fund (generated by managing the pooled money of others.)
Angel Investors: wealthy individuals lending his/her own personal funds to help set up a business and in return generally acquires ownership equity of the business. Now a days, multiple Angel Investors are forming Angel Groups or Angel Networks engaging them in financing small businesses to a greater extent (example: Oprah’s The Angel Network.)
Bank loans, donations, grants and subsidies are also potential sources of finance for small businesses (as seen above in various links).
Let’s speed up our ability to spread the sunshine across our planet earth by empowering solar (or other) entrepreneurs! Hurry Up, there are not that many free $25 left!
~have a bright and sunny day~
Gathered, written, and posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker
Any comments and suggestions are welcomed at sunisthefuture@gmail.com
Please also get into the habit of checking at these sites below for more on solar energy topics:
This post may had been prepared/written earlier than the day it appears, but right after the finish of the Veolia World Solar Challenge (world solar car race of twenty countries, 3021 km (1877 mi) between Darwin, Australia, to Angle Vale (official finish line) and Adelaide (ceremonial finish line), Australia, and thirty-seven solar cars) I had to fly to a location/ country where my internet access was not very convenient (it kept on being disconnected whenever I tried to write). However, I was able to load up various video clips onto youtube and I hope many of you have been enjoying these videos about the Veolia World Solar Challenge of 2011. I understand one of you from Netherland is trying to gather as much information about the race as possible. Since this is my first time covering Veolia World Solar Challenge, or WSC (and only had time and budget for the start and end of the race), I hope these photos I took and video clips I uploaded (and filmed by Mike) to youtube will help to meet part of your need. I promise you in two years (next Veolia World Solar Challenge) more detailed coverage about the scrutineering process (before the race) and events along the race will be included. Please keep in mind that the goal and focus of this World Solar Challenge is to increase greater awareness and education for our future generations in application of solar energy in cars and to stimulate greater interest in math, science, and engineering. The emphasis is both in how far and how fast (rather than just how fast) these solar cars can go using energy from the sun. As a matter of fact, part of the rule this year had actually restricted total surface area of the solar cells to 6 sq m and of which only 3 sq m can be of GaAs (gallium arsenide) so to even the playing field. Facility is available if a solar car needs to be “trailered” when insufficient sunshine is available for the duration of the race. This year, due to the extra challenges of cloudiness, rain, and bush fire, only about 7 out of 37 solar cars were able to finish the course completely using solar energy. The atmosphere at WSC is friendly and encouraging rather than fiercely competitive. One finds this to be true either in the scrutineering process (insuring safety of drivers/pilots and those around), tracking of the timing (please refer to: http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/files/318_2011_veolia_world_solar_challenge_provisional_results_pending_protests.pdf), or in the finish presentation (ritual dip in the Victoria Fountain by all teams (those that were not too shy or too cold) at the end of the race or not so ritual “burning rubber” of the German team). Finally, I’d like to take my hat off to Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011 team for being able to pull off a race of this magnitude (involving solar cars from twenty countries) with mostly volunteers working together to make this race work. Running an organization composed of mostly volunteers is not the same as running a normal company (I’ve had experience in both and believe me, running an organization composed mostly of volunteers is not easy!). So, if any of you out there with good ideas (to help improve the solar car race), funding, or time to volunteer, perhaps you’d like to contact Mr. Chris Selwood (leader and rightful owner of Veolia World Solar Challenge) and/or the organization at http://www.worldsolarchallenge.org/contact_us For the ease and convenience of our readers’ pleasures, there are written descriptions for these solar cars with each of the youtube video clip of the interviews for its team members. So please be sure to read (click on “Show more” at each youtube clip) about the descriptions for these solar cars. I tried to take photograph and to interview as many of the participating solar cars of Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011 as possible, but due to time constraint, please forgive me if I missed any one. With regard to all the video interviews at youtube, if any of the interviewees’ names is either misspelled or not mentioned, please feel free to contact me at sunisthefuture@gmail.com so I can make the necessary modification. Below, you will find links to our youtube clips/interviews with various teams and photographs of these solar cars. Keep in mind that these videos and photos pertaining to Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011 are under Creative Commons as long as you would attribute it/them to Sun Is The Future at http://sunisthefuture.net There will be more posts on human interest stories and lessons learned regarding Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011 later.
Nuon Solar Team’s Nuna 6 (Netherlands), 2nd Winning Team that arrived at Adelaide, Australia
9. Arrival of Nuna 6 of Nuon Solar Team (Netherlands), Second Winning Team of Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011, at Victoria Square of Adelaide, Australia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdNZei5kJmw
University of Michigan’s Quantum (USA), 3rd Winning Team that arrived at Adelaide, Australia
11. Arrival of Quantum of University of Michigan (USA), Top Third Winning Team of Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011, at Victoria Square of Adelaide, Australia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5E6yO30-5Q8
12. Interview with Ashiya University (Japan) Solar Car Project’s Ashiya Sky Ace V team (4th car that arrived) member at Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vtkKA2MKyYs
Ashiya University Solar Car Project’s Ashiya Sky Ace V (Japan), 4th Winning Team arriving at Adelaide, Australia
MIT Solar Electric Vehicle Team’s Chopper Del Sol (USA)
25. Interview with MIT’s Chopper Del Sol (USA) team member minutes before the beginning of the race at Veolia World Solar Challenge 2011: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8r2rVpfnEM
If you are in favor of renewable/CLEAN energy, please sign the petition page showing support for FIT/CLEAN Program at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065 Thank you.
For some one who had trainings, degrees, and work experience in multiple fields, this had been quite an educational journey for me. Since the beginning of this year I’ve been spending a lot of time on http://sunisthefuture.net in an effort to spread the news and need about/for renewable and solar energy (causes/instigation of this project may be found in February post of http://sunisthefuture.net). Throughout my journey, I’ve come across and learned from many terrific individuals and organizations who are dedicated and truly concerned with the welfare of our planet earth, earnestly sharing each and every one of their experience and optimistically looking into a bright and hopeful alternative future. I can truly summarize my encounter and feeling for those involved in the Renewable Industries- ENERGY and OPTIMISM. There is the consensus that the most effective policy in promoting planet earth’s renewable energy is Feed-In-Tariff (FIT), an incentive policy that (1) guarantees any/every renewable energy producer access to the power grid and the fact that they can sell their energy to their utility/power company. (2) utility companies sign 15-20 year contracts with all their renewable energy producers and all contracts are transparent and open for inspection. (3)contracts include long-term agreed upon prices that the utility companies will pay for the energy they buy.(4)the utility companies can recoup their increased costs of paying higher prices for renewable energy by spreading these costs among all the customers.(5)an independent review board is established by the government that periodically sets the prices and terms for new contracts. This is a wonderful incentive program that will encourage individual home owners, small businesses, schools, Y’s, libraries, local Walgreens, hospitals, churches, any where with surface areas to fully utilize their sunshine, wind, or water, ultimately leading to local job creations, economic prosperity, and onto the path toward renewable energy age. Please show your support for such an incentive program by signing the petition above. Please be sure to also indicate your city, state, and country under Address.
The natural question is then, why is Feed-In-Tariff running into so much resistance here in Florida or various parts of USA if it were such a widely accepted policy (FIT had already been implemented in more than 65 countries and territories on planet earth)? I hear/see a lot of proponents of Feed-In-Tariff in FL or USA pointing to the power/utility companies, “…because the big power companies don’t want it….” Instead of creating an atmosphere of adversary, it is best for all of us to remember what our parents and grandparents used to tell us, “…walk a mile in some one else’s shoes….” Our power/utility companies have been providing us with a wonderful service for as long as I can remember. Is it really fair to expect these power/utility companies to have done all the work and simply hand over the access to the grid without charging anything?! In essence, what’s in it for them? They (power/utility companies) also have families to feed and clothe. Feed-In-Tariff should provide incentive for all, as far as I am concerned, in order to be truly fair. So, why can’ t we propose to have majority (perhaps 90%) of the profit generated from renewable energy under FIT going to the producers and minority ( say 10% ) of the profit generated going to the utility company for providing access to the grid. The acceptable percentages may be worked out later, not necessarily 90%:10%. Basically, let’s take a lesson from President Obama’s effort in always trying to bring every one involved to the table. This translates into incentive for all, something for every one involved. I also welcome any comments and suggestions, for my suggestion of playing fair may not be entirely new/ foreign to many.
At this point, I would like to direct your attention to some of the resources available that would help to increase understanding of Feed-In-Tariff/CLEAN program by reading FIT-Available Paths for Designing Strong State Feed-In-Tariffs (by Jennifer Gleason in Environmental Law Alliance WorldWide), and links below:
http://sunisthefuture.net (yes, yours truly, with more than 16 episodes of posts, discussions, and videos on Feed-In-Tariff) just type in Feed-In-Tariff in the search box at upper right hand corner of the site.
http://floridaallianceforrenewableenergy.org/ (Florida Alliance For Renewable Energy is a wonderful site for gathering effort and presentation of what state of FL is doing for renewable energy)
I believe that if you are concerned about energy security and independence, clean environment, and climate change…are in favor of renewable/solar energy, job creations, and economic prosperity for state of Florida and USA, you will want to join us in talking to your friends, family, neighbors, and legislators about Feed-In-Tariff or CLEAN program (an incentive program that will allow individuals and small businesses and organizations such as schools, Y’s, hospitals, libraries, churches, Walgreen, McDonald’s, and even power/utility companies to be able to profit from our renewable energy sources such as the wind, water, and sunshine. The petition pages ( an endorsement statement) will always be available in http://sunisthefuture.net
Please join us by showing your support for Feed-In-Tariff/CLEAN Program by signing the endorsement statement.
Finally, don’t forget to wish a Happy 50th Birthday (Aug. 4) for our President Obama, who had always tried his very best to bring every one to the table for any discussion and who has a true sense of appreciation for Grass-Root Movement.
Posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker, sunisthefuture@gmail.com
If you are in favor of renewable/CLEAN energy, please sign the petition page showing support for FIT/CLEAN Program at http://sunisthefuture.net/?page_id=1065 Thank you.
During Fall of 2010, I was visiting my friend Julia in Canada and decided to try to learn from the Canadians about their experience with Feed-In-Tariff. Ontario, Canada (or course), introduced a feed-in-tariff in 2006, and revised in 2009, which increases from 42 c/kWh to 80.2 c/kWh for micro-scale (<= 10 kW) grid-tied photovoltaic projects. Ontario’s FIT program also includes a tariff schedule for larger projects up to and including 10 MW solar farms at a reduced rate.As of April, 2010, several hundred projects have been approved, including 184 large scale projects, worth $8 billion all together. It was wonderful to find out that so much business opportunities/activities were generated for their local community as a result of the feed-in-tariff program. I met so many enthusiastic Canadian solar entrepreneurs, fully energized by this program. Below, you will see/hear an edited interview with Maury Markowitz, President of InPhase Power, Inc., for the vivacious Maury is not only full of wealth of information and insight, but his enthusiasm is contagious. I have also uploaded this video onto Youtube, seen below:
To start with, it is important to always consider the fact that any solar program, FIT or not, is in some fashion a form of redistributive taxation. Whatever premium over grid rates that the FIT program pays has to come from someone’s pocket. In Ontario, this is taken care of by everyone’s electrical bill, which is the best way to handle this. If Maury’s calculations are correct, all of the solar power in Ontario costs about $0.25 extra a year (yes, 25 cents). That will go up in the future as more systems come online, but if that goes to $25 a year given a huge build-out, that is a price everyone will be willing to pay to “go green”.
Mark Pinset, Maury Markowitz, Mark Reeve-Newson at InPhase Power Inc.
Below is a correspondence/email of Maury Markowitz to me:
Just BE UP FRONT ABOUT IT! If this is hidden in a separate payment or tax benefit, it disappears under the radar. Then you’ll have the complaints about tax money slush funds and so forth, which can taint even the best of intentions.
If we’re redistributing money, it’s important to ensure that you get your money’s worth. Ontario has a very strong manufacturing sector (#3 in North America I believe) that was hurting due to downturns in existing markets and increased international competition. FIT, especially the “buy Ontario” portion, was seen as a way to return some of these jobs here. So far this has been extremely successful; there are dozens, many dozens, of companies moving manufacturing to Ontario. So this is money well spent.
Florida is another issue. The local economy has been based largely on home building over the last decade or so, and this is definitely hurting these days. However, by carefully arranging the requirements for Florida workers, some of that lost manpower can be recaptured. Whether or not this can be seen as economically positive over a fixed period (20 years in Ontario for instance) is something for the economists to figure out. One of the problems in Ontario is that the bill that introduced FIT was part of a larger energy bill. A major part of that bill was unrelated to FIT — it was a phase-in period to bring home billing to commercial levels. Ontario always subsidized residential power, which is a serious problem for everyone and made out consumption one of the highest in the world — why not at 4.5 cents a kWh?! So now prices are going up, and keep going up, and…So everyone blames the solar panels. You see, if you pay a FIT price of 80 cents, then it seems at first glance that that’s the reason your bill is going up. But it’s not, it’s pennies. But in every debate, even the good ones (look for The Agenda on iTunes and get their podcasts about the green energy act — trust me on this), it’s all too simple to write it off.
So the lesson here is to make the law self-contained, and self-reporting. If it fails it fails, but don’t let it fail because someone was able to blame it for problems in some other part of an omnibus bill. Now how much should you pay in FIT? Well here’s another area where you can learn from Canadians’ lessons. Two of the most asked questions from homeowners is “how much stuff can I run off of this” followed by “how much will I save”. Well under FIT, the answer is “none” and “zero”. That’s not what a homeowner wants to hear. If you use net metering as opposed to FIT, then you get real numbers for both of these questions. It’s an easier sell even if the numbers aren’t actually as good. Yet for commercial users, FIT makes much more sense. Maury could tell them immediately what they’ll make a year on their investment. If they can borrow money for less than that, sold! So, what to do about this. HAVE TWO PROGRAMS. Instead of “residential” and “commercial”, which is what some countries were trying to do, have a “small” and “large” programs, assuming they would fall into these categories. The idea was that small systems cost more to install (true) so we’ll give better rates, and that will help the homeowners.
This backfired badly. What happened instead is that companies started putting up small systems due to the higher payouts, flooding the department that was originally expecting a few thousand requests from residential systems. These projects were field-mounted, which costs less to install. So then the government started patching the holes this caused. First they came up with a separate rate for ground mounted, then they said you had to own the house (no rental units) and they keep making changes to patch these problems — causing more problems every time.
So here’s the takeaway — have two programs, one for residential roofmount customers up to a certain size limit (10 kW is already on the high side) and another for everyone else. The power companies already know the difference between residential and commercial customers, let them tell you which is which. Make sure the residential rate applies only to rooftop installs on “main dwellings” that are actively occupied — no letting the farmers put them in the front yard or on their barn. You get the idea.
Now it’s simply a matter of numbers. Our program was set up so owners would basically double their money over 20 years. To do that with a typical residential system given Toronto sunlight, that set the rate to about 80 cents. Tampa gets about 20% more sunlight than Toronto, so right off the bat you can cut 20% off the FIT rate, taking you down to about 65 cents if you want to pay out over 20 years like we do.
But as long as the rules on who can apply are ironclad, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND an alternative approach. Instead of a 20 year program that doubles your money, how about a 10 year one that gives you only 50% more than you invested? Wait, pay out almost half the money and kill the financials? Yes. I guarantee you that the uptake on a program like this would be MUCH higher. Why? Because people don’t own houses for 20 years — or they don’t think they will. There’s a perceived risk that business owners don’t see. They invest in new equipment all the time, it’s strictly a matter of looking at the numbers.
Now some tech. If you’re going to make this work at the residential level, make sure they figure out the “metering issue”. What’s that? Well with net metering everything is simple, because I pay you the same rate you pay me. All I need is a single meter, and I bill you based on that number (positive or negative). But with FIT you pay and receive different rates, and a single meter doesn’t give you those two measures — you need two meters. The simple way to solve this is to put a meter anywhere, then run the wire from that meter into a breaker in the customer’s basement. However, this leads to the possibility of errors. Imagine I generate the exact amount of energy I use. In that case, the meter on the solar panels will read something, say “100”. My main meter at the outside of the house will say “0”. So it would seem easy then — I bought 100 at one price and sold 100 at another price, done! Not so fast. Each of those meters is accurate only to 3% (or so). So if I actually produced 3% more power and used 3% less, the numbers on the meters stay the same, but I just lost 6% of my income. This is bad. So what they did here is demand the two meters be independently metered to the grid, eliminating this problem, now it’s 3% on both, which is within limits (I know that sounds strange). This costs us an additional $1500 an install, or more. We have to remove the customer’s existing meter, put in a double-one, rewire everything, and get it inspected. The power is off while this happens. The overhead is killer.
There are many solutions to this problem, metering ones, legal ones, billing ones. Just make sure to pick one and let the _residential_ customers use it.
Ok, I think I’m spent. 🙂 Maury
Thank you, Maury, for your input and encouragement ! I only wished that I posted this earlier. Again, meeting with you affirmed my belief that there is hope for Florida and US in our path of learning/understanding for Feed-In-Tariff and the transition to renewable/solar energy age will be based on shared experience of all earthlings.
Posted by sunisthefuture-Susan Sun Nunamaker, sunisthefuture@gmail.com
