A Good Cause

We recently completed a solar hot water system for Square and Compass Clinic.  S & C provides health care services for children and has been in operation since 1947.  Bruce Rick, their Executive Director, hired our company a couple of years ago to evaluate the financial and technical feasibility of installing solar electric on their facility to help reduce operating costs.  Unfortunately at the time solar electric was not a good financial option for them but in doing the survey of their facility a large, old, all electric water heater caught my eye.  Long story made short we ended up partnering with TEP, who had some grant money for non-profits and low income housing solar hot water projects, to install a four panel, 360 gallon solar hot water system to replace their aging 200 gallon water heater.  This system will be a good test case for other similar facilities and a future site to take students from the Renewable Energy Engineering class I help Dr. Fazzolari with at the University of Arizona.

Besides being a wonderful cause the people at S & C are a great group of folks and they surprised us all by formally thanking us and TEP.  I now have a really nice paperweight that will always conjure up good memories.  I will be adding a link to their website but I would suggest considering donating time or money to their organization if you can – our company will be doing so.

A Kid in the Candy Store

Volt at Sunpower getting juiced up...

I got the chance to drive the new Chevy Volt today. It is the ultimate plug-in hybrid and a very fun car to drive.  And, as the Chevy Volt website says,
“Electricity – a more sensible primary fuel. Put simply, electricity is a cleaner source of power. Advancements in electricity production, along with reduction in tailpipe emissions from electric-powered driving, could help make our world a better place.” I could not have said it better myself.

I look forward to having a plug-in EV/hybrid to call my own. 

Joseph DiMatteo, P.E.

The EV’s are coming, the EV’s are coming!

Jason From Interstates Electric doing final tests.

Sunpower’s office was included in a Department of Energy grant program to help build the infrastructure to support and promote EV’s and plug-in hybrids. 

The Blink EV station

As a previous post suggests, I believe plug-in hybrids are a transformative technology that have the potential to help wean us off our dependence of liquid fossil fuels while allowing the mobility modern societies have come to expect.   Practical fuel cell cars are a long way off… 

And when you charge those plug-in hybrids with solar electricity, those first 15 to 75 miles you drive purely on battery power are inexpensive and nearly zero carbon.  Well, lo and behold, the very day our two new Blink EV chargers are getting their final inspection by the City of Tucson a beautiful blue Nissan Leaf pulls in the parking lot.   As fate would have it one of our customers was stopping by to finalize some paperwork for a new solar hot water heater.  So Wayne got to be our first EV charging customer too and we got to do a functional test of the Blink charging system. 

Wayne in action

It is also my understanding that our office EV chargers are one of the few that are few by a grid-tie PV system.  So if you have an EV stop by our office to charge your car while you shop or eat at AutoZone, Big 5, Grocery Outlet, EeeGees, or La Parrilla Suiza to name a few. 

Wayne and Rita checking out the "electron fuel nozzle" as it tops off the Leaf. Note the solar panels right above the charger!

Where does the time go?

The first 6 months of 2011 have been very busy both professionally and personally. I was happy to be the first donor to the Program on Law and Sustainability at Arizona State University founded by Kris Mayes, who is the former Chairwoman of the Arizona Corporation Committee. I am a technologist and businessman at my core but I recognize the value that intelligent public policy plays in the energy industry. I wish Kris nothing but success in her new venture as it is important work.

I continue to help Dr. Rocco Fazzolari deliver his Renewable Energy Engineering course at the University of Arizona. It is intelectually stimulating to me and a great deal of fun to help develop a new generation of engineers better informed on a critical topic for society as a whole.

I am also a big fan of college athletics and I look forward to watching my three favorite college athletes compete in the coming school year. Karissa Buchanan is a long time friend of our families and I enjoy watching her prowl the outfield for the UA softball team.

Joseph, Karissa, and Rita after another Arizona win

I will have another reason to cheer loudly at the UA football games this year as Dave Roberts, a standout wide receiver, took Renewable Energy Engineering this last spring.  He is a very capable student and I admire anyone who can juggle the demands of a Division I sport as intense as football while majoring in an intense, time consuming degree program like Engineering. 

Joseph and Renewable Energy Engineering students at Sunpower office

Adriana and Joseph post-match but pre-brew...

Finally, my daughter will be a senior at ASU and the Barrett Honors College this year and I look forward to watching her compete on the women’s rugby team.

Joseph DiMatteo, P.E.

Gabby Giffords

Like any decent American I am shocked and devasted by the terrible actions taken by some lunatic today who shot her and others. I was on my way to say hello at the event she was shot at and had a sinking feeling when I had to turn around given all the commotion at the intersection of Oracle and Ina. My worst fears were realized when I stopped on my way home to get a cup of coffee and heard Congresswoman Giffords was shot.  I hope and pray for her and all the others that were shot. 

My close friends and family know how little regard I have for most politicians and how dissallusioned I have become with our political process. Before getting to know Gabby I gave her little credit for being anything other than the norm for a politician – superficial and mostly interested in keeping their job. My first up-close-and-personal contact with her was at a renewable energy meeting at the University of Arizona. There were other politicians and dignitaries present who quickly dispersed once the photo ops were over and the press left. Over the next few hours I observed Ms. Giffords ask insightful questions and studiously take notes. I ended up leaving before she did but I left impressed by her.

Over the intervening 2 or 3 years I have had the opportunity to meet with Gabby at various functions, most of them solar related. I was flattered that she asked myself and another friend in the industry to help figure out what solar options made the most sense for her own house.  After we got down off the roof of her house we sat around her dining room table and discussed her situation and solar in general.  The more I got to know Gabby the more I came to respect and like her. She is genuine, intelligent, caring and someone I was proud to vote for. My heart goes out to her, her family, all others who were hurt, and our community.

Joseph DiMatteo, P.E.

Visit to Solon Plant

I have had several invitations to tour the Solon PV panel assembly plant in Tucson but there was always a conflict with my schedule that prevented it. Finally, though, Carlos Arzate, a Solar Consultant with our company, set up a visit after sitting in with a band Bill Richardson from Solon plays in. Having started my career as a manufacturing engineer I still get a charge out of walking through a manufacturing process. The level of automation and quality controls at Solon is impressive. Dr. Fazzolari from the U of A, who teaches Renewable Energy Engineering, was able to attend along with several others. It was an hour well spent and Bill was a great host. We look forward to installing more of these locally produced panels.

Solon's Prius plug in hybrid conversion

Joseph DiMatteo, P.E.

Nissan Leaf EV…and plug-in-hybrids

Larry and I went to the Tucson 4th Street Winter Street Festival to drive the new Nissan Leaf plug in Electric Vehicle (EV). What a blast it was and what a refined piece of machinery it is. It drove very much like my wife’s beloved Nissan Cube. We are looking to get a charging station at our Tucson office since it is in a retail area and any plug in electric or hybrid cars plugged in would be getting partially charged from the solar panels on the roof!

As great a car as the Leaf is I still believe that a plug in hybrid will have the broadest market appeal. EV’s will be the ultimate urban cars but, even with the charging infrastructure planned for Arizona, an EV will be more limited in its practicality given the distances between “destinations” here. No matter, the fact we are on the cusp of really great, reliable EVs and plug-in hybrids coupled with the really great, reliable grid-tie solar electric systems available now gets us closer to the transportation “holy grail”.  EV/hybrids + grid-tie solar systems to charge the batteries is a great example of that overused word ”synergy”.  The next generation of the Toyota Prius and Chevy Volt plug-in hybrids will bring us closer yet to the best option we have in front of us to reduce our dependence on fossil fuels for transportation.  Fuel cell vehicles are a very long way, if ever, from being practical.  And PLEASE don’t get me started about one of the the biggest scams ever foisted on us in US history called “corn based ethanol”…

The only significant issue I see at the moment with EV/hybrids is their upfront cost.  Our Cube cost us $16,000 and has averaged 33mpg over 25k miles we have put on it while the Leaf will cost $32,000.  Of course the Leaf/Prius/Volt are eligible for a $7,500 federal income tax credit which helps reduce the cost for early adopters. 

Happy Holidays,

Joseph DiMatteo, P.E. (solar guy and life time car/motorcycle nut:)

SunPower is for Bright Minds

The idea of writing articles that are worth reading about something we sell for profit reeks of the self-serving infomercial.

That would be a waste of time that I could be using doing my job.

But.

It is part of my job to keep the Solar Industry alive and healthy; to protect it from the ravages of the shlockey “solar” installation….to make information available to people interested in “going solar” that will allow them to be better informed before they plunk down cash on a Technology that is by definition, in its commercial infancy.

So here we go.

With the help of a small community of Tucson Solar companies, we will try to be the Voice in the Wilderness, the Boy with his finger in the dike.

Stay Tuned for real-time, hot off the press information you won’t get anywhere else.

Larry Liascos, GM

Hello world!