Dear distributed / community / district / municipal / and neighborhood energy thought leaders:
Here is a collection of my current thoughts on community solar/energy adoption. I am doggedly trying to connect these dots in a financially sustainable way, but I need other minds like yours on the issues. SolarGardens and SolarPanelHosting seem very much to be on the right track. This is a followup to my SWOT analysis of Community Energy Projects written a few months back. The Solar Gardens FAQ is another good summary as well. Skip to the bottom for some admittedly self-interested ways to solve our collective conundrum. Here are the aforementioned thought dots I'm passionately trying to connect (in no particular order):
1. People overwhelmingly want some kind of renewable energy, and in particular solar PV, for their homes, schools and businesses.
2. There are solar installers and integrators that want to connect with that demand, and provide a trusted source for solar contracting services.
3. There is money from ARRA, USDA, DOE, and other govt and non-govt entities to innovate with solar power. Clean and Green stock funds are proliferating to serve an increasingly strong demand for equity investment opportunities in the renewable energy sector.
4. There is a disconnect between people's desire to use solar power in the long term and their desire/ability to spend real money on it in the short term.
5. There is a disconnect between our current cultural trend toward the need for energy independence and our public policy.
6. There are disparate and surprisingly disconnected independent solar installers out there looking for work or trying to get trained to do this work, but their efforts are being replicated and wheels are being vigorously reinvented due to the illusion of needing to "Do it all myself" rather than "work for someone else".
7. Community solar is not a well-described idea for folks outside the solar or progressive renewable energy non-profit world.
8. Energy resources in the form of negawatts (units of energy conservation) are abundant and easily captured but rarely end up being captured in conjunction with energy production.
9. Solar power remains on some level a form of wishful thinking, science fiction, or even outright financial waste to a certain vocal population of Americans.
10. Solar thermal applications are a far better fit for many homes and businesses on financial and energy efficiency terms, but seemingly lack the "bling" or "Prius effect" of solar PV.
11. Many people who talk about and promote solar power do not themselves invest in it, even if they have good insolation profiles. Ditto for energy efficiency professionals.
12. Many citizen groups that focus on the environment spend hundreds of hours of time meeting and discussing Peak Oil, Energy Independence, Green Lifestyles, Wal-Mart and other seemingly vital topics, but don't actually invest in the existing technology that will overcome some or all of the issues they ostensibly care passionately about. They also drive to these meetings in inefficient cars, nyah nyah.
13. The technologies that are necessary for huge sea changes in energy production, conservation, deployment, storage, and wise consumption are already here, waiting for implementation en masse.
14. There are many examples of existing community sustainability projects that are funded entirely by communities, but they are relegated to "pilot", "future" or "experimental" status by an uninformed mainstream press or lazy public bloggers.
15. There are hundreds of community projects that get funding from small and large donations that are essentially depreciating assets like playgrounds, monuments, and outdoor public art works.
16. Lots of smart, dedicated people are out of work and are looking for meaningful careers that can pay the bills, even if this means they need to cut back on things they used to take as necessities.
17. Corporate sustainability programs are being implemented globally, but the small businesses that might be able to easily handle the consulting and implementation work are not getting noticed in the shuffle. Non-sustainably oriented building maintenance companies that have no real vested interest in improving anything beyond their financial bottom line are getting this very lucrative work despite obvious gaps in knowledge and implementation success.
18. Community solar projects when described verbally or written without simple diagrams and pictures regularly cause the dreaded "information overload and skepticism eye-roll" which can doom these otherwise great ideas.
19. Publicity and marketing for sustainble businesses are mostly still stuck on old ideas, old methodologies, and worn-out practices.
20. Amory Lovins has not been cloned and upgraded with Ashton Kutcher's DNA and Bill Gate's net worth.
21. There is not as yet existing a region, area or dense group of businesses similar to "Silicon Valley" that is dedicated to the rapid acceleration of the adoption of renewable energy and energy efficiency, here in the USA.
22. Copenhagen is kicking our collective butt in community energy adoption and implementation, while China is kicking our butt in renewable energy technology proliferation, funding, and business creation. We have sore butts.
23. In local and state government where community energy policy in most effectively lobbied for and/or created, it's usually a single person, entity, or small dedicated team that does the lion's share of educating governance on the wisdom of distributed energy and independent energy production. This work is too infrequently coordinated or shared with similar entities/groups across the country.
24. Community energy policy seems to target subsidies, grants, temporary financial incentives and other similar "flash and fade" schemas to try and kick-start the infrastructure for community energy implementation. Folks outside and even some inside the renewable energy field consider this a form of wrong-headed civic bribery that only works short-term and might actually work against its own ends in the long term.
25. The cost of grid-provided electricity in many sustainably-minded communities is extremely inexpensive.
26. Greenhouse gasses are not yet a trade-able commodity, polluters continue to be able to cheaply pay off their environmental damage and then keep doing it. The federal government continues to directly subsidize private and public energy companies that continue to directly pollute the environment.
27. Community Energy appears to many people as a hippie pipe dream. It's regularly associated with extreme austerity measures, "Earth Ships", untested and unwise building practices, overcomplicated hyper-technical smart grid dreams, unrealistic energy demands, and programs that only work in Sweden or Germany.
28. New "housing communities" (i.e. giant housing developments in the suburbs) are rarely sustainably built or intentionally incorporate possible future implementation of renewable energy into construction. Speed and low cost are the only targets for many developers.
29. Schools that teach sustainability, environmental responsibility, "green job force training" and the like are not themselves implementing substantial renewable energy systems on their own buildings.
30. Progressive political thought blames conservatives for the lack of accessible community energy programs and funding.
31. Conservative political thought blames progressives for wasteful government expenses based on supposedly unproven climate change science.
32. Independent political thought blames either/or thinking for time and energy wasting when we already have the tools to get this community/district/
33. People like me are periodically jaded and sad about the state of community energy, but find that if they honestly assess the true state of things, they see that progress toward full-scale adoption of energy independent municipality programs is inevitable, and a mouthful.
34. Community Energy laws (like the well-intended ESSB #6658) remain difficult to implement and/or take advantage of in the short or long term. A split emerges between folks looking to "invest in solar" and folks looking to "protect the environment". 6658 is a good first (originated in 2005!) attempt at community energy policy, but until it's much more clear and user-friendly, we're going to have to continue to take distributed energy projects on ourselves (with the full support of our local utilities, of course).
Question:
How can we connect these dots in specific actionable ways that protect ecological stability, ensure heterogeneous political support, create a local budgetary financial bedrock, bring stable long-term jobs and careers to our region, and make it fun to go to work every day as community energy advocates?
Answer #1:
Create and fund a clean tech start-up incubator much like the one proposed in a recent DOE Grant opportunity. Similar to the Mckinstry Innovation Center, but with more of a focus on neighborhood-scale energy production and distribution solutions combined with energy efficient building. This hub would be housed in a retrofitted building completed by the companies and individuals that wanted to be included in the incubation process. The hub could be located in an economically depressed area, rather than Seattle downtown core. Trainings, classes, and hands-on demonstrations would be focal activities, and participating companies and individuals would be able to cross-train among themselves to co-create other spin-offs.
Answer #2:
Find a way to pay Aaron Campbell to be a state-wide roving community energy champion like a mobile version of Gary Nystedt, Leslie Moynihan, Joe & Tammy Deets, and Stanley Florek. I'll show people how to gather up their communities, groups, and passionate leaders to implement a customized, reproducible, systematic method for developing community energy programs that already work. I'll drive my new Nissan Leaf, recharge it with solar panels and at charging stations, share best practices among committed communities, and multimedia blog the entire process for maximum public exposure.
Answer #3:
Do both #1 and #2, with Aaron Campbell promoting both concepts as he visits communities in the state and region.
Comments? Suggestions? Points of contention? Kudos? Bring it on!
Energetically,
Aaron Campbell
Community Energy Director
SunergySystems.com
206-898-8337
aaron@campbell-energy.com
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