Why I went Solar . . . and why Coronado should too!

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation to Coronado’s Sullivan Solar Power, but I heartily agree with their mission: to make Coronado a 100% Solar City. Homegrown energy independence is America’s future and Coronado can lead the way for the entire country! My story: back in the dark days of late 2000 when the arch-demons of Enron were mercilessly raping and pillaging San Diego County and California, and while their executives laughed at our plight: ————————————————————————————————– Enron Trader Tapes The 2004 release of transcripts of taped conversations among Enron electricity traders in the summer of 2001 revealed that company insiders not only knew they were stealing from California and other states, but gloated about it. The release of thousands of hours of tapes was a powerful indictment of the energy companies that looted California and Washington of close to $11 billion. At a time when streets in Northern California were lit only by head lights, factories shut down and families were trapped in elevators, Enron Energy traders laughed: “Just cut ’em off. They’re so f—-d. They should just bring back f—–g horses and carriages, f—–g lamps, f—–g kerosene lamps.” In another tape a trader laughed when describing his reaction when a business owner complained about high energy prices: “I just looked at him. I said, ‘Move.’ (laughter) The guy was like horrified. I go, ‘Look, don’t take it the wrong way. Move. It isn’t getting fixed anytime soon.” When a forest fire shut down a major power line into California, cutting down power supplies and raising prices, Enron energy traders were heard laughing and celebrating, singing ‘burn, baby, burn.’ During the winter of 2000, electricity loads were drastically lower than summer due to, among other things, the lack of need for air conditioning. The capacity for energy production in California was nearly four times what was actually used. Still, the rolling blackouts continued. Traders became very creative in finding ways to cut the supply of electricity (generally during peak usage hours or when assistance of maintenance was unavailable), such as in the following conversation at Enron (between traders Rich and Bill): Bill: “This is gonna be a word of mouth kinda thing, tonight, when you finish your normal queue, when you get ready for tomorrow, I want you guys to get a little creative and come up with a reason to go down [referring to shutting down the turbines]. Rich: “Ok” Bill: “Is there anything you want to do over there?” Rich: “Um yeah, there is some stuff we could be doing tonight” Bill: “That’s good” Rich: “Um, we need to come down and inspect this switch on the steam turbine, um this one switch on the induction steam valve has been failing us, we need to be down to pull the switch and adjust it” Bill: “No s–t” Rich: “yeah, and our electrician has to be on shift today so that works out real good” Regularly, phone calls were made directly to the power plants asking the supervisors to shut down during peak use hours, as in the following conversation: Trader: “If you took down the steamer [from a generating unit], how long would it take to get it back up?” Supervisor: “Oh, it’s not something you want to just be turning on and off every hour. Let’s put it that way,” another says. Trader: “Well, why don’t you just go ahead and shut her down.” ———————————————————————————————— . . . shortly after the results of the 2000 presidential election had been . . . “questioned by many” . . . (yet we didn’t riot in the streets, Mr. Kelley, and no foreign powers came to OUR aid either!) . . . and the entire Country then subsequently allowed itself to be blindly led astray by these same puppet masters into stepping off into the abyss of forfeiting our former security and sacrificing the blood of our precious youth to secure oil profits for the oligarchy . . . we took advantage of the now quickly dwindling tax credits to install a 90% Photo Voltaic Solar system on the roof of our 1600 sq. ft. 1935 “Spanish Revival” style home in the SDSU area very near where my wife and I grew up. We had bought the former crack-house (a perpetual “fixer-upper”) on the block in 1996–much to the delight of the neighbors! Though the climate is temperate, the total lack of insulation made it feel like a shed: hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. Being built in the previous depression from the recycled parts and pieces of fine Victorian homes torn down in the to-be-renovated “New Town” part of San Diego, it had not a SCRAP of insulation in the ceiling, floor or walls, no air conditioning, a ruined fireplace, only one of the two “antique” floor furnaces still worked (and that poorly), and the tall single paned double-hung windows leaked like sieves. My wife, son and I suffered along quietly on a firefighters’ salary for a few years and I used my previous construction experience to slowly weatherproof the house. By the second year we had added insulation to the floor and attic spaces and even drilled and filled the voids in the walls–this helped significantly to mediate the huge swings in yearly temperature extremes. By the time the solar panels were installed in early 2001, one of the first things we noticed was how much cooler it was in the house in the summer! It eventually hit me that it was the shading of the roof by the solar panels that kept the house from absorbing so much extra heat! Now more than half of that intense solar radiation that was previously heating up my attic and making all of us inside more miserable, was now being converted to electricity to spin our electric meter backwards during the day! We went from paying ~$140.00 EVERY month to about $200.00 A YEAR for electricity! Do the math there–my 90% system cost about 15,000.00 and in a few more years (it’s taking longer now that now that Enron has been exposed) will be paid off. In only a few short years I’m not only FAR more comfortable in my home, I’ve reduced my “carbon footprint”, have taken the suffering of children from asthma, the deaths of coal miners from black lung and the sacrifice of brave soldiers waging our battles overseas off of my karma, and I’m making a monthly “profit” off my system from there on. Taking further advantage of our favorable diurnal swings in daily temperature, we added more thermal mass to the house in the form of clay tile hexagonal pavers on the floor. We still don’t have air conditioning, but we no longer need or miss it. With enough openings to vent the house after the outside air cools down (windows and operable skylights) and enough thermal mass and insulation to store up the “cold” up during the day (thermal mass acts as a “heat sink” that absorbs heat), we are able to keep the house at a relatively comfortable temperature in the summer. While everyone else is straining San Diego Gouge + Extortion’s electric grid to run their air conditioners (whose ducts can harbor molds, dust and mites), we’re producing a surplus of electricity and are “selling” it back to this same utility company dollar-for-dollar (on a daily basis, anyway). We also installed radiant electric floor heat under the tile (STEP Warmfloor) so that in the winter we don’t need a forced air unit to heat the top few feet of airspace in the house. Instead of a stuffy house, we can actually leave the windows open in the winter! Since we are not heating the air in the house–but rather ourselves–it’s like standing in the warm sun on a cold winter’s day. The warm tile floor warms your feet and you from the inside–an indescribably wonderful experience. My wife really loves the fresh air year round–we previously kept a window cracked open even in winter as a result (to please SWMBO: She Who Must Be Obeyed, or who must at least be catered to!), and it really bugged me to see those “warm dollar bills” flying out the open window in the middle of winter. Now we don’t worry about it and we’re both not only happier with this elegant solution, but both more comfortable too! To be completely honest, our 90% system has now become more like a 80% system as a result, since we’re using more electricity in the winter for heating now relative to what we’re producing. It’s still worth it for the comfort and benefit. We’ve also not been moving our panels up and down with the seasons anymore as we used to. We used to move them up to about a 30° tilt in the winter to take advantage of the low winter sun and lay them almost flat in the summer to take advantage of the high summer sun. As a result our annual bill has gone from ~$200.00 to almost $500.00. I plan on installing a carport to protect the cars in the (south facing) driveway and want to shade them with additional solar panels, but that might have to wait for a bit. When you think about where we live, it makes NO SENSE AT ALL NOT to take advantage of the abundant resource we have falling on us by the megawatt year round! It is almost literally “like manna from heaven”–you need only reach out with your “bucket” and gather it up! I praise Sullivan Solar Power for their foresight and courage, and I implore ALL of Coronado to join them in leading the way for our Country to follow. We can reduce our dependency on others, our need to subjugate foreigners for their oil reserves and we can live and work in healthier, more beautiful and more sustainable buildings. We have the technology, the resources and the drive . . . I’m convinced that we have the collective will as well. In the shadow of the 40th ANNIVERSARY of Americans WALKING ON THE FREAKING MOON, fer cryin’ out loud, I’m reminded that it is precisely motivation and innovation like this that has made America great. We don’t NEED to listen to those who will tell us how difficult it might be or that it will take a LOT of time, and how it’s not how we’ve always done it . . . . My fellow citizens we can DO THIS! Let’s put Coronado ON THE MAP for all the RIGHT reasons! I’m absolutely crushed that I’m going to be out of town for the “Developing a Solar Community” seminar on August 15th, but I encourage you all to attend and educate yourselves about the possibilities for yourselves and for Coronado. For more information contact: Sullivan Solar Power.