This is our second part of a two part series on our latest favorite solar device! Our last story was from an educational perspective, and this time we’re taking it to the streets…with a glimpse into the electric consumption, and new carbon free mobility choices of a solar salesperson in Berkeley, CA.

Story submitted by James Hatfield, SolarCity road warrior

I am a solar salesperson who spends a lot of my time out on the road. And I love cross-country running. That means I spend a lot of time on my phone, taking sun readings on rooftops, and almost every day I have my mp3 player plugged into my ears while I’m out running. I’m probably not the only person living like this, but suffice it to say I spend quite a bit of time away from home – and using electricity in my assortment of little productivity devices.

A typical day for me: out on the road making several sales visits, talking about solar energy with homeowners, business owners, schools, city officials (read: anyone who will listen), and using my Solmetric SunEye tool to measure solar access for the roof area, then, if time permits, sneak in a quick energizing run through the woods in a nearby state park while listening to my favorite tunes, then get on the phone and talk, talk, talk. All of this takes a lot of energy, but not only my own energy. I’m talking about electricity — juice, lightnin’ in a bottle, man’s greatest invention, whatever you want to call it — the stuff needed to power my productivity tools: the SunEye, mp3, and the cell phone. And I need it all day, every day. Sure, my little devices don’t individually or even collectively require much electricity, but (isn’t there always a “but”) I have to assume that there are thousands, nay, millions, of “road warriors” like myself who are plugging their own productivity tools into the wall every day and night. And I really don’t like plugging into the wall – this ultimately means plugging into dirty power.

Enter man’s latest greatest invention, the Solio! The Solio is a hybrid solar charger, used by people all over the world to provide low-demand electricity for all kinds of devices. Now, I’ve seen all sorts of photovoltaic charging devices that provide trickle supply – heck, I have a friend who’s got a small photovoltaic module on his car dashboard that keeps his car battery in tip-top shape. But, the greatest thing about the Solio is that it’s got an internal lithium-ion battery, which means that I can charge it during the day and plug my devices into it at any time. And because it’s a newer, long-lasting battery technology, the battery won’t “die” or lose it’s stored capacity for quite a long time – up to a full year.

Let’s do a little math to see what power these little devices require:

• My SunEye charger requires 50 Watts, and I charged it on average 2 hours a week (50 x 2 = 100 Watt hours)
• My BlackBerry charger uses 24 Watts, and I charged it 8 hours a week (24 x 8 = 192 Wh)
• My mp3 player needs 2 Watts to charge, and I charge it 4 hours a week (2 x 4 = 8 Wh)

So, in a week I was using (100 + 192 + 8 =) 300 Wh per week. Taken over a full year, this calculates out to (300 Wh x 52 weeks = 15,600 Wh, or) 15.6 kWh.

In California, 1 kiloWatt hour produces 0.49 lbs of CO2. In CA, baseline (the cheapest) electricity in PG&E territory costs 11.43 cents/kWh. Here’s an example Power Label from my August 2007 PG&E Bill:

Most importantly, this means by using the Solio over the course of a year (which I have every intention of doing), I’ll remove 7.644 lbs of CO2 from the air. Additionally, I’ll save myself (15.6 x $0.1143) $1.78 in a year – I’ll make sure to by myself a cup o’ coffee in October 2008 and thank my Solio! This last figure may not be much to any one individual (at least in our society), but multiplied by let’s say 300 million cell phones & mp3 players in the US, that’s $534 million!! And 2,293,200,000 lbs (yes, that’s Billions!) of CO2 (a conservative estimate, given that CA’s energy is among the cleanest in the US). Now, that is the type of wholesale change that truly will make an impact.

Another very useful aspect of the tool is its rubber suction cone, which allows me to stick it in any window in my car while I’m driving (or parked). If I’m driving northwest at 3pm, I stick it in the passenger window behind me. If I’m driving east at 10am, it’s in the front passenger window. If I park in a covered parking garage for a visit with a customer, I plug in my mp3 player and put everything in the glove box to charge the mp3 player. There’s never a dull moment!

Other benefits: the Solio comes with a complete set of plug adaptors for all types of phones and devices, meaning you can likely charge what you need right out of the box.

The result of having this handy dandy tool? I haven’t plugged any of my productivity tools into the wall in 5 weeks! I’ve not had one moment where I’m caught with a dead device, and even when we have a couple dark, rainy days I’ve got enough stored power to keep me going. The change from plugging into the Solio vs. wall outlets was easy – so much so that I am afraid to say I don’t even know where my wall charger is for my BlackBerry. But, I’m not worried at all – the Solio has worked perfectly, and will keep on working forever…I hope! The battery should last 10+ years, much longer than any of these devices will likely last, so the Solio will make “friends” with quite a lot of trinkets in the coming years and won’t account for a single particle of CO2 in the air while doing it.

It seems that every time you turn around, another device has been created to make our lives easier. Many of these devices use electricity. Sure, an iPod does not require a lot of energy. However, millions of iPods requiring a little energy adds up.

Ten years ago, the United States had around 34 million cell phones in service. Today, more than 200 million!

So, how do these statistics show up on an Energyseeds story? Well, not long ago, I received a handy little solar gadget called the Solio. The Solio is a small, portable and lightweight solar array and battery storage system. Think of it as your own personal “off-grid” power supply. The Solio literature states that an hour of charging in the sun can translate into about 25 minutes of talk time. The nice thing about the Solio, that sets it apart from other chargers, is the onboard lithiom-ion battery. That way, your expensive new mp3 player does not have to be out in the sun to charge. In fact, you can charge up your Solio and carry that juice with you for up to a year!

At first, I was really enjoying setting up the panels and adjusting the angle of the Solio towards the sun by using a pencil. Next, I began to think how I could use it.

A student in my science class suggested that we could power a cell phone with it. Not to be outdone, another student suggested we power a cell phone with solar power – only. I am game to try anything once, so we decided to take my phone “off grid.” We are almost a month into the experiment, and my Motorola has never dipped below 2/3 a charge!

Now let’s crunch some numbers. The average cell phone charger uses about 3 watts. Assuming that conservatively every phone is plugged in for 6 hours a week…

7 hours a week X 3 watts = 21 watts a week

21 X 52 weeks = 1092 watts a year (round to 1kWh).

If we take a simple calculation of $.10/cents a kWh, that translates to Americans are using more than 200,000,000 kWh a year to power their cell phones! That is at least $20 million a year!! Those of you that are energy savvy may know that unless those Americans are unplugging their chargers between charges, the “phantom loads” on those chargers being plugged in can be many times higher than the amount of energy they are using to charge the phones!

Lets assume half of this country’s cell phone chargers are left plugged in. (this is being optimistic)

100 million X 1watt/hour X 24 hours X 365 days =’s 876,000,000 kWh! X $.10 =’s $87 million a year!

Enough about money… By using the Solio, charging my phone is so much more convenient in my backpack. I do not need to worry about forgetting it “on the charger.” Not to mention the safety aspect during a power outage, or out hiking and camping away from modern civilization.

There are parallels between off-setting your carbon footprint of your cell phone, with off-setting your home electrical use with a home solar system. Or in the future, installing a solar-covered car port to plug in your all electric vehicle…

Sure, the immediate payback may not be there. Using the Solio as a real-life example of how to gain the convenience of a cell phone, while off-setting environmental impacts is excellent.

Buying a Solio portable solar charging device: $80
Teaching the world to reduce their carbon footprint: PRICELESS!

by Katie Kizer, intern at the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation

After six years of searching for a regular science teacher (and solar energy point person) at St. Michael School in Wheaton, Illinois, the school has finally succeeded in completing the solar installation in its entirety. It took 3 years to get the grant, a year to find the installer and get the installation in, and another two years to get a second grant to pay for the data collection system. This is not to diminish the wonderful project at St Michael’s or to complain about the time it took at each stage of the process, but to demonstrate that there can be so much more to such a solar project than simply installing a few panels. This is especially true for a small private school. But it also shows what can be accomplished when a dedicated group of teachers set their minds to something and they bring in outside groups like Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, Commonwealth Edison, NEED and the Foundation for Environmental Education to join their team.

Last spring, St. Mike’s was finally able to hook up the software that reads the data with the hardware pictured below. There are 12, 80-watt panels that can finally communicate the coveted data we all wait so patiently to analyze. After all, it is this information that allows us to continue making the case for solar energy and it is this message that the 7^th and 8^th grade science students at St. Michael’s will finally be able to learn comprehensively.

Story submitted by Denise Munoz of ComEd

Representatives from ComEd and the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation (ICECF) assisted The Children’s School of Oak Park in Berwyn dedicate its new 1 kilowatt photovoltaic solar generation system and announce its renewable energy commitment during an afternoon ribbon-cutting assembly at its school on Thursday, October 25, 2007. The Children’s School’s faculty and all of its students and a few parents gathered for the dedication ceremony at the school and to view the new solar panel’s generation activity on the program’s website – www.IllinoisSolarSchools.org. The Children’s School was one of 16 schools and community organizations that received an Illinois Solar Schools grant this year. By turning schools into hands-on science experiments, this program makes science fun and teaches students how their everyday actions can positively impact the environment. NEED is administering the teacher training and the Foundation for Environmental Education is administering the installations part of the initiative.

Okay, that was the “official” introduction to my first solar school ribbon-cutting for the 2007-2008 school year since my predecessor to this program, Mr. Paul Wallace decided to retire in December of 2006. I must say that the excitement at the school and the presentation on solar energy that was given by the fourth graders at the Children’s School was very impressive and it is such a great validation that the solar schools program is doing what we intended it to do. The effort by all of those involved, especially Ms. Pamela Freese who volunteered her time to apply for the grant on behalf of the school, needs to be commended. Keep up the good work! It was also my distinct pleasure to present Mr. Daniel Ryan, from the Children’s School, along with Ms. Gabriela Martin from ICECF, it’s VERY FIRST PLAQUE since the school’s re-opening. And before I close, I also wanted to thank the children for allowing us to spend the afternoon with them touring their classrooms and enjoying their delicious solar school cookies at the end of the day. Congratulations, once again!!