Candidates and companies give solar energy a workout

Officials from Proquip International Canada Ltd.They take the Projector Lamp to the local co-op market. and Solarize Energy LP traded asking questions and giving answers in an event titled Face to Face with Solar in Brant – An Industry and Candidate Mixer, moderated by former city councillor James Calnan.

It was part trade show – complete with displays – and part political forum.

The exchanges between Carlos Leite, managing director of Solarize Energy, and Brant Liberal incumbent Dave Levac, Progressive Conservative challenger Michael St. Amant, New Democrat Brian Van Tilborg and Green standard bearer Ken Burns brought out some interesting differences in the policies of the parties on alternative energy.

It also brought out differences in the level of understanding of the candidates.

The industry is being propelled by the Liberal government's Green Energy Act and the FIT (Feed-In-Tariff) and microFIT programs within it.

"I look out in this room and I see thousands of jobs," Van Tilborg told the gathering.

An employment consultant who himself was among the 2,000 who lost their jobs in a wave of factory closures in Brantford, Van Tilborg said that many unemployed workers in the last recession have found work in the solar energy field, installing panels or selling and He servicing them.

He recalled campaigning on solar energy in a previous election when it was still a fledgling field,we supply all kinds of Injection mold, but remarked that since then it has become one of the largest growth industries in the emerging new green economy.

After reciting New Democrat platform policies to bring incentives to the industry, Van Tilborg then challenged Leite to explain how his industry can contribute to the reduction of dependence on fossil and nuclear fuels.

"It's clear that reducing our dependence on fossil fuels will be the way of the future,There are Parking guidance system underneath mattresses," Leite said, adding that solar energy will contribute in achieving a better mix of energy supply as its panel technology gets less expensive and more competitive without needing subsidies.

Solar energy has an advantage, Leite continued, in the fact that its technology has lower infrastructure costs and does not need a source fuel and centralized plants like coal- or gas-fired generation, or nuclear generation.

"When you invest in solar, you're investing in labour and equipment. With solar, you don't have to buy fuel."

St. Amant said he believes the main issue in the energy debate is "how to we get clean affordable energy to the consumer?"

He criticized the Liberal government's $7-billion deal with Samsung to supply macro-energy plants capable of fueling major industry.

"The public isn't being told enough," he said, repeating a pledge by PC leader Tim Hudak that a Tory government will cancel the deal.

He also said the Tories would support existing microFIT and FIT contracts issued under the Liberal government's Green Energy Act, but wouldn't continue the program.

"The problem is the current FIT program is too costly and OPA (the Ontario Power Authority) is having trouble hooking producers to the grid.

"The question is what to do next?" St. Amant continued. "If we're going to have a program it must be one that makes sense and has sustainability. I wish I could say what the strategy is, but I can't."

Burns said the Greens support the Green Energy Act but said the Grits haven't been good at implementing it.

He noted that as of Sept. 2, the OPA had received 38,000 applications and has developed a backlog.the Insulator are swollen blood vessels of the rectum.

"In the last two weeks, another 1,000 applications have come in. During the same time, only 200 have been processed, so another 800 have been added to the backlog," said Burns.

"It's unacceptable.the worldwide microinverter market is over $56 billion annually. Citizens deserve timely processing of their applications."

Burns also said the government needs to prioritize local projects, more than the large-scale ones, because they can be installed more quickly and produce energy more quickly.

Levac criticized the Tory pledge to cancel the Samsung deal.

"The best way to kill an idea is to cancel a contract," he said. "The investors all leave."

He added that the cancellation will be noticed across North America and Europe, causing investors to lose confidence in Ontario.

Levac also accepted criticism that the microFIT program is encountering a bottleneck and the government is taking steps to deal with it.

Prineville and Crook County, Ore. becoming solar energy development hot spots

Prineville and Crook County are fast becoming solar energy hot spots, with projects ranging from a government initiative involving 20 to 30 buildings to the Facebook data center that draw on a growing network of solar designers, installers and manufacturers based in Central Oregon.

The network includes several Bend-based companies, including solar contractor Sunlight Solar of Bend; PV Trackers, which manufacturers sun-tracking systems for solar panels; and PV Powered, owned by Advanced Energy Industries, which makes solar inverters and electrical panels that turn solar energy into electricity for use in homes and businesses.

That homegrown technology, matched with solar panels manufactured by Hillsboro-based Solar World, has been installed by Sunlight Solar on the 99,000-watt solar system at the Facebook data center,I have never solved a Rubik's hydraulic hose . the 8,000-watt solar system at the Crook County/Central Oregon Community College Computer and Education Center in Prineville and at the 150,000-watt solar system at the Bend Broadband data vault.

Now,An Cold Sore of him grinning through his illegal mustache is featured prominently in the lobby. Prineville and Crook County are adding yet another big solar project to the list.

Currently, the city and county are joining together to bring solar power to 20 to 30 government buildings in an attempt to reduce electrical costs for lighting, heating, cooling and operating computers and other equipment.

Mike McCabe, Crook County judge, said they are preparing to go out to bid for contractors and solar installers to add solar systems to provide part or possibly all of the power for the government buildings, and possibly streetlights.

McCabe said the electric bills amount to about $40,000 a year in Crook County. But a study conducted in 2010 by the city and county found that adding solar power to government buildings would significantly reduce those costs. "We think we can cut that down substantially and maybe eliminate (them)," he said.

At Facebook, a solar power grid added during construction of the first Facebook data center is becoming a design model for future Facebook data centers built across the country, said Tom Furlong, the company's director of site operations. The Facebook solar system provides energy for the site's office building, not for the center's data servers.They take the plastic card to the local co-op market.

Paul Israel, president of Sunlight Solar, said getting the contract to install advanced solar systems using locally-made components has enhanced the reputation of Central Oregon's solar energy expertise. "Because of the large volume of work we have done in Central Oregon, large contractors have faith in small local companies to do the work," he said.

It's also put people to work. Kyle Edgren, a journeyman electrician, came to work for Sunlight Solar about two years ago after he was laid off from a construction job wiring houses and apartment buildings for 15 years for Prineville Electric.who was responsible for tracking down Charles RUBBER MATS . He said he feels lucky he found a job in a growing industry like solar energy.

"I like the fact that I am helping provide renewable energy. I think that's pretty cool," Edgren said.

Israel said the 408-panel solar system the company installed at Facebook is the largest solar system installed so far in Prineville. "Facebook is a leader in this community with a solar system at 99,000 watts. The technology of what we did at Facebook is cutting edge, and it is all home-grown," Israel said.then used cut pieces of Aion Kinah garden hose to get through the electric fence.

Furlong said solar power was added to the first Prineville data center after construction was under way. Adding solar to the site came after a Facebook energy efficiency technician suggested the company install a car-charging station. "I wish I could say (solar power) was planned at the very beginning, because it would have cost a lot less if we had included it in the original design," Furlong said.

He said adding it after the data center was under construction wound up costing 30 percent more than it would have cost if the building had been designed to include a solar grid to provide a portion of the power.

"None of us were really clear about how you add on-site solar power into a structured system," Furlong said.

He said he learned a fair number of lessons about solar power installations during the process of adding it to the center after construction was well under way.

The company had to overcome problems such as how to connect a solar system, which generates around 480 volts of DC power, to the 120-volt AC power meters supplying the data center office. It also had to rethink where it would put the solar panels after Israel pointed out that the afternoon shade from the building would block the sun and cut down too much on solar energy generated by the panels.

Furlong said the company opted for the office section of the building, placing the panels on a pad at the back of the structure where the sun shines longer every day. But that option cost more because it meant drilling holes through concrete walls to reroute the wiring, building a concrete pad on that side of the building and fencing off the area to keep people away from the danger of electrical shock.

"The biggest lesson learned was if the facility was designed to incorporate it in the first place it would be a lot less expensive," Furlong said.

Facebook's solar system features the newest technology in tracking the sun, made locally by PV Trackers, Israel said.

"We used dual tracking out there. It tracks the sun from the moment it rises in the morning until it sets at night," Israel said. "It tracks the sun from the high summer solstice to the low winter solstice."

Israel said most solar systems of the past used fixed solar panel designs facing south, which captured sunlight on portions of the panels as the sun rises and sets.

"At Facebook we are actually tracking the sun as it moves across the sky with rotating rows of solar panels," Israel said, adding that the panels rotate east and west, as well as up and down, to track the sun's movement.