Written by:

Martin E. Nix

PO Box 95173

Seattle, WA 98145-2173

solarshack@earthlink.net

WHY SHOULD WE INTEGRATE SOLAR TECHNOLOGY AS PART OF SEATTLE CITY LIGHT OPERATIONS?

WHY? So as to drought protect the electric utility. Seattle City Light is primarily an all-hydro dam system. What happens if it does not rain? Solar Energy tends to be very available in the summer, exactly when hydro dams do not have new sources of rainfall. Matching solar energy Kilowatt per Kilowatt will help us generate (and conserve) electrical power during droughts.

ARE SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS TOO EXPENSIVE? No. These systems are similar in hydro dam cost, in that they are high capital cost but low operation cost. Both solar energy and hydro dams have similar economics in that both require high construction cost, but once in place the operating cost is free. Rain and sunshine are energy sources that come everyday, literally from the sky. If you are doing new construction, the cost of hook charges for a gas or electric utility can offset the cost of purchasing of a solar system.

DOES SOLAR ENERGY WORK IN SEATTLE? Yes. The ˜bluest skies you every saw are in Seattle ¦at least that is what the worlds fair song said in the 1960s. Our greatest impact of sunlight is in the summer, which can be stored for winter use. There have been many develops in solar energy since Jimmy Carter era. For example, working much like a thermos-bottle solar tubes can have a vacuum under the glass. While not as much as direct sunlight, these capture solar energy from clouds. The vacuum helps to keep wind from robbing the heat from the hot pipes.

ARE THERE DIFFERENT TYPES OF SOLAR ENERGY SYSTEMS? Yes. In fact there are over 7,000 patents in thermal systems, and over 3000 patents in photovoltaic PC's as they are popularly called convert sunlight directly to Direct Current. The photovoltaic effect was discovered by Einstein. Presently, systems convert DC power to AC power which then can be fed back into the utility, making your meter run backwards. However, most applications in your home don't have to be utility tied. Go through your home and identify all the battery powered devices in your home, then read the number of batteries. PV's can be retrofitted to most battery powered clocks, calculators, computers, fax machines etc. It is possible to install a Direct Current electrical system in your home, and avoid the need to purchase AC utility power in the first place. Most energy in your home actually is non electrical, but heat like cooking, hot water, space heat, etc. The biggest market for solar devices are actually non-electrical.

WHY IS SOLAR DEVELOPING SO SLOWLY? Because they don't like us. There are big capital people who see rapid conversion of the USA to be renewable powered as a threat to natural gas, oil, nuclear, coal, and dependency on foreign oil. They are correct. Solar technology has been the step child for just too long and we want our place in the sun. The problem squarely is the Bill-Gates-Types aren't paying attention. Computers, for example, consume close to10% of the nation's electrical supply. Hey, no electricity, no internet. Companies like Microsoft do not see it as their fiduciary duty to integrate renewable energies as part of their business planning. With adequate capital investment into manufacturing, job training, and marketing we could be an industry bigger than Microsoft. There are numerous northwest inventors with valid patents they are not, repeat not, getting venture capital.  This has got to change. Establishment of a Solar Energy Development Fund as part of Seattle City Light would help attract businesses and manufacturing to Washington State. It also would help develop an export market of our solar products overseas.

WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON LOW INCOME ELECTRIC RATE PAYERS? It is great. People in the throw-a-way class by definition have little or no energy. Solar Cooking for example allows people in Refugee camps to make food and hot water. On the other hand one definition of being rich is you have lots of energy to waste. Potentially rapid implementation of solar technology worldwide could eliminate poverty, at least the physical deprivation part. Our goal to make solar collectors faster than we can make babies! Hmmm. Solar technology allows those who have difficulty in paying utility bills to reduce their utility bills. We don't call it welfare but solarfare. Solar greenhouses for example allow people to grow their own food, and not be so dependent on food stamps. Solar technology allows people in the no income class to make their own energy for their own needs. This is true freedom -at least from utility bills.

WHAT ABOUT WINTER WHEN THE SUNLIGHT IS SHORT? Wind works in the winter, solar works in the summer. Wind energy tends to be very available in the winter, exactly when there is lots of storms and blackouts. Solar tends to be very available in the summer, exactly when wind isn't. Combining Wind Energy and Solar Energy together helps provide energy year round with hydropower filling in the gaps. Making Seattle City Light a Tri-Energy Utility (Solar, Wind, Hydro) will help us guarantee our energy future. Seattle has a lot of parking lots, and wind energy systems can be placed there. Seattle City Light cost for generating electrical power drastically increase when the weather gets either too hot or too cold.

WHAT ABOUT SOLAR HOT WATER? It works in Seattle. There are numerous ways of making hot water from solar energy, and also wind energy. Preheaters only preheat the water before it goes to your conventional hot water heater. These can be gee-whiz fancy and expensive, or low cost easy to install. The trick is getting a system that last for decades and has water corrosion engineered out. One system is a simple post for a shower, plugged into your outdoor water facet. Oversized systems can store hot water from the summer for winter use. Wind energy in the winter (exactly when solar isn't) can heat water also. Wind energy can make heat instead of electricity. Presently Seattle City Light has about 310,000 residential ratepayers, and about 22,000 businesses. We would literally be employing every plumber in Seattle, over a period of ten years to retrofit all non-solar hot water heaters. Solar Hot Water allows Seattle City Light to not have to make as much electricity, which then can be resold to California! It also allows for less electrical power to be carried over power lines, thus reducing line loses. Few know this, but power lines do have resistance, and some energy is loss from heat in the power line. Not only does Solar Hot Water heating allow you to reduce your utility bill, it also helps Seattle City Light balance their electrical load. Plus, you have hot water during a blackout or a natural gas line break. It is an investment not unlike stock in the stock market. An aggressive program to install Solar Hot Water (and Wind Hot Water) is just like building a power plant, except on top of your carport or roof.

WHAT ABOUT RENTERS? It helps. Solar collectors can be portable, just like furniture. When you move, you take those solar collectors with you. Solar Cookers for example, can be taken camping. Photovoltaics can be placed in a window to power a laptop computer. Solar Collectors don't have to be attached to the building. A Solar Cooker used regularly can pay for itself within a year, just by lowering your utility bill.

WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF SOLAR ENERGY UPON FISH? We think we have solved the dam vs. fish controversy. Solar Collectors could, in theory, be floated in the lake behind hydro dams. Thus, solar energy puts power into the utility grid when the hydro turbines don't. Floating solar collectors cool the lake for fish, but more importantly allow the hydro dam to change it's operational characteristics to mimic the natural flow of the river. With solar (and wind) integration with hydro dams, it allows the lake to stay at a more constant level, not rising and falling, and allows the dam to operate at a low lake level. Compressed air, made from solar energy could help control for gasification levels in the water. Photovoltaic manufacturing plants could be located near hydro dams, thus surplus electrical power is sold directly to solar manufacturing to make electricity. Integration of solar (and wind) allows more water for fish ladders. Making dams a Tri-Energy system (Wind, Solar, Hydro) allows for better fish management.

CAN SOLAR ENERGY POWER CARS, BUSES, TRUCKS, TRAINS? Yes, but indirectly. Transportation vehicles consume much more energy than the sunlight falling on the roof. Solar Power Battery Chargers exist, and research is being done on light weight solar powered race cars but what do we do about existing cars and trucks? Solar and Wind Energy can indirectly create energy for transportation. Instead of burning natural gas in the hot water heater, now you gas your car at home literally. Instead of burning natural gas and using electricity in hot water heaters, now we have more gas and electricity available for cars. The Seattle Monorail, Metro Electric Bus System and the Sound Transit Light Rail can be powered from electricity produced from solar and wind energy. Right now transportation is dangerously dependent on imported oil. In many cases from nation's with unstable governments. (Nigeria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Vietnam, Columbia). It is like you can predict the next war by looking at the oil geology. Transit systems have the potential of being powered by alternative fuels. Electricity is a fuel Made in the USA. Natural Gas is more available than oil at least geologically in the USA.

CAN ALL BUILDINGS BE CONVERTED TO SOLAR ENERGY. No. Some buildings are just plain black holes when it comes to energy. There just isn't enough solar and wind energy falling on the building (and parking lot). However, we can again indirectly power them. By converting existing hot water heaters and furnaces to be displaced by solar/wind, it will free up natural gas for cogeneration. A Laundromat for example can use the heat of exhaust from the natural gas powered generator. The exhaust heat then heats hot water for the washing machines, and hot air for the dryers. By conserving natural gas in our homes, it opens natural gas supplies for cogeneration for large buildings.

CAN LARGE COAL BURNING POWER PLANTS AND OIL REFINERIES BE POWERED BY SOLAR AND WIND ENERGY. Yes. Presently the Department of Energy has no, if any, research into large scale industrial process heat systems. Active Solar Energy Systems are characterized by High Temperatures. Solar Smelters can literally melt rock, making quartz crystals we have never seen. A solar powered rocket engine was built by NASA to sail to the asteroids. It traveled so fast they had to turn it around. Then landed it on the rock! Concentrating collectors can turn out temperatures well above 500 degrees F. It is proposed that solar collectors be constructed on top of coal strip-mines, as part of the land reclamation process. Few know this, but the amount of sunlight falling on top a coal strip-mine often is more than the BTUs of the coal itself. It takes energy to make gasoline. By powering oil refineries by renewable energies, it means oil is used to make product. Not wasted heat up the smoke stack. Boeing for example could make Alcohol Fuels from renewable energies, and then power commercial aircraft. (There are a few tricks on getting trust up from alcohol fuels). The fact is, practically none of the large energy corporations are taking solar energy serious. We need to change those attitudes.

THERE HAS BEEN CONTROVERSY AT SEATTLE CITY LIGHT? Yes. Seattle City Light really does have the highest reliability of any utility, and still has the lowest electric rates on the West Coast. The utility is owned by the people of Seattle, and owns it's own hydro dams. The utility is a Not-For-Profit Utility. Seattle City Light was set up by Southwest For Profit Utilities, who traditionally have been anti-solar technology. These Southwest Utilities do computer simulations of climate and weather predicting when the next droughts will hit. Seattle City Light was left un-drought protected with the sale of Centralia Steam Plant. The sale of the power plant immediately before a predicted drought has raised some concerns. The lack of drought protection forced Seattle City Light to have to purchase extra power from the marketplace at rip off prices. Seattle City Light really is one of the best organizations upon this planet. You own it.

HOW DO WE FINANCE RAPID CONVERSION OF SEATTLE TO SOLAR ENERGY. The goal is to match KW per KW, BTU per BTU with Solar and Wind Technology. I-84 is a start, but only covers Photovoltaics and Wind Generation from small producers (like home owners). It does not address Solar Passive Technology, Solar Hot Water, Active/Industrial Process Heat, Solar Windows and Solar Skylights, Small Scale Wind Generators, etc. . Presently Seattle City Light has a Three Tier rate structure. If you use only a small portion of electrical power each month, your rates are about 4 cents per KW. If however you are wealthy and use lots of electrical power, you pay maybe 17cents per KW. What this does is make those who use the most pay the most. Not all electrical power cost the same to generate. Hydropower from dams built during Roosevelt era cost pennies. But power produced from Nuclear Power Plants can be expensive. Low Cost hydropower is this way allocated to everyone (even the rich get a tiny portion). What is proposed is a 5% rate increase to finance these other solar energy ideas. Ironically, this is one rate increase that actually may result in a rate decrease ...huh? When Solar Energy displaces electrical power, it allows the utility to sell the power to another utility -thus making a profit. (I-84 only proposes a 1% increase). This proposal would insulate the lower first tier ratepayers (the poorest), but give the fourth tier ratepayers (the richest) an incentive to invest into solar manufacturing. We call it Wake them up Rates. The cost: no more expensive than football and baseball stadiums.

WHAT WE NEED? We need a cartoon, like the Simpsons, or Star Trek to let people know what a solar society would be like. There are numerous devices which change our lives for the better, yet aren't in mass production. Ok, Homer, and Captain Kirk, get busy and convert planet earth. Make it So.