Solar power now a feasible, environmentally friendly optionApr 25 - Jackie Jadrnak Albuquerque Journal, N.M.
New Mexicans are beginning to act on the reality that their Pueblo brethren could have taught them centuries ago: The sun is a great energy source. But while passive solar design could have aided indoor temperature control anytime, active solar installations to produce electricity only began to make real fiscal sense about five years ago, according to Taylor Selby, vice president of sales for the Santa Fe-based company Positive Energy Solar. That feasibility is sparking a growth in sales and Santa Fe Community College is entering the fray with plans to set up a system that, when finished, should provide up to 40 percent of its electricity usage, while saving about $200,000 per year on its utility bills, according to Interim President Randy Grissom. Including plans for an installation in the Higher Education Center under construction off Siringo Road, the three planned solar systems together will cost around $5 million. "We're showing the commitment of the college to reducing its carbon footprint, while expanding its educational offerings," he said. "We're being a role model, while training for jobs in those areas." A recent news report indicated that solar energy jobs are showing the fastest growth nationally, Grissom added. The Solar Foundation announced that solar energy jobs in 2013 grew by 20 percent over the previous year; that compares to an overall national job growth in that period of 1.9 percent. The community college is launching a Solar Fiesta on Saturday and Sunday with a ceremony at 10:30 a.m. today at the Trades and Advanced Technology Center. It will reveal "The Sol Man," a sculpture by Nancy Judd, and feature the first phase of a project with Positive Energy Solar: an 11.8-kilowatt array of solar panels on the south side of the building. Students -- and interested members of the public -- will be able to track the efficiencies and power production of the panels, one set of which has an east-west orientation, one with a north-south tracking and a third that will be able to adjust to the best alignment in all directions. If you go WHAT: Solar Fiesta WHEN: 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and noon-5 p.m. Sunday WHERE: Santa Fe Community College, Trades and Advanced Technology Center COST: Free MORE INFO: sfcc.edu/earthweek_at_sfcc/solar_fiesta or nmsolarfiesta.org Also, sometime this summer, work is expected to begin on a 1.5-megawatt photovoltaic array that will cover about six acres south of the campus' south loop road. It is scheduled to be done in October. Calling SFCC a "focal point of the community," one where his son probably one day will attend classes, Selby said it was important to him that the solar project "be done by a local company and done right." He said the college has chosen some of the highest quality modules available, which offer a 25-year warranty. He noted concerns that many manufacturers in the solar industry have gone bankrupt in recent years. Selby said that happened after the Chinese government gave no-interest or low-interest loans to its manufacturers, in essence subsidizing them so they could lower prices and gain market share. As European and American companies dropped prices in an attempt to stay competitive, they lost money and many could not stay in business, he said. He said the San Jose, Calif., company providing the solar panels for this job, SunPower, shows a cash cushion of more than $700 million and equity of more than $1.1 billion, so it should be able to continue operating through the lifetime of the panels' warranty. Since solar installations now are connected to the power grid, that means they can feed energy into that system if they are producing more than the college, for instance, may be using -- producing a potential payment or credit from PNM. That may be the case on sunny days when the campus is on break and using less power, Grissom noted. That set-up also avoids one of the downsides to active solar power in the past: storage. Off-grid systems need a way to store the energy, and the batteries for that purpose often were troublesome and, well, not particularly friendly to the environment, both Grissom and Selby noted. Workshops outlining current solar energy issues, installations and much more will be offered throughout the day Saturday at the Building Trades and Advanced Technology Center on the SFCC campus. Various public officials and Democratic gubernatorial candidates will be on hand at different times to discuss policy issues related to renewable energy. Sunday will feature tours and demonstrations of biofuels, the culinary garden, aquaponics and more. http://www.energycentral.com/functional/news/news_detail.cfm?did=32280861& |