September
20
2010
September 20th, 2010, ShowMeSolar.org – On Tuesday evening from 7-8 pm CST, Show Me Solar will host Susan Brown, VP for Sales and Marketing, The Energy Savings Store (TESS), online as she presents “Solar and Wind Installations Across Missouri – How you can do it too!” to a live audience . This marks S
usan’s second appearance as a guest speaker on a Show Me Solar webinar series. In February of this year Susan shared photos and details regarding a wide variety of solar and wind systems installed by TESS in Missouri and Kansas over the last decade. In fact, click here to go to the associated SMS SunBeams news blog release from her last appearance.
This fall we expect an updated version of her last presentation along with another opportunity to meet a representative of local Missouri solar company. Two homes with solar systems installed by TESS will be showcased on this year’s St. Louis Show Me Solar Tour (for details and to register for the fall solar tour in St. Louis on October 9th please click here).
This webinar is free and open to the general public thanks to the generosity of members of Show Me Solar. Registration is required. Please use the form below.
For more information on The Energy Savings Store please visit their website at http://www.ewindandsolar.com/
For more information on Show Me Solar please visit www.ShowMeSolar.org.
To see the complete Fall webinar schedule, please visit www.ShowMeSolar.org/webinar.htm
While there please consider making a charitable contribution and/or becoming a member of the Show Me Solar Cooperative by clicking on www.ShowMeSolar.org/join.htm.
September
14
2010
September, 14th, St. Louis, Missouri – Once again, the Missouri Show Me Solar Tours have been selected from among hundreds of local events to be featured nationally. With current events focused on troops returning home from Iraq, Show Me Solar and the Show Me Solar Tours in Columbia and St. Louis, Missouri have entered the national spotlight via the story of Show Me Solar founder and current executive director of Show Me Solar, Jeffrey Owens. Chosen from over 600 local tour events registered with ASES for the 2010 National Solar Tour event, Missourians can take pride in the great strides they have taken in recent years to make the switch to solar living. The 2010 National Solar Tour Event, which is in it’s 15th year this year, is shaping up to be the largest such event yet with local tours taking place across the nation this fall. Last year over 150,000 attended a solar open house as part of the ASES National Solar Tour event and this year early estimates indicate triple that number will be participating.
Find a copy of Jeff’s story on the National Solar Tour website at http://nationalsolartour.org/articles/iraqi-war-veteran-leaves-war-for-oil-fight-renewable-energy-revolution
Learn more about the ASES National Solar Tour event visit the National Solar Tour website at http://nationalsolartour.org
If you are new to Show Me Solar consider attending one of the two local events.
In St. Louis, registration is now available for a guided tour that will take place on Saturday, October 9th from 9:30 am to approximately 4:30 pm. Each stop on the guided tour will feature a different aspect of the process of evaluating, designing and installing solar systems. Tour attendees will have an opportunity to ask questions of the owners and representatives of companies who installed the systems. A free preview of the tour will take place at the EarthWays Center during the Green Homes Festival on Saturday, September 25th. For more information and to register for the St. Louis Show Me Solar Tour event please visit the Show Me Solar website at http://www.showmesolar.org/registration.htm
In Columbia, Show Me Solar has partnered with the Sustainable Living Fair to showcase three solar homes each featuring a different solar strategy including passive solar, solar thermal and solar electricity on Sunday, September 26th, beginning at 9:30 am. The Columbia Sustainable Living fair will be held at Columbia College in Columbia, Missouri and is a free event open to the general public. For more details on the Columbia Show Me Solar Tour please visit the schedule of events on the Sustainable Living Fair’s website at http://www.slfcolumbia.org/schedule.php
The 2010 Show Me Solar are proud to be part of the ASES National Solar Tour event. For more info please visit www.NationalSolarTour.org
September
12
2010
Join Show Me Solar online as we host Aur Beck, chief Tech for Advanced Energy Solutions for our first Fall Webinar presentation, Tuesday evening S
eptember 21st from 7-8 pm CST.
Aur Beck has lived off grid for 18 years and you can too. In this special engagement, learn real, fun, interesting and low cost ways to start living off grid now. Start Simply, Start Now! Aur ‘Da Energy Mon’ Beck, chief Tech for Advanced Energy Solutions, educator and radio personality, empowers YOU to get energized with renewable energy, with smiles and a style that has made him – and this talk- a favorite for years! Yes You Can!
Aur Beck is the president & chief technician for Advanced Energy Solutions, based in Pomona, Illinois. For more details on AES please visit their website at http://aessolar.com/
Show Me Solar’s online webinar series are brought to you free of charge by the generous support of the Show Me Solar membership. Fast internet service and a long distance calling plan are required to participate. To register please use the form below:
August
3
2010
A major pillar of Show Me Solar’s mission is education and training opportunities. To that end we have sought to provide the highest quality
and best value in classroom and practical workshops. Dan Chiras has a gift for teaching as well as a gift for describing concepts accurately yet at a level that is understandable to an audience with a broad background. He also happens to have over 15 years of professional and personal experience with solar (if you haven’t visited one of his institute’s properties for a workshop yet be sure to put it near the top of your list of things to do) and has been an early supporter and member of Show Me Solar. As a result we were very happy to have arranged a two part workshop on solar electricity with him at the Green Center in St. Louis for the very first time. Something we hope to repeat on at least an annual basis – he has a very demanding schedule! Last Saturday he presented a basic introduction to Solar Electricity that was attended by a mixed audience of homeowners looking to go solar and aspiring solar professionals hoping to get into the business.
Early feedback from one workshop attendee who plans on attending the intermediate workshop:
“Dan Chiras did an amazing job of keeping the class lively and moving through the material! He had a lot of ground to cover and he did it in a laid-back but thorough style. He knows this subject like the back of his hand, and was able to communicate these complicated concepts in a friendly, helpful way. Excellent value for the money.”
– Kathleen K., of St. Louis, Missouri
Coming up next is a two-day intermediate level workshop on the 14th and 15th of August. Geared to a slightly higher level of audience and double the level of detail, those seriously looking to invest in a solar electric array in the near future or working their way into the industry will definitely benefit from this opportunity. Also for professionals, the course does qualify for continuing education credits (16 hours) towards NABCEP, LEED and/or MREA certification. Registration couldn’t be easier – just contact Dan’s training institute – The Evergreen Institute either directly (http://www.evergreeninstitute.org) or via the Show Me Solar website (http://showmesolar.org/training.htm). Do so by this Friday, August 6th and receive lunch both day compliments of Show Me Solar (a $20 value). Each attendee will receive a copy of Dan’s textbook “Power from the Sun”.
Some basic knowledge of solar energy and solar electric systems will be desirable before attending. In the case of those whose schedule has not yet allowed completion of a basic course in solar electricity who would like to attend the intermediate workshop with Dan Chiras, consider completing the Show Me Solar online basic solar energy course available 24/7 at www.ShowMeSolar.org/classroom The course is free to members of Show Me Solar, with annual basic membership rates starting at $30.
July
13
2010
Saturday, July 10th, Boone County, Missouri – Early last Saturday morning a group of ten Show Me Solar members began to gather at a home west of Ashland, Missouri. Some were nearby neighbors and others came from as far away as St. Louis and Memphis to participate. Their mission – to lend a hand to a fellow 
Show Me Solar member and at the same time gain some experience installing a solar system to build their own skill set. In this case, the Energy Raiser consisted of more than doubling an already existing solar electric array. After several weeks of prepping the job site, including mounting a combiner box and erecting scaffolding, homeowner Ron Neely was ready for some extra help. Twelve additional ET-Solar 230 Watt panels were added to the existing array of seven Evergreen 190 Watt panels. From the start, Ron had planned to expand the array so plenty of Unirac rails were already on the roof. In order to make room for the new panels, the existing array had to be relocated. The roof was hot and steep. In the true spirit of the Energy Raiser, Larry Lile, a member of Show Me Solar and participant in the Neely Energy Raiser brought along extra safety harnesses to share with those who did not have their own. Larry also happens to be a professional electrical engineer with Project Engineering Solutions headquartered in Columbia, Missouri and his electrical expertise came in handy in solving some wiring issues. Space only allowed for four at a time on the roof with room for one or two more to view from the top of the scaffold. One unanticipated difficulty 
was the fact that the new solar modules were thicker than the old and the brackets at the end of the rails that had been installed with the previous modules weren’t thick enough to hold down the new modules without modification. During the course of the day, another problem was encountered with the grounding system but a solution was found with the help of Larry and Will Huie, electrician and owner of Aeon Electrical Contracting. The crew enjoyed the sunny Missouri summer day, getting to work together and learn a little about each other and by the end of the day nearly completed mounting the new modules. Plans were made to return to finish the job and Ron thanked everyone for a job well done.
Show Me Solar grass roots organized in 2007 as a non-profit public benefit organization and today is incorporated and based in the state of Missouri, the “Show-Me State”. Board operated and member supported, Show Me Solar’s mission is to educate the general public about the benefits of solar living and to advocate for the increased use of solar energy in the United States. To that end we host free and low cost presentations, workshops, classes, and seminars and participate in fairs, festivals and events related to renewable energy throughout the nation and it’s territories. Show Me Solar organizes installations of solar systems for demonstration and training purposes – events referred to as Energy Raisers. Show Me Solar also partners with the American Solar Energy Society to sponsor annual tours of solar systems as part of the ASES national solar tour event. To learn more about Show Me Solar and to join an event please visit our website at www.ShowMeSolar.org
July
7
2010
Terra Nova’s Solar Electric System from KOMU News on Vimeo.
Contributed by Paul Rofle, writer for KOMU 8 Goes Green Blog
Claire Garden is a founding member of Terra Nova, a group of four people trying to live together as sustainably as possible. This solar array is just one way in which they are being eco-friendly. They employ a variety of technologies and tactics such as a geothermal heat pump and growing some of their own food. I’ll have more on some of their other eco-friendly initiatives later. Check out the video and ask yourself if a solar system is an option on your home.
June
29
2010
Jim Jordan poses with one of 9 recently installed solar photovoltaic modules at his home in Maplewood.
Jim Jordan of Maplewood, Missouri not only talks the talk, he walks the walk. A curator of education at the Saint Louis Zoo, Jim designed his 6 year old home with sustainability and universal access as the primary goals. In acheiving a net zero lifestyle Jim emphasizes the importance of behavior choices in acheiving his goal. Gardening is also an important component of his homestead and two bee hives provide pollination services to the neighborhood. Solar photovoltaics were installed in June, 2010 to generate the equivalent amount of electricity consumed in a year.
The home is a 2000 square foot ranch on a large urban lot almost 1/2 acre in size. The home has an attached garage forming an L shape with the main part of the home oriented due south. Jim’s son Aidan was born developmentally disabled and as a result of his handicaps Jim made sure the home was built universally accessible. For supplemental winter heating there is a wood burning stove in the living room, which heats the entire home. Jim uses the wood stove on average a total of about 14 days per year. Efficiency and sustainability measures of the home include cellulose insulation in walls and ceilings, a tank-less Bosch gas fired electronic ignition hot water heater, high efficiency HVAC, a convection microwave and induction cooker for summer use, ceiling fans and a whole house attic fan to cool the interior of the house, compact florescence light bulbs, double pane argon filled windows and mock french doors, clothesline to air dry laundry and a vegetable garden to provide locally grown organic produce for the household.
Workers from The Energy Savings Store mount PV modules on Jim Jordan's roof
With such a small electricity load, Jim is able to netmeter his bill completely with a relatively small solar electric array. Consisting of 9 Sharp 235 Watt modules, the nominal system size is 2.1 kW. Jim chose Enphase microinverters instead of a centralized inverter for the benefit of module level power point tracking which optimizes the system and system performance monitoring on a per module basis. The entire system installed for $6.25/watt. The system was installed in the course of a single day by The Energy Savings Store, a solar installation company owned by Bob Solger and headquatered in Lenexa, Kansas with a sales office in Webster Groves.
An active member of Show Me Solar, Jim’s home will be one of the solar systems featured on this fall’s solar tour, October 9th. Show Me Solar has been working closely with Jim to document the details of his home which he will share during a special one day Saturday workshop this October 23rd. If you have details to share online at ShowMeSolar.org to help us build a virtual tour of installed and working solar systems please contact Jeff at jowens@showmesolar.org.
May
27
2010
Little Box, Big Boost – National Semiconductor
by Terri Steele
When the engineers at global chip giant National Semiconductor were determining the most logical, viable product to address the inconsistencies of power production with today’s solar modules, National’s Renewable Energy Business Director Ralf Muenster says they considered making micro-inverters, but chose to go another route
because they felt that micro-inverters “Distributed the least reliable part of a solar system throughout the entire array, multiplying the system failure points by the number of panels in the system.” They concluded a better method was to distribute solely the inverter’s optimization function throughout the entire system and keep the inversion centralized and accessible. Thus the genesis of National’s award-winning SolarMagicTM power optimizer. Solar-Magic’s power optimizers are mounted to modules to ameliorate the energy-degrading perpetrators of ‘mismatch’, which include varying string lengths, module mixing, and different module plane orientations. They also provide MPPT to allow customers to monitor energy output and be alerted to any potential anomalies in production. The product is designed to increase the power yield of underperforming Crystal Silicon Panel Solar PV arrays of all sizes despite shading, temperature imbalances, panel mismatch challenges or multiple panel orientations. Shading is not nearly as big a problem with amorphous-Si (Applied Materials SunFab modules), CIGS (Solyndra, Ascent Solar), CdTe (First Solar, Abound Solar) as it is with conventional mono and polycrystalline silicon cell modules. Since its launch at InterSolar in Munich this past May, National’s Renewable Energy Business Director Ralf Muenster says SolarMagic has developed a distribution network that is selling its power optimizers via 25 distributors on four continents. With its recent acquisition of commercial monitoring and performance management provider Energy Recommerce, SolarMagic is positioning itself for penetration in all major solar markets and across residential, commercial and utility-scale strata. Some believe that the market may choose microinverters as an investment priority over SolarMagic. Microinverter companies insist centralized inverter implementations create a single point of failure for solar power systems that spells risky business. If the inverter fails, the entire system is disabled. But the folks at National have a high degree of confidence in their systems and the opposing point of view. Muenster says his teams are engaging central inverter manufacturers as partners, and are working with a number of inverter companies on optimized inverter solutions that further enhance PV system performance in conjunction with Solar-Magic devices. The question is who has the higher degree of success regarding failure rates. The magic isn’t lost in National’s relationship with central inverter firms, but until there are formal announcements made about solid partnership agreements, the honeymoon has yet to begin. For installers and integrators looking to optimize energy output for customers, that marriage can’t happen soon enough. Partnerships with central inverter companies may not be the only liaison we hear of involving SolarMagic in 2010. This year, plan on reading about National’s Semiconductor’s collaborative effort with leading panel manufacturers to develop smart panels with integrated SolarMagic power optimization technology.
Info: www.solarmagic.com
Terri Steele is a correspondent for InterPV Magazine based in San Diego, California, the U.S.A. You can find her at InterPV@cox.net and at www.Twitter.com/SolarSavvy
Jeffrey Owens contributed to this article. Founder and Executive Director of Missouri-based Show Me Solar, he may be reached by email at jowens@showmesolar.org
May
27
2010
May 22nd, Auxvasse, Missouri Show Me Solar’s latest solar energy workshop in central Missouri took place at Terra Bella farms situated
east of Columbia and north of Interstate I-70 between Hatton and Auxvasse, Missouri. New members participated in the Show Me Solar workshop while three experienced members – Kevin, Dan and Gary worked to install a small off-grid system taking a small shed on the farm off the local utility service. Kevin led the installation with help from Dan and Gary. The system consists of a 45 Watt solar panel, a charge 
controller, a 1000 watt sine wave inverter and a battery bank. The system powers two circuits. One circuit powers a ceiling fan and light fixture and the second provides power for charging cordless tools. Kevin has been serving as a director of Show Me Solar and has been gaining experience in solar electric and solar thermal installations since last year. Jeff led the workshop presentations in the farm house and the class got involved with the install in the afternoon even helping to sink a
grounding rod beneath the small solar panel on the roof of the shed. The weather was gorgeous and the host even prepared a delicious desert full of berries picked on the farm using a Global Sun Oven just like the solar oven that will go to one lucky winner of the Show Me Solar raffle – see top post on the Show Me Solar SunBeams blog. All in all the day was extremely productive and the group left Terra Bella farms looking forward to participate in the next Show Me Solar project. We will post updates on the performance of the Terra Bella solar system here online so bookmark this page and check back from time to time for the latest Show Me Solar news!
May
21
2010
“Current” Headliner – Enphase Energy by Terri Steele
With over 900 exhibitors and 24,000+ solar-interested parties, there are bound to be enticing morsels to whet one’s PV appetite at Solar Power International. Last year’s conference in Anaheim, California, was no exception. One company with two buzz-generating solutions was microinverter phenom Enphase Energy. The first solution creating 
that solar buzz was Enphase’s combined J-Box microinverter prototype. Enphase had its microinverter system built right into the junction box of a solar module. Instead of DC being conducted from each module, current was immediately converted into useful AC. This not only eliminates code compliance concerns of DC electricity ever being accessible between a module and microinverter, it really adds to the appeal of AC modules, while creating an immense industry value-add. The second crowd-pleaser was Enphase’s set of Microinverter Systems. These solutions by their very nature address the issues of module mismatch, shading (both obstruction and inter-row), occlusion from dust and other debris and erratic changes in temperature and irradiance, all of which affect a system’s energy harvest. The culprit is the concept of the weakest link, which means a solar string only puts out according to the capabilities of its weakest player. The microinverter eliminates this problem by assessing variable light and other inhibitors at the module level and enabling it to adjust for anomolies to optimize energy production at all times. Enphase Envoy, the microinverter’s gateway communications solution, collects module performance and transmits this data to a Web site, where users can view and manage the performance of their solar power system. Enphase microinverters convert power independently at each solar module, so if one microinverter fails, the rest continue to operate. The ‘micro’ nature of this product also comes in handy if a product is damaged or fails, as it can be replaced during routine maintenance or when convenient, which helps keep maintenance costs under control. Tests have demonstrated that Enphase Microinverters increase energy harvest by as much as 25% over systems using traditional inverters. Designed to accommodate solar modules of 175 watts and up, Enphase’s microinverters are emerging as a strong market play. The product’s tip sheet stats are compelling. They have shipped over 100,000 of their microinverters and demand for the product accelerates every day. Some contend that the price of another PV Pick National Semiconductor’s Solar-Magic product and the Enphase microinverter is so close that if the two were in a horserace, the microinverter solution would be the odds-on favorite. Microinverters offer similar advantages to the SolarMagic product with the added value of having integrated “micro-” inverter technologies ready, willing and able to convert DC to AC on each and every module they touch. National Seminconductor, another PV Pick for 2010, has a different perspective and it believes it’s got the horsepower to back it up. Whether one is a proponent of Enphase’s Microinverter approach or National Semiconductor’s SolarMagic power optimizer and its central inverter partners, one thing is clear: there’s a palatable payout no matter where you put your money. Both these horses are industry winners.
Info: www.enphaseenergy.com
Terri Steele is a correspondent for InterPV Magazine based in San Diego, California, the U.S.A. You can find her at InterPV@cox.net and at www.Twitter.com/SolarSavvy
Jeffrey Owens contributed to this article. Founder and Executive Director of Missouri-based Show Me Solar, he may be reached by email at jowens@showmesolar.org
