Author Archives: Frank Andorka

The Energy Show: Best Ways To Heat Hot Water For Your Home

We’re talking about hot water this week. No — I’m not in trouble with my local utility again — just discussing the best ways to heat water for your home. Our focus is on domestic hot water (DHW). This is hot water that you use for your kitchen, bathing and laundry. In the U.S., the average home uses about 68 gallons of hot water a day, with huge variations based on the number and age of occupants in the home.

Taking a step back, I counted six basic ways that people have been heating water since humans discovered fire. Deliberate heating started with a pot on a campfire (or with hot rocks to boil water). Then we used solar thermal to heat water in a blackened container (and we are still using solar thermal systems today). Fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural gas) were then used starting in the 1800s in boilers to heat water (the latest insulated tank technologies use high efficiency condensing gas boilers). In the 1900s we started using electric heating elements in hot water tanks. Flash or pass through hot water heating systems – powered by electricity or natural gas — completely eliminate the hot water tank, thereby reducing standby losses. But the current champions for DHW efficiency are the new heat pump hot water heaters. These systems have efficiencies in excess of 200% since they extract ambient heat from surrounding air (essentially cooling the air), and use this heat to increase the water temperature. I was pleasantly surprised to see that these heat pump systems have become much more reliable and cost effective.

On this week’s Energy Show we will review each of the common technologies used to heat water to help you decide what kind of DHW heating system makes sense for you the next time your tank wears out (BTW, according to NREL the average lifespan of a hot water tank is 13 years).

Adjourned Sine Die: Hawaii Storage Incentive Bill Fails To Get A Hearing

By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

What Happened: Hawaii’s energy storage incentive legislation – Senate Bill (SB) 2100 – was adjourned “sine die,” or “without a day,” meaning it will get no more hearings in the current session.

  • The bill, which would have replaced the current renewable energy technology systems tax credit with tax credits for solar or wind energy systems and energy storage systems, would have been one of the first laws in the country to create an incentive for storage systems.
  • Without such legislation, it’s fair to ask how Hawaii will reach its mandated goal of reaching 100% clean energy by 2045.

    • storage

    SolarWakeup’s View:  Hawaii, with its abundant sunshine and high electricity prices – the penalty they pay for living in paradise – has made the island a hotbed for solar development since the industry’s early days. With an aggressive goal of reaching 100% clean energy by 2045, the solar industry has grown exponentially, and the Aloha State currently boasts one of the highest solar penetration rates in the country.

    But with that development has come speed bumps, including a sudden elimination of net metering that nearly strangled the industry, although development has continued, albeit more slowly, under other utility programs. Recently, the state has been trying to figure out how to integrate storage into its solar industry to encourage more self-consumption and less excess electricity export to the grid.

    One of the most recent attempts to integrate storage was Senate Bill (SB 2100), which would have changed the current solar tax credit system into a solar + storage tax credit system.

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    Unfortunately, SB 2100 failed to get out of committee during this legislative session, postponing any hearings on the bill indefinitely and effectively killing any chance it had of passage.

    The problem Hawaii faces isn’t entirely unique. It’s tough to sell incentives in a market that has scaled so rapidly and where prices have fallen so precipitously – and continue to do so. But it’s hard to imagine a world where the state can reach its goal of powering itself entirely by renewable energy by 2045 without something like SB 2100 in place.

    Let’s hope that the bill comes back next session and that Hawaii sees its way clear to continue its clean-energy leadership by passing it.

    More:

    Hawaii Senate Bill 2100 (Adjourned Sine Die)

    Low And Behold, GOP Finds Solar Tariffs To Be A Bad Idea

    By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

    What Happened: GOP Senators from solar states like North Carolina have suddenly discovered that President Trump’s tariffs on solar modules are a bad idea (who knew? Everyone. Everyone knew.).

  • Bloomberg reports, “The group of eight senators led by North Carolina’s Thom Tillis urged the administration to waive duties on 72-cell, 1,500-volt panels that are ideal for large ground-mounted “utility-scale” projects.”
  • If they really want to fix this, they should introduce companion legislation to that currently in the House that would remove the tariffs entirely and retroactively pay for the ones already paid.

    • tariffs

    SolarWakeup’s View:  It’s amazing how quickly the GOP gets on board with solar when jobs in their own states are threatened.

    Bloomberg reports that “Republican senators from five states with big solar farms are asking the Trump administration to exempt the workhorse of industrial solar panels from tariffs imposed earlier this year.”

    Well, isn’t that just swell?

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    Of course, exempting utility-scale solar modules from the tariffs doesn’t really solve the overall problem, which is that the duties have cost 9,800 downstream installation and other non-manufacturing jobs, as well as having thrown the industry into chaos for the past year and a half.

    And it bears repeating that the tariffs were imposed on the whims of two companies that, in short order, will no longer exist.

    If these GOP Senators really want to fix the tariff problem, they could follow the lead of their colleagues in the House and introduce a bill that would eliminate the tariffs entirely, thus protecting their utility-scale projects while also saving jobs in the rest of the industry, too.

    But that solution would make far too much sense, so I wouldn’t hold my breath for such common sense to reign.

    More:

    GOP Senators Want to Exempt Giant Solar-Farm Panels From Tariffs

    Bipartisan Tariff Repeal Bill Introduced In Congress – Any Chance It Passes?

    FMPA Fails To Get Lowest Rates With Byzantine Bidding Process

    By Frank Andorka, Senior Correspondent

    What Happened: The Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA) recently completed a bid on a 223.5 MW project for its member municipal utilities that sources tell SolarWakeup did not arrive at the lowest possible price.

  • Published reports peg the price at less than 4 cents per kWh, and sources familiar with the bidding process say there was at least one bid that came in lower.
  • The decision came at the end of what can at least be called an odd, byzantine bidding process where a closed set of companies were chosen to submit bids.
    • FPMA

    Interestingly, Miami-based developers with solar experience in Florida were not chosen to bid on the FMPA project.

    SolarWakeup’s View:  When you join a buying cooperative, you should get the lowest price on whatever you’re buying, right? Otherwise, what’s the point in joining forces to make purchases?

    So what to do with the Florida Municipal Power Agency (FMPA), a collaboration of 12 municipal electrical agencies that recently awarded a 223.5 MW project group to NextEra Energy in the form of three 74.5-megawatt sites? A closed group of seven companies (listed below) bid on the project, and the price came in at less than 4 cents per kilowatt-hour. But at least one source close to the project said their bid had come in lower – so should the municipal utilities that make up the FPMA be upset?

    The answer is a definite maybe.

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    FPMA reports they called and requested bids from the following seven companies:

  • NextEra
  • Duke Energy Florida (DEF) (unregulated solar affiliate)
  • Tampa Electric Company (TECO) (unregulated solar affiliate)
  • GroSolar (Global Resource Options, Inc.) an EDF Renewable Energy Company
  • Invenergy Solar Development North America (Invenergy)
  • Eagle Solar Group, LLC in conjunction with Holloway Solar Farm LLC
  • Soltage, LLC in conjunction with ESA Renewables

    • FMPA says it negotiated with the top two bidders Invenergy and NextEra, and NextEra won the bid.

    Except….that’s not the story we are hearing. And we also find it curious that Origis, which has done multiple large-scale solar projects of almost exactly this size, was not included, nor was sPower, whose former majority shareholder was based in Miami.

    In short, the odd way the bidding occurred, combined with the reports that it wasn’t the lowest price, should inspire FMPA members to at least ask questions. It sure seems like a strange use of the co-op power to us.

    More:

    Orlando, Winter Park, other cities plug solar project as one of nation’s biggest