KIUC on PV - Tesla on PowerWall

SUBHEAD: Today I got two messages. One from the backward looking KIUC - the other from forward looking Tesla Corp.

By Juan Wilson on 1 May 2015 for Island Breath -
(http://islandbreath.blogspot.com/2015/05/kiuc-on-pv-tesla-on-powerwall.html)


Image above: Three units of the Tesla PowerWall hanging on a wall. From (http://www.renovablesverdes.com/).

I got a few emails about solar energy overnight. One was from Kauai Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) warning about the downside of rooftop solar power panels, and the other from my brother-in-law (and others) about the Tesla PowerWall.

The email from the (KIUC). It was specifically sent from  info@kiuc.coop. That means it is a corporate press release of a propaganda effort to keep the herd in line.

The thrust of the KIUC message was that solar was no big deal and that if you do anything it should be to put a solar hot water heater on your roof, not photo-voltaic panels to produce energy. In fact if you insist on putting panels on your house you'd be better off putting a small array up since you'll be relying on KIUC to get you through the night anyway.

KIUC tells its members that putting up a big array so that KIUC would pay them more than they would owe KIUC for power would be a terrible idea; warning: "Some mainland utilities are starting to charge solar customers a fee to help recover their share of fixed costs."

That's kind of like the banks that are charging negative interest rates to customers that give them cash to hold in an account.

Nowhere in the KIUC discussion of solar electric power generation do they even consider you might use batteries to store your own power - and they certainly couldn't imaging that if you produced your own power and stored it that you would even consider cutting the cord to the grid.

Well, given this kind of perspective from our "member owned cooperative" that's exactly what I would recommend. Get off the grid!

That does not mean run into the arms of the solar system leasers. I agree with KIUC on caution there.

Below is the email content from KIUC executives (working for the Touchtone Energy Group):

KIUC Straight Talk on Rooftop Solar As a co-op, we support measures our members can take to save money and become more energy efficient. We also want our members to make informed decisions about their energy use. With rooftop solar photovoltaic systems being sold so aggressively on Kauai, we're already seeing situations where people aren't getting the savings they were promised. So now they're paying a KIUC bill and making monthly payments on a solar lease. There are also people who use very little electricity who are being talked into long-term leases for big rooftop systems. In some cases, their lease payments can be more than their old electric bill. Rooftop solar isn't right for everyone, so it's important that you get all the facts before buying a system or committing to a lease. If you do decide to get a rooftop system, we recommend getting one that's right-sized for the amount of electricity your household uses, not oversized. The bigger the system, the higher the cost. And there's no guarantee KIUC will always buy your excess power. Here are the co-op's answers to some common questions about rooftop solar: Should I get a rooftop solar system? It mostly depends on how your household uses electricity. To maximize your savings, your household must be able to shift a significant amount of its electricity use to the hours when the sun is shining - doing laundry or cooking during the day, for example. If no one is home during the day and your energy use during those hours is minimal, your savings will also be small. What size should my system be? Every household uses electricity differently, but the average household using 500 to 700 kilowatt hours per month can usually achieve savings with a 10-panel system producing 2.5 kilowatts. For people using less than 500 kWh per month, the savings probably aren't big enough to justify the cost of rooftop solar. You should first consider a solar water heater, which is a lot less expensive to install and can reduce your bill by 30 percent or more - and KIUC offers a $1,000 rebate. You can call us at 246-4300 and we'll tell you what your average use is. How many panels do I need to make my bill go away? Even customers who offset all of their household use are still responsible for a minimum monthly charge. An oversized system designed mainly to sell excess electricity to KIUC can cost $40,000 or more before tax incentives - the bigger the system, the longer it takes to recover your investment, if ever. Those zero-down leases sound like a great way to get solar on my roof. With zero money down, you're rolling the cost into the monthly payment you'll be making to the solar company, which charges you for the electricity your system produces. Before signing a long-term lease, ask yourself some questions: Do I plan to live here for 20 years or am I going to move? Am I comfortable with the risk that if the price of electricity falls, I'm still locked into a higher lease payment? Can I shift my use of electricity to the daytime? What kind of warranty does the contractor provide, and who will be around to repair my system if it breaks 10 years from now? How much will KIUC pay me for the excess electricity I generate? For most members with rooftop solar, the amount KIUC pays for the electricity they export to the grid changes every month, depending on the price of oil. It's been as high as 26 cents and as low as 10 cents. This rate, known as Schedule Q, reflects the amount KIUC would have had to pay to generate the power if we didn't buy it from you. Because KIUC generates most of its electricity by burning oil, this so-called "avoided cost" calculation is tied to the oil price. As more renewables come on line and KIUC burns less oil, the amount paid under Schedule Q is expected to drop. Will KIUC always buy the extra energy my system produces? On a sunny afternoon when all of the photovoltaic systems on the island are at their maximum output, there can be more power being generated than there is demand - there's nowhere for this excess power to go. So there may be times when our system won't accept all of the solar power available. That's known as curtailment. The more oversized rooftop systems on the grid, the more likely curtailment becomes. KIUC hopes to avoid curtailment by encouraging customers to install "right-sized" systems. At times when peak solar production outpaces demand, it's possible KIUC may temporarily disconnect some oversized systems so they can't export to the grid. Will the charges on my electric bill stay the same if I have solar? People with solar photovoltaic systems are still on the grid. They count on it to provide 80 percent of their power, since those systems don't work at night and when it's cloudy. Yet they pay a smaller share of the utility's fixed costs - people, poles, lines, power plants, batteries - than people without solar. Regulators have acknowledged that existing rate mechanisms don't reflect the new reality of renewable resource integration. Some Mainland utilities are starting to charge solar customers a fee to help recover their share of fixed costs and Hawaii utilities, including KIUC, are studying similar fees. Any rate changes would be subject to the approval of the Hawaii Public Utilities Commission.

The other messages about solar were about the announcement by Elon Monk of the Tesla Corporation on the availability of a home energy storage system called the PowerWall. If you don't think that made the good old boys on the KIUC board soil their shorts read on about the PowerWall.

Here's one article on the PowerWall:

The Tesla PowerWall Al Jazeera (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2015/05/electric-car-pioneer-tesla-unveils-home-battery-150501180146733.html) A device, which could fit on wall of garage or inside a house, could make solar-powered homes independent of energy grid. Tesla, the electric car pioneer, has unveiled a "home battery" which the US company's founder Elon Musk said would help change the "entire energy infrastructure of the world". The Tesla Powerwall can store power from solar panels, from the electricity grid at night when it is typically cheaper, and provide a secure back-up in the case of a power outage. In theory, the device, which typically would fit on the wall of a garage or inside a house, could make solar-powered homes completely independent of the traditional energy grid. "The goal is complete transformation of the entire energy infrastructure of the world, to completely sustainable zero carbon," Musk told reporters shortly before unveiling the Powerwall at an event outside Los Angeles. Examples of the device were lined up along one side of a hall. "It looks like a beautiful sculpture on the wall," said Musk. All the power for the evening demonstration, attended by several hundred media as well as technology world participants, came from his new batteries, hooked up to solar panels on the roof, he said. 'Poorest communities' Initially the device, which will cost $3,500, will go on sale in the US later this year. But the aim is to roll it out internationally some time next year. Germany is seen as a key market for the product, because it has among the highest take-up of solar energy in the world, Musk said. The Powerwall comes in 10 kWh weekly cycle and 7 kWh daily cycle models, both of which are guaranteed for 10 years and are sufficient to power most homes during peak evening hours. "This is going to be really great for the poorest communities in the world," he said. "This allows you to be completely off grid." Musk stressed, however, that moving advanced economies like the US away from unsustainable fossil fuels was a key goal. "I think we should collectively do something about this ... we have this handy fusion reactor in the sky, called the sun," he said.

And here's another article on the PowerWall:

Tesla Unveils Battery French Press Agency (http://www.afp.com/en/news/tesla-unveils-battery-transform-energy-infrastructure) Electric car pioneer Telsa Motors unveiled a "home battery" Thursday which its founder Elon Musk said would help change the "entire energy infrastructure of the world." The Tesla Powerwall can store power from solar panels, from the electricity grid at night when it is typically cheaper, and provide a secure backup in the case of a power outage. In theory the device, which typically would fit on the wall of a garage or inside a house, could make solar-powered homes completely independent of the traditional energy grid. "The goal is complete transformation of the entire energy infrastructure of the world, to completely sustainable zero carbon," Musk told reporters shortly before unveiling the Powerwall in a warehouse outside Los Angeles. Initially the device, which will cost $3,500, will go on sale in the United States later this year. But the aim is to roll it out internationally some time next year. Germany is seen as a key market for the product -- which is about 6 inches thick, 4 feet tall and 3 feet across -- because it has among the highest take-up of solar energy in the world, Musk said. But it could also be a huge boon for under-developed regions, where power is often unreliable at best, despite abundant solar energy -- and he compared the potential to that of the way cellphone technology has expanded. "It's analogous to the way mobile leap-frogged landlines," Musk said. "This is going to be really great for the poorest communities in the world," he said. "This allows you to be completely off grid."

You get the picture. Tesla is inviting people to store the energy they need to run their homes for the cost of an automobile, and KIUC hoping you haven't heard the Tesla announcement and hoping you'll go back to sleep and stop worrying about the "Grid" or the future.

I have no idea if Tesla can manufacture and sell such a system to a wide audience. It is expensive and money to invest in the future is as rare as hen's teeth for most of us. For those with money to buy a new car this could be an alternative.

But, there are many voices that say we don't have the resources, affordable energy or focus to manufacture a way to continue our consumer based society and that a completely different paradigm is needed at this late stage of our throat hold on Mother Nature.

In any event, at least Tesla is looking forward and not backward. Big centralized top-down systems, like power grids are on the way out.
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