Solar Power

Hubby-Eric and I have gone solar.

Eric did the work, looking into companies and finding a deal that would allow us to install panels with no up-front cost. I'm going to say this right out: we are NOT saving money on this at the moment. If we use the panels for a few years, yes, they will start to pay for themselves. But despite no up-front cost, we will actually be paying more out of pocket for awhile. We didn't do this to save money short-term. We waited until we were in a good financial situation.

The panels were installed on February 22, then we went through a month and change of paperwork and permits being approved before the power company arrived last Wednesday and installed the net meter (the power company employee knocked on the door, but I was gaming with headphones on and didn't hear him. It was a surprise when the power suddenly went out as he restarted the system. I need to make a huge sign that says "RING THE DOORBELL, WE MAY NOT HEAR YOU KNOCK!").

Eric turned on the various switches and stuff, but it wasn't until he reread the instructions and got a notice that he figured out how to finish the installation - and our panels went active.

Yesterday I finally worked out how to get the app to view our usage and generation. And now I'm a little bit obsessed with looking at our energy system.

For example, we have a constantly updating graph that shows our usage (lower red line) in comparison to our generation (upper part of graph). As you can see, generation varies wildly. We have 18 panels on the west side of our roof, which means they weren't in direct sunlight when I took this screenshot. Any variation in the amount of light the panels receive will change the generation levels. This is why relying solely on solar isn't viable for most uses of electricity yet. You need something to balance out the load, and right now for us that something is the regular power grid.

We do not have a battery back-up, nor do we have "sunlight backup", which would protect our house from power loss during the day. We are still dependent on the power grid - the only thing that's changed is that we are now contributing to the power in the system during the day, which hopefully means a little less fossil fuel can be used elsewhere in the system.

Well, maybe not the only thing. We also now have a minute-by-minute view of our power usage, which may allow us to figure out what items in the house are drawing more power than we'd like them to draw, and therefore help us lower waste. We'll have to see how it pans out. Currently, the app is gathering data on our regular habits and trying to determine what sort of power draw is normal for us. In a couple of weeks, it will start giving us more detailed reports, and we can start thinking about changes in our lifestyle at that point.

But I will admit, it's kind of nice to see this on the app:

Solar Sidewalk

I'm sure everyone who reads my blog knows all about Solar Roadways and how enthused I am about it. Well, the first public installation is about to begin, in Sandpoint, Idaho: at Jeff Jones Town Square. This installation will either be the first step toward real solar roads... or the proof that the concept cannot work. I'm rooting for it to work, and can hardly wait for the cam to go live.

Thoughts on Thanksgiving Day

Oh man, I had quite the meal. So now I'm trying to digest. The Breaking Cat News crew are experiencing the strangeness of Thanksgiving.

First off, some links... Upworthy on an aspect of Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" that I've never heard.

Who knew that Jackie Chan can help solar panel efficiency? Great headline, it drew me right in.

Mark Evanier has more on Ferguson. Seriously, the process was badly flawed and, instead of clearing up the issue, made things much worse.

As of today, I'm willing to experience the Christmas stuff. Anyone who hits me with Christmas stuff before Thanksgiving is a twit. But now? Ok, I'm fine. It's time for it. In fact, while the in-laws are still here tonight, we'll try to find some Christmas decorations and put them up.

My own Thankgiving piece was in the paper yesterday: Lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.

I'm going to go dig up the Christmas stuff. More tomorrow, maybe...

Tron Roads

I've posted about the effort to get Solar Roadways working twice before. I last wrote about the $1 million Indiegogo goal and the fact that they were going to reach it.

The campaign originally was due to end tomorrow, but they've decided to extend it to June 20th because the momentum is so high right now, and more money will make it more likely that this will get into production soon.

I want this in my city, don't you?

They have a bunch of projects lined up, but first they have to get the thing into production. They also plan on trying to reduce costs as they go along, so they are hiring a staff of experts with the money they've raised. The inevitable backlash has already started, with a number of naysayers making armchair claims about how impossible the project is and questioning the lack of detailed numbers on the website that's designed for the general public and not for engineers.

Personally, I'll give them at least five years to get a serious real-world parking lot into use in their home town. If they can't get it done in five years, then I'll acknowledge that the naysayers were possibly right. However, with the amount of attention this project has gotten thanks to the Indiegogo campaign, we're going to hear lots of nasty stuff from people who do not believe the future is possible. I just really hope those nasty folks are wrong.

Solar Roadways - Getting closer

A couple of weeks ago I posted about an effort to get Solar Roadways working. In that post I expressed a bit of pessimism that the effort would reach its $1 million Indiegogo goal. It appears that the signal on the effort has reached a critical mass, however, as they are now more than 3/4 of the way to the goal and hurtling toward finishing a week ahead of schedule. I posted on Facebook about the effort this morning just before 8 a.m. Pacific when they were at $703,908. As of this me writing this sentence just after 12:30 p.m. Pacific they are at $794,439.

I contributed a tiny amount, and have been reading the FAQ, checking for updates on questions that people have been bringing up. Should the funding effort succeed, they will go into production of some sort. They then have more tests to run and will get some test sites going, hopefully public enough that people can go and check out how they work. Idaho is close enough, maybe if they get something going a field trip may be worth the effort for me. And I like the title of this article: Following the Solar Brick Road... now I've got that song stuck in my head... "Follow the solar brick road, follow the solar brick road! Follow, follow, follow, follow, follow the solar brick road..."

There's also a neat, if a tiny bit overenthusiastic, seven-minute video promoting the project:


I wonder how long it'll take before we see a road "paved" this way? a year? three years? a decade? I can see parking lots and sidewalks happening sooner, but a road... I wonder just how long it'll take if this really can do what the creators say it can do. Incidentally, as I'm finishing up this post just after 12:45 p.m. Pacific they are now at $798,433. Wow.

UPDATE (Sunday, May 25, 8:55 a.m.): They did it. They passed $1 million. Now we watch and see if they can keep their promises and hold to their goals.

Imagine well-lit streets that never freeze...

A guy has invented a paving system that uses hexagonal solar panels. In addition to supplying power, the system also lights the roadway, cleans storm water, has conduits for cables and has built-in heaters that prevent the road from freezing or being covered with snow. And more.

It's a fantastic idea with a working prototype, but this article says that the IndieGoGo campaign needs to raise $1,000,000 by the end of May, which I just don't see happening.

I still want it to happen, though. And I love the idea of a road that can communicate when it has a problem, or when somebody steals a section of it:

Even if someone were able to pull a panel out of the road and load it on a truck, the stolen panel would continue communicating with all of the other panels in the road. The road would know exactly where it was and how fast it was moving, making the criminal a sitting duck for law enforcement.

I want a road that tells me if somebody steals it!

*ahem* I can't exactly recommend contributing, but I certainly want to support this idea. So I'm doing what a writer does best. I think the more people that know about this, the more likely it is to eventually come to fruition.

What do YOU think?