Clintonville Energy Collaborative Monthly Meeting - April 9, 2018

Attendees:

Craig Foster, John McDermott, Eugene Beer, Mac Crawford, Debbie Crawford, Karen Day, Brian Brown, Marty Ellis, Lou Peters, Mark (guest) [Shout out to Terri and Greg Pace, and Diane Harry – dealing with health challenges right now.]

Next scheduled meeting: Wed. June 6, 2016

Future CEC structure –Discussed the pros/cons of CEC staying a formal organization with dues, board, bylaws, state registration and paying taxes. The primary motivation for the formal structure was some coverage on potential liability if a member got injured while volunteering. The group has moved away from the “barn raising” model and most members are now working on their own systems and/or with Design Energy. Karen Day reported she paid $41 in taxes for 2017, did not collect many dues in 2017 and has not collected any dues for 2018, CEC has $886(Kembaaccount), and we must pay $10 per month if account goes below $500. After discussion the group decided to:

  • Stay registered for the rest of this year at least with State of Ohioand look into annual fee in any
  • No longer collect dues, which means no new income or taxes
  • Continue every other month meetings
  • Continue web site (we owe Greg $12 which Karen is handling – thank you Karen and Greg!)
  • Use remaining CEC funds for something important as/when they arise

Potential future CEC projects - If we get the volunteers to help:

  • Participate in Crestfest in August (usually middle of August)
  • Craig will look into Ohio Green Energy Tour, maybe October – maybe do a Clintonville Solar Tour to link with it
  • Consider a charrette in Feb./March 2019

Updates on legal issues around solar – Craig Foster - Ohio House passed HB114 - aggressively anti-solar but Kasich won’t sign it – intended to reduce the required amount of renewable (solar/wind) that investor-owned utilities (AEP, Duke, etc.) are required to support

  • Kasich has been good on solar but he’s gone in Dec. 2018
  • PUCO renewed the regs for net metering and upped the annual limit from 100% or 120% - a homeowner can produce up to 120% of usage before being deemed a “utility” and get penalized
  • Virtual net-metering – SE Power in Licking County is doing this - Virtual net metering is where a community member can buy a portion of a large centrally located solar collector and have the pieces they buy credited directly to their bill.
  • Wasserstrom just used PACE for its new headquarters (requires $200,000 minimum investment)

Tech Updates & Resources – Eugene Beer

  • Solaria has come up with panels that have 4 diodes/4 quadrants that help with partially shaded panels. New “active diode” bypass switches are in the hopper that make it possible for every one of the 60 or 72 cells in a module to have individual shading bypass (with virtually no power loss in the switches). This is the best solution for partially shaded modules.
  • How will climate change and civilization’s response to it affect module output in the years ahead – “it’s complicated”…panels lose output the hotter they get; increased wind helps cool panels; if there is a longer tree-leafing season (shorter winters AND more CO2 that plants like)—that, then, will increase shade; forest fire smoke obscures the sun; but less burning of fossil fuels in the years ahead will clear the air of particulates, soot, haze, etc, and that is expected to increase insolation a considerable amount. Summer, 2016, Central Ohio tied or broke 8 records for high nighttime temperatures—indicative that climate warming may not necessarily break many record daily MAXIMUM temps in Ohio, but rather, the HIGH MINIMUM overnight records. Air conditioning is increasing and the refrigerants from these are very hazardous—in fact rated #1 to “draw down” to avert catastrophic climate change (see below).
  • Draw Down (book) – the top 100 things we can do to reduce global warming and the science behind them,

Resources – John McDermott - John shared a link to a great webinar he participated in from Michigan State University Extension - Agricultural Solar Electric Investment Analysis Archived Webinar Series – [links going out in email]

Updates

  • Lou said she heard about a local solar garden project – sent link via email
  • Marty reports MORPC (Brewery District) will be getting charging station and considering going solar
  • Riverside Hospital has a green garage with charging stations
  • Working with Columbus Division of Power (CDP) could have challenges for a Whetstone or other community project as CDP buys its power from AEP, the less CDP buys the higher price they payto AEP, so CDP has no incentive to reduce usage among its 4,000 estimated customers