Often I am surrounded by forward-thinking people. People, like me, who recognize that there must be a shift to renewable energy in this country, and this world. Fortunately, many people realize this. However, most, myself included, are talking about solar and renewables, but are not quite practicing it. “We want solar, but we do not know how long we will be in our house.” “When things slow down, I would like to get an estimate for solar on my house…” “After that next project/job/etc., we’ll be able to afford solar…” Meanwhile, every bit each of us does…now…within our means…matter.

Let me introduce Bob Hodash. Bob is a teacher at Sierra Middle School in Bakersfield, California. He has written and won grants from both the PG&E solar Schools program and the BP A+ for Energy program. He is the “Kids for Solar Energy” Club advisor and on the PG&E Solar Schools Program Teacher Advisory Board. This summer, Bob installed a 3.8kWh AC system. The picture of his installation was taken 08-26-07. The temperature outside was 92 degrees Farenheit, and the system was generating 3,085 watts at 2:30 pm.

As you read his story, think about how ideal your home or work is for solar. The change to renewables does not happen overnight, but one installation at a time…

Story submitted by Bob Hodash

722kwh in June! (722 Thousand-Watt-Hours!) That’s the amount of electricity my roof mounted solar panels produced in the first month of use, July 2007. Not bad for not even being at home. I was actually on vacation in upstate New York and my roof was producing electricity, providing the grid with extra power and making me money. PG&E credits the energy that my solar panels produce in excess of what I use and since I was away and anything consuming power was unplugged, it was all excess power. It’s actually more of a credit, and California has full retail net-metering which allows me to get maximum financial benefit for my solar production.

Of course for the globally minded, I saved many tons of carbon from being released into the atmosphere. On a hot day like today in California, my solar power and fellow solar power deployers may have helped the state avoid rolling brown or blackouts.

The image above was pulled off of the California Independent System Operator (ISO) website. The green line shows what was available, and the red line shows what our usage was… Today was a spare the air day, and may of my fellow schools along with businesses were asked to voluntarily reduce loads (turn off uneeded lights, increase the air temperature thus requiring less energy to cool the air, etc.). It’s unbelievable that our load went up over 50,000 MW, but there was my energy contribution…on a day like today, let nobody doubt that every individual contribution does make a difference.

I added no pollutants to the earth or the atmosphere and possibly convinced two others neighbors to follow my lead. More if this short article convinces others.

The process was a bit lengthy of choosing a contractor, the panels and the inverter, and then applying for a home equity loan. I went with a California company (SolarCity) to install, and California companies that made the panels and inverter (SolarWorld and Xantrex, respectively). Think Globally and Buy Locally! Once the decision was made the installation went very quickly and with only minor communication issues, which were quickly solved. The rebate from the Public Utilities Commission & PG&E was handled by the company (almost $9K) and the Feds will be chipping in at least $2K in April.

My advice for those who have panels installed, communicate with your contractor, make sure plenty of cold water is available to the installers (we invited our installers in for pizza lunch, which was of course was gladly accepted), and keep all of your paperwork organized, so you know what equipment you purchased, and try to work with one person as the job coordinator.

Would I do it again, yes! Do I feel good about it, yep!! And, do I brag to other people about it, please see above!!!

If you have specific questions please e-mail me at bhodash@bak.rr.com.

Thanks and “The Future is Clean Energy!”

Story submitted by Katie Kizer, who worked as an intern for Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation in support of their Illinois solar schools projects.

Not too long ago, my father, Glen Kizer, said to me, “Just call Benedictine University and ask for Dr. John Mickus and tell him that you are my daughter and that you need to write a blog story about him and his project. He put solar PV on the science building, helped to build a greenhouse, and he also ran a solar camp for teachers. He is using several different methods and models at the same time to teach the concept of solar energy.”

No intimidation there. An esteemed professor at a well-respected university was going to receive a phone call from me, a college student and summer intern, regarding the unbelievable things he had been doing to help the environment. The notion of intimidation does not do that conversation justice.

From the moment Dr. Mickus and I swiftly moved passed introductions, I began to realize the grand idea of progress in the arena of environmentalism. Individuals are constantly surfacing who claim that they have single-handedly helped to grow some important cause and that they deserve recognition for their greatness. More often than not we watch these people reap the benefits of such recognition for the rest of their lives. Not that these people do not deserve credit for working toward the common good. What I am implying is that the potential for progress is unending, and it is individuals such as Dr. Mickus who embody true humanitarians in the eyes of Mother Nature. These activists are not satisfied with just one great deed, but demand more.

Dr. Mickus started off by declaring his regret for not reaching his goal of Benedictine installing “the largest solar panel in the world,” because that was his original plan. As we often discover, we can set our sights high, although attaining goals must be gauged while considering the aid of many other entities involved. The results of this professor’s efforts far surpass any expectation that could be placed on such projects. He has succeeded in installing a 1 KW solar PV system on the science building and was instrumental in the construction of a nearby greenhouse.

Dr. Mickus explained his reasoning behind the placement of the solar panels. They were installed at the side entrance next to both the parking lot and the greenhouse site. This allows each person coming into the building from the parking lot to see the brilliance of solar energy through both a photovoltaic system and the untainted power of the sun. The greenhouse demonstrates that the sun can be used to grow plants year-round inside its protective walls. He didn’t want to hide a larger solar array on the roof that might be an end to his project. He could take a lot of pictures and get credit for his efforts, but it might close the door on his work. He chose to try and teach every student who walked by those solar panels and through the door of the college classroom building that solar energy was and is possible in Lisle, Illinois. He wants the solar installation to be the beginning of his work and not the end.

He has also worked with teachers during the above mentioned solar camp and followed up this training by implementing the solar data into the physics curriculum. He explained to me that teaching the students within the science building about solar energy is just as important as the installation of the system itself. And when asked why he decided to take on such a massive set of projects and become the go-to person at Benedictine for solar energy, he simply said he just wanted to demonstrate to others that its time has come.

What struck me the most was Dr. Mickus’ insistence that education should be the beginning and end of these projects. Coming from a family that never stopped reminding me of how crucial it is for me to have an education, I had become somewhat desensitized to this message, considering it was always coming from the mouths of my parents. Witnessing his conviction in the possibility of teaching both young people like myself and older people such as my parents, it is evident that education continues to be the purest way to rally others around causes such as this. What we can all hope for is that one day, solar and other forms of renewable energy will not be considered “causes” at all, but they will represent a way of life for societies across the globe. And such a hope begins and ends with individuals like Dr. Mickus.

Speaking from the perspective of someone who is still soaking up all of the environmental work happening around me, I have discovered an undeniable certainty from working in this field. This type of productivity would not be possible without the unrelenting modesty of such figures like Dr. Mickus, despite my attempt to cover a fraction of the recognition he truly deserves. Many could rightly claim that a single renewable energy project at such a major institution warrants a lifetime of praise, yet those who have truly pioneered this movement insist that we continue to think of new ways to save energy.

After getting a few useful quotes from the professor and explaining a little bit about the work I had been doing, he stopped short and asked me if it were possible to use LED lighting in Benedictine’s museum. He explained that earlier he had been in the museum and the florescent lighting did not seem appropriate in such a setting. His enthusiasm behind this new idea swallowed the rest of our conversation, despite my desire to hear all about his solar energy work. His main concern was moving forward, and he was adamant about me contacting him regarding the possibility of utilizing LED lighting at the museum as soon as I had more information.

While it is cordial that Dr. Mickus dismisses our praise, I would like to officially thank him for all his efforts and the guarantee that we will see much more from this educator and those he has influenced.

My job is to tell the story of why the point people of these projects made commitments to this type of work. I also attempt to uncover the underlying story behind the project itself. What I discovered is the contagious inspiration that arises from this work and that no matter how far one has immersed his or herself in a specific field, there are always new things to learn and more innovative ways to bring about change. Benedictine will indefinitely be a template for other projects and the work of Dr. Mickus will hopefully teach others how to improve the state of the environment. Carrying out such projects in a way that is both inventive and educational is how schools in Illinois can continue to break the mold. It is these heroes of progress who will agitate others into carrying on this invaluable work.

Partners:

• Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation
• Foundation for Environmental Education
• Commonwealth Edison
• NEED

I was more actively interested in physics after I learned about ether in my high school physics class. It seemed like a silly concept to me, yet at the time it was our best guess and I found that fascinating…admittedly, physics and the science of energy was not my forte then. In retrospect, I’m happy to have been introduced to concepts that would later help frame the way I look at the world. I send a shout out and thanks to all the under appreciated high school science teachers out there! For a long time we believed we were surrounded by this mystical substance, ether or aether, until the turn of the century when our mechanical abilities to build sophisticated instruments to test our theories was realized. In college, I took my passing fascination with physics a step further when I took a theoretic physics class at Carnegie Mellon, and went deeper into particle physics and quantum mechanics…where science and philosophy can meet at a subatomic level…Einsteinian special and general relativity to super string theory and some really mind bending lessons. I don’t pretend to understand any of it at a deeper level…but connections are there to be made in everyday life. To me, it’s all science and art.

I wanted to be a diplomat and an artist, and travel the world learning new languages, and living in different cultures…I’ve always thought we had more in common than we thought…we just needed to learn more, and look at each other from new lenses. It’s the duality of nature that I later came to appreciate…light is both a wave and particle and that really threw the ether people for a loop…in physics and so many other disciplines… How could we be both common and different at the same time? How we could look at a problem from several different scientific or cultural lenses, and come to new conclusions…allowing us to sometimes radically change not only our opinions but also our factual precepts…if we kept our minds open for the lessons, and learning opportunities.

Scientific inquiry is both art and science. Today I have the benefit of still being a sort of diplomat and artist I once dreamed of…and in many projects we get to see the intersection between science and art…and get to share this journey with so many interesting people. I saw some powerful pictures at a friend’s desk (thanks Ivan!), and just had to know where they came from… NASA? Nature? It turns out that they are one means of scientific inquiry from an engineer that is developing some of the most advanced methods of growing silicon crystals in the world… Hopefully all of you will recognize silicon as our building block for photovoltaic cells, which we put up on monumental poles and rooftops around the country. Eric is also an accomplished photographer as you’ll see, and here is his perspective.

Story submitted by Eric B.

In my experience, when researching and developing a new process, there are many victories and set backs. But for me, a set back wasn’t exactly what it seemed. I work for a solar company. We have developed a process that will reduce the cost of growing silicon for the solar photovoltaic industry. The road traveled to achieve this, has been at times, a long and difficult one. Sometimes however, in the face of difficulty, you can find artistic beauty in places you never would’ve thought. I submit to you a few pictures as a representation of a conflict in me, between journey and destination. I have found that in business, the goal or destination is the main focus. In art or artistic expression, it is seemingly more about the journey, or that which is learned or experienced on the way to achieving a goal or arriving at a destination. I however have been lucky enough, to have found a place where I can experience wonders of both. The pictures submitted, were all take during times when there were complications with the development of the process of growing silicon crystals.

This is a picture of a silicon crystal, actually being grown. This is being shot through a gold plated glass filter, to protect the grower’s eyes. Silicon is grown at 3000 degrees Fahrenheit.

Unlike other silicon growing processes, we will run the grower for a week or more at a time. The materials and gases inside the grower, at these high temperatures, react together and cause a waste by product of silicon oxide. This silicon oxide can create some amazing colors and formations. The following pictures are but a few of the pictures that I have taken of something that I think is very beautiful.

In the highly textured images above, these strange formations grow on some of the graphite parts in the grower during process.  As for the ones that look more like paintings, these are some of the colors and patterns that develop on the walls of the grower during a run process.

When one first thinks of solar energy, farming is usually not the first thing that comes to mind. Although not traditionally considered solar energy, the sun is essential for Farming. This author has grown up on a small almond orchard in Northern California and would like to share the little known story of how that tiny, healthy and tasty nut arrives at your local supermarket…and there’s a parallel between natural farming and the solar energy seeds being planted around the country.

The almond industry first came to Durham commercially in 1895. For years, Durham was considered the almond capital of California. As the industry grew, California produced more and more almonds (more than 200 million pounds of almonds in 1974). This year, the crop is projected to bring in more than 1.33 billion pounds! Two-thirds of the crop is exported, more than half of that to European countries. Almonds are considered the most “nutritionally dense” nut available and are part of many nutritional diet plans. You can learn a bit more about almonds at this great site - www.almondboard.com.

As a third generation farmer on this property, my grandparents and parents have built houses and improved the property. I grew up with the understanding that hard work and being dependent on weather and seasons was normal. Sure, not nearly as difficult as my grandparents’ earlier dairy farming, but farming nonetheless. It was at one point years ago while traveling and living on farms in Australia that I wrote in a diary my most profound observation ever, “Farming is the science of guessing.” This is true of all forms of solar as well, but we’ve developed additional means and methods of predicting our success…calculated guessing, well, or so we think.

Back to solar. Trees spend the winter months “resting.” During this time of less light, they prepare to awaken in spring. As they awaken, you carefully adjust water and nutrient levels to optimize chances of a large harvest. Planting, pruning, and managing the orchard floor become the important tasks. Bees are used to pollinate the almond trees that have a beautiful white blossom. For a few weeks, orchards appear to be blanketed with this fake snow.

When summer hits, irrigation is the key. Too much, you get fungus. Too little, stress is put on the trees. Just right, and you get a profitable crop. Summer is our most profitable month for harvesting the kWh of solar energy systems as well, particularly in many parts of California where we rarely get rain during the summer months.

As fall approaches, so does harvest. Trees are shaken with machines that hug the base of the tree and vibrate them for less than 30 seconds. On the ground the almonds lie - to be sun dried for a few days. Nuts are mechanically swept into rows where they are put in carts with “Pickup Machines.”

As fall approaches, so do new energy seeds. We have projects in Pittsburgh, San Francisco, and Southern California that you will soon be hearing a lot more about.

Farmers are often at the forefront of new and cutting edge technology. They are constantly looking for improvements that can reduce negative effects on the land and increase profits. Recently, Paramount Farms installed an 8 acre solar energy plant. The 1.1 megawatt, $7.5 million solar plant in the San Joaquin Valley, is the largest single-site, privately owned solar plant in the U.S. If farmers are going solar, you know that it makes business sense.

With increased pressures on the small farmer, I hope that I am able to continue our family’s way of life. My wife and I hope to instill a work ethic and respect for nature in our three young children. Next time you sit down for a meal, think of all of the ingredients and work involved in growing your food.