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Solar Santa Monica at Global Conference
Solar Santa Monica was introduced to an international
audience this past week at The Aspen Institute's
GreenTech Innovation Forum. Ted Flanigan, head of
EcoMotion, the environmental consulting firm working
with the City of Santa Monica to facilitate the adoption
of solar and energy efficiency within the city, described
program details at the Customer Adoption
panel.
"Our panel, featuring Google, WalMart, TerraPass and
EcoMotion, stood out from the other panels," said
Flanigan. "Most of them addressed top-down,
command and control policies deemed essential to
address the severity of the climate issue. Many of the
forum participants were high-level decision makers
not familiar with community-based
programs."
This was the third meeting of the GreenTech
Innovation Network. Inaugurated by Kleiner, Perkins,
Caufield and Byers in 2006, it is made up of 50 of the
world's leading entrepreneurs, scientists, policy
makers. The goal of this year's meeting, held at The
Aspen Institute, was to define how to reduce carbon
emissions in a meaningful, high-impact way.
Forum presenter Vice President Al Gore,
shown above with Flanigan, called the meeting one of
the very best of hundreds that he has attended.
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| Residential Solar Installations Springing Up -- Benedict |
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Doug and Yvonne Benedict in front of their home with
its 3.9 AC kW solar system, installed by
Permacity, one of
the program Preferred Providers. "We'd been thinking
about
solar for years," said Yvonne, "and this was just the
impetus we needed."
Per Doug, "We have
observed our system over about two weeks. With a
few days of morning and afternoon fog, it has shown a
daily average of 25.3 kWh, from over 13.5 hours
time online and peak power level just in excess of
3600 AC Watts. The worst day's output was 23.5 kWh
and best 27.3 kWh. We've had the satisfaction of
seeing a significant reduction in our SCE bill for a
billing month that included less than two weeks of
solar power."
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| Solar Thermal, too |
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The Benedict roof also sports a solar hot water
system, the black equipment on the lower roof in the
photo. The collector (the insulated
flat panel) contains glycol, which absorbs heat and
then rises up to the storage tank (the cylindrical tank).
There the heat is transferred to the water suppy via a
heat exchanger. From the tank, the hot water
feeds the Benedict's household hot water system.
Currently, qualified solar thermal systems are eligible
for a Federal Tax Credit just like solar electric systems.
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| More Solar -- Apter Installation |
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Andrew Apter poses with his new solar system,
installed just a week ago by Advanced Solar
Electric.
In addition to the solar referral, the Solar Santa Monica
assessment of Apter's home discovered some
ancient appliances. They work perfectly well but, given
his teenagers, are costing twice as much to run as
new
Energy Star ones will! (The appliances are
eligible for rebates
from Edison, Southern California Gas and a local
Santa Monica program, BaySavers.)
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| Cooper Installation Underway |
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The crew from Absolutely Solar is shown
mounting
solar panels on the roof of the Cooper residence in
Santa Monica. The system includes a battery back-up
which can provide (reduced) power for up to 12 hours
with no sun. Service panel upgrades were required
for this comprehensive solar conversion. Note: In
addition to making a number of efficiency changes to
the house, Cooper's recent car choices have been
hybrids!
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| Ready for your Assessment? |
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The Solar Santa Monica team continues to perfom
home and business assessments. If you're ready to
find out
whether solar makes sense for your situation,
sign up online at the Solar Santa
Monica website . We'll call to set an appointment.
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| Don't miss next week's seminar on financing |
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The August 8 Library Seminar covers financing
options for your solar system. 7-8:30 p.m. at the Main
Library, 601 Santa Monica Blvd. No charge. To
reserve, call (301) 458-8229.
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| Solar Santa Monica is administered by the City of Santa Monica's Energy & Green Building Programs office. |
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