Yesterday, after Brett read my post, we were talking about solar energy (weird, right? A solar contractor like Swan Solar talking about solar energy, preposterous) and it came to light that he did not know how a solar panel worked. He never needed to; as the CAD guys, our knowledge base is the city codes and the AutoCAD program. Handily, I took a class on electricity and magnetism at Cal Poly: San Luis Obispo last quarter and one of the subjects was how a solar panel works. By how it works, I mean how the radiation causes electron movement. He was impressed at my impromptu presentation of the material. I am to write an article about the subject to be posted on the Swan Solar webite.

This article should be a comic strip, of sorts. To explain something without pictures is like trying to describe a picture without words. The idea never really comes across quite the way it was intended. I have not passed this with Brett yet, but I think he will go for it.

These two days will be interesting. I have a few drawings to do; nothing too intense, though I may have to clash with a designer on one project. Mostly I have to do typical intern things: blog (ok, that might not be typical, but I could see any intern blogging about their experience), organize the city codes, clean Brett’s desk (he may be a supreme god, but who said that supreme gods’s desks are bare?), scan some papers, and work with advertising. You know about the blogging. The city codes are not particularly exciting, though important because Brett is the only one in the office who has almost all of the codes for the cities with regard to solar memorized. I am getting there, through his corrections and the research, but some things that the city wants can be a little unnecessary. For example, some cities want the location of where the conduit will run. Seems reasonable, but is totally impractical. Sure, the CAD designer will put a line from the panel to the inverter. That will probably not be the route that the contractor will go. From my short stint with Grid Alternatives, I know that the conduit is done by which ever route takes the least amount of wire with the least amount of effort. That can’t really be seen on the drawing. But, the city asks, and so we draw.

Brett’s desk may be described as a paper’s hell: tossed aside to be forgotten, but upon being found, considered important for 5 minutes and then tossed aside to repeat the vicious cycle. I do exactly the same thing with my desk at home. However, I can be more organized than a OCD librarian if necessary. This is one of those times.

The scanning itself is boring, though the things that I am scanning are odd. A little background is necessary here. Swan Solar is the child of Swan Pools. Swan Pools has also fathered another child: Swan Landscaping. So, I am actually interning for three companies at once. These papers are Landscape Details. Basically, on a drawing, I could put an arrow on something, call it by its name, and the person reading the plan would look at these details and know what I was talking about. I have to scan them in because then I could put the detail directly on the plan for the ease of the reader. Not exciting, but useful.

Working with advertising is a strange experience. I did a little work with advertising when I was at school. The Materials Engineering 100 series asked us to volunteer (with our group) at an assigned non-profit, identify a problem with in the company that impedes their mission and solve the problem. Our company was Pathpoint; they worked with people with cognitive disabilities to acquire jobs. The problem was not the shed or the awning that they proposed. The issue was with advertising and ability for companies to contact them regarding job offerings. My team’s main success was with the advertising. The particular advertising in the case of Swan Solar is different. The non-profit team had a very limited budget that affected our ideas. Swan Solar has less restriction in that regard, but still wants the most for its money. I decided that the best way to approach people was to go to their community events. It’s relatively cheap but a very targeted audience. So my assignment is to find the community events in likely areas. It seems Sysiphian.

Maybe next time I will Strike Back.

Ted Arehart

The Lowly Intern
Solar Power Your Life with Swan Solar

It has taken about three weeks to get to that level of expertise; if that is what you want to call it. Three work weeks, that is. One and a half of those weeks, Brett [Oh Captain, my Captain] was gone on a cruise to Alaska. Lucky dog left me to my devices after two days of training. I managed to get 5 projects out, so not terrible. A different week (which I did not count as one of the work weeks) I went to Kaua’i. You can look on my page, if you really want to know more about that.  Anyway, Brett has really helped me along my path to becoming an AutoCAD master. Before my time here at Swan Solar, I attempted a little CAD on my home computer. A plethora of operator errors caused me to become less than pleased at my progress. I gave up. Not the best idea for a would-be engineer. I was 16 at the time, so I figured I had plenty of time to learn. Now, at 18, I got a crash course from Brett, some practice on other people’s solar arrays (don’t worry, I made sure that Brett [Enlightened One] looked over my work, so if I designed your array, you are just fine) and at least now have a base from which to build.

I hope to keep you updated regarding my adventures here with a bona fide solar energy contractor, at Swan Solar; there will be plenty.

Signed,

Ted Arehart

The Lowly Intern

The Chinese government called the report “unreliable because the IEA still lacked understanding about China’s relentless efforts to cut energy use and emissions, notably the country’s aggressive expansion of new energy development.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38322066/)

China is investing heavily in nuclear energy and wind turbines in an effort to reduce the superpower’s reliance foreign energy sources, which it sees as a threat to natural security.

China’s overtaking of the US isn’t necessarily surprising given the fact that the US has taken significant measures to improve overall energy efficiency and the fact that the global recession hit the US more severely than it has China.

The good news, however, is that both China and the US have voiced concerns over the negative implications involved in foreign energy dependence, specifically in oil rich countries controlled by government dictatorships. They are investing, amongst other sources, in renewable energy alternatives.  China is the world leader in wind turbine energy. The US, who is investing heavily in solar energy, was very recently surpassed by Spain for being the highest total solar energy producer in the world with Spain at an estimated 432 megawatts.  The US is at an estimated 422 total megawatts.

CSI cited “high participation rates in the program to date” as the primary reason for their actions.  Since 2006, when the CSI program began, the CSI has received 765 MW of applications for over 42,000 new solar projects, far exceeding the numbers originally projected.  The commission in charge of creating the CSI had stated when the program began that the state shall not exceed a total program cost of $2,166,800,000 and also established a goal for the general market CSI program to install 1,750 MW of solar energy systems within 10 years by 2016.

Read the complete article at the official CSI webpage:

http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/ 

17 universities primarily from the US and Europe competed this year, with Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s ‘Lumenhaus’ home design taking the grand prize.

Majority of the competitors used SunPower panels to power their homes due to the solar energy maker’s superior panel efficiencies and outstanding aesthetics.  SunPower panels have been used by the last 3 first place teams in the US competitions.  For this competition, many of the first place individual winners used SunPower products for their designs. Winner of first prize in the category of Industrialization and Viability utilized the SunPower 225 (W) panel, and the SunPower 230 (W) panel was used by the winners of the top award in the Communication and Social Awareness category.  SunPower also took awards in Sustainability and was used by the team that won the competition for Public and Web Favorite design. 

Check out more photos of SunPower products in Swan Solar installations (solar panel picture gallery), a “Premier Dealer” of SunPower solar panels.

Ross Reedy
Swan Solar Energy Designer
Free Solar Energy Consultations

AB 32 requires California to use more non-polluting power sources and return emissions to 1990 levels by 2020. Since the adoption of AB 32 over four years ago, California has become the clear U.S. leader in clean energy initiatives, creating thousands of jobs in the renewable energy sector and attracting $9 billion in clean technology investments. The promoters of Prop 23 say it is good for California say it will protect jobs, but AB32 initiatives such as the Million Solar Roofs initiative and Renewable Portfolio Standard targets have helped the solar industry create thousands of local jobs. Prop 23 puts all of these initiatives at risk. An economic analysis by the Clean Economy Network shows that passage of Prop 23 would jeopardize half a million jobs and 12,000 companies in California’s fastest growing industry.

Both California Republicans and Democrats oppose Prop 23, including both candidates for governor, Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown, governor Arnold Schwarzenegger; George Schultz, Ronald Reagan’s former secretary of state, and Democratic Senators Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein. California workers also oppose Prop 23, including California Firefighters, California Farm Workers, California Teachers Association, California Nurses and many, many, many more. The American Lung Association and American Cancer Society oppose Prop 23 as well. For an entire list of backers, visit http://www.stopdirtyenergyprop.com/our-coalition.php. The stark reality is that the vast majority of support for Prop 23 comes from outside of California, to support out of state interests.

Recent polls show that California voters are split on Prop 23, as most don’t know the truth about who is behind it, and what’s at stake. Your vote truly matters. Thousands of businesses, hundreds of thousands of jobs, U.S. National Security and the health of our environment may depend on it, and the entire nation is watching. If California can’t protect its jobs and environment from out of state polluters, it will threaten clean power efforts elsewhere.

Therefore, we encourage you and your family and friends to VOTE NO on Prop 23, the DIRTY ENERGY PROPOSITION.

Best Regards,
–

Tristan E. Becker
Swan Solar, Sales Manager
Mobile: (949) 274-6671
www.swansolar.com

In fact, that is not the case at all.  Solar cells begin to become less efficient at higher temperatures.  Specifically, when the ambient temperature gets above 35 degrees Celsius (about 95 degrees Fahrenheit).

To illustrate this, lets compare two different solar arrays, one located in the Mojave desert, an extremely hot place where temperature regularly gets above 35 degrees Celsius, and one located in the Rocky mountains of Colorado, a place that is regularly colder but sunny.  On an average day in each location, the solar array in the Rockies is actually going to produce more energy than the system in the Mojave desert.  And this is strictly because the temperature in the Mojave is so high it renders solar panels less efficient!

However, the Mojave has more total sunny days over a given period of time than the Colorado Rockies.  What this means is that although the desert has more days when the outside temperature gets “too hot” for solar cells, it also has more days than Colorado that are sunny.  So, in a long-term comparison, the Mojave is actually the better place for solar energy, but not by much!

Along this logic we can correctly say that Orange County is one of the best locations in the world for solar energy.  Ambient temperatures rarely get hot enough to hurt efficiencies in cells and we see over 300 days of sun every year…another reason why I love living here!

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We installed our solar electric system on February 9, 2008.  We had it officially running on February 23rd and took our meter reading.  As of today (March 22nd, 2008), we have almost 25 days of electricity “in the bank”!  By that I mean that if we calculate our average electrical consumption on a yearly basis, we have 25 days of our average rate stored with the utility company.

I am fairly sure that when the hot summer months come and we are using our air conditioning on a daily basis that I will have to give some of this solar electricity back.  But this morning, I am generating ALL of my electrical needs from the sun and putting some in my savings account so to speak.
That’s really cool!