By Carter Lavin, SPW Contributor
The fact that you are reading this suggests that you are pretty into solar. You read solar articles, comment (or Tweet) about them and probably work in the solar industry. That’s great: Your involvement in discussions about the industry helps improve the sector as a whole, since we benefit from your experience and expertise, and you can learn from everyone else’s. However, as the industry grows and becomes more specialized, we have more opportunities to hash out questions and details. The problem with this is it runs the risk of our community becoming a self-involved echo chamber.
At its core, the solar industry is one of engineers and builders. We love the tech and detailed discussions. Because of that, we will always have a tendency to turn inwards and talk excitedly about increased panel efficiencies or 1000V inverters amongst ourselves. But if we just focus solely on the technology and only talk with each other, solar will stay a niche solution that is loved, understood and adopted by a few. For us to maintain our rapid growth, we need to push solar into the mainstream. We need to continue to reinvent ourselves as a sales-and-marketing focused industry; one that always strives to reach out to new audiences, bring them in, get referrals, and closedeals. So how do we break out of our echo chamber, and who should we be reaching out to?
Local business community: Getting more involved in your local business community is a great place to start. Your local business community is filled with potential commercial clients and is likely to support your efforts to cut the solar permitting red tape in your area. Just be careful about joining a Chamber of Commerce. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a large funder of attacks on the solar industry, and part of your local chapter dues go to the national chamber. Thankfully, many local chambers have cancelled their memberships with the national chamber, so you can join them without funding attacks on solar.
Schools: Schools are a valuable community for solar installers because they typically consist of a large number of homeowners within a narrow geographic area. While most schools are, and should be, wary of mingling with commercial interests, if you approach them as an educational resource they will be more receptive to your message. Start off by offering to talk to a science class about energy infrastructure, or invite them to tour a project site. The more involved in the school community you get, the easier it will be for you to leverage that relationship into some project work.
Faith-based groups: Getting involved with faith-based groups can be very tricky, but if done right (and respectfully) it could pay off nicely. Congregations often own their own buildings and plan to occupy them for many years, which make them attractive solar customers. However, they are non-taxed entities and are thus precluded from most funding opportunities. Connect with a local faith-based group and help solve this problem by setting up a special referral program through the congregation. Much like how the Sierra Club gets a check every time one of its members goes solar, you can set up a similar program with a local congregation. To make the program less commercial, have the referral money go to funding a solar array for their place of worship.
These are just a few examples of communities to reach out to and strategies for introducing solar and your company to them. As you get more involved in local communities you will see more opportunities to help enrich them, and yourself, by mainstreaming solar solutions.
Carter Lavin is Solar Marketing Group’s business development manager and helps renewable energy companies analyze the market, articulate their messages and connect with their targeted audiences to achieve their marketing and communications goals.
azaredaniel says
The Feed in Tariff is a policy mechanism designed to accelerate investment in Renewable Energy, the California FiT allows eligible customers generators to enter into 10- 15- 20- year contracts with their utility company to sell the electricity produced by renewable energy, and guarantees that anyone who generates electricity from R E source, whether homeowner, small business, or large utility, isable to sell that electricity. It is mandated by the State to produce 33% R E by 2020
FIT policies can be implemented to support all renewable technologies including:
Wind
Photovoltaics (PV)
Solar thermal
Geothermal
Biogas
Biomass
Fuel cells
Tidal and wave power.
So long as the payment levels are differentiated appropriately, FIT policies can increase development in a number of different technology types over a wide geographic area. At the same time, they can contribute to local job creation and increased clean energy development in a variety of different technology sectors.
FIT policies are successful around the world, notably in Europe. This suggests that they will continue to grow in importance in the United States, especially as evidence mounts about their effectiveness as framework for promoting renewable energy development and job creation.
With the worlds carbon levels at 400-410 parts per million and rising, globally emitting over 32 Gigatons of CO2 each year, causing Global Warming and life changing pollution, Renewable Energy will address these issues and start us on the road back to 350 parts per million of carbon, Thank You Bill McKibben
California law does not allow Homeowners to oversize their Renewable Energy systems
Allowing homeowners to oversize their Renewable Energy systems, is a true capitalistic tool, that will give us the potential to challenge the utility monopolies, democratize energy generation and transform millions of homes and small business into energy generators, during Sandy, Solar homes where not utilized to their full potential, because there was no disconnect and or transfer switch, to turn off incoming grid and start in home Solar power. how comforting it would be, to have mandatory transfer switches on all residential and small business renewable energy installations.
We don’t even take into account the tremendous health cost to us and our planet, when we burn oil, coal, and natural gas, which would make them more expensive than Renewable Energy.
Since 2000-2001, according to the California Energy Commission, power plants with maximum output totaling about 20,000 megawatts have become operational. An additional 3,900 megawatts are under construction and 4,700 more have been approved and are in pre-construction phases.
The new plants should boost California’s energy independence. The state currently produces about 71% of the electricity it consumes, while it imports 8% from the Pacific Northwest and 21% from the Southwest.
Natural gas was burned to make 45.3% of California’s power generated in-state in 2011. Nuclear power from San Onofre and Diablo Canyon in San Luis Obispo County accounted for 18.3%, large hydropower 18.3%, renewable 16.6% and coal 1.6%.
We need a National Feed in Tariff, for Renewable Energy, with laws that level the playing field, this petition starts with homeowners in California.
Japan, Germany, and our state of Hawaii, will pay residents between 21- 52 cents per kilowatt hour, here in California they will pay a commercial FiT in a few counties at 17 cents per kilowatt hour, No Residential FiT and they wont let us oversize our Residential Renewable Energy systems.
Want to change our Feed in Tariff? Campaign to allow Californian residents to sell electricity obtained by renewable energy for a fair pro-business market price. Will you read, sign, and share this petition ?
http://signon.org/sign/let-california-home-owners