Big news on the solar energy front came this week buried under a deluge of bailout angst.

In fact, credit the high stakes $700 billion game of chicken with finally getting Congress off the starting line to pass an extension of alternative energy development credits that were set to expire on midnight, Jan. 1. Of course, there were also those initiatives for rum distillers and wooden arrow makers tacked on, too. But that’s another story.

CNN’s Green Wombat has a thorough breakdown of the renewable energy incentive package included in the bailout, but two points jumped out at me. First, extension of the 30% solar investment tax credit to 2016 is meaningful for the long horizon it provides developers, investors, utilities etc.

The imminent expiration of the existing credit was already causing mayhem north of Boston where two school districts, Triton and Newburyport, which neighbor each other, have been mulling solar projects atop school roofs. The large arrays were to be developed by Eyeonsolar, a Colorado company that builds out solar systems on existing real estate and sells back power to the host user and the electric grid.

The difficulty the school districts faced was that Eyeon made an offer contingent upon quick acceptance, a matter of weeks, following the initial proposal, purportedly to take advantage of the renewable energy credits about to expire. This caused a lot of difficulty for both school districts which were forced to bring decisions variously before school committees, city councils, selectmen and even the state for a pass on state bidding laws. In the end it appears that Newburyport is going ahead with the deal and Triton is taking its time thinking it over. The Newburyport Daily News has been following developments closely.

The extension of solar credits out to 2016 takes that particular ginsu knife, act-now sales pitch of the table. And it enables companies to get business models together to develop energy projects into the foreseeable future.

The second point in the federal package is removal of a $2,000 cap on the residential solar energy tax credit. What this means is that homeowners can get a 30% tax credit on solar panels installed after Dec. 31 without bumping up against a $2,000 cap. This is in addition to state tax credits, which in Massachusetts currently amount to 15% with a cap of $1,000.

On the local level, National Grid just announced this week plans to build out solar generating facilities totaling 4 Megawatts at sites in Dorchester, Revere, Everett and Haverhill. Boston Herald coverage is here and the original release from National Grid is here.

National Grid US President Tom King said “These installations are just a start for us; in the coming months, we expect to expand our program to include installations on customers’ properties including municipal, state and federally owned buildings.”

Coupled with Congress’ passage Friday of the renewable energy tax incentives, I suspect we’ll see a lot more energy development in Massachusetts and across the country during the next several years.

Even as the city of Boston announces plans to ease regulations in order to expand urban use of wind turbines, as reported today in the Herald, a school north of the city is beginning to plan one of the biggest alternative energy installations in the state.

Triton Regional High School in Byfield is considering a deal with a Colorado based company, Eye-On Energy, Ltd. to install 2,600 solar panels on the school’s roofs.
The approximately $4 million cost would be paid up front by EyeOn Energy which would then sell the power back to the school. According to the Newburyport Daily News , preliminary figures would have Triton paying about 14 cents per kilowatt hour in the first year, increasing 4% annually after that. EyeOn Energy has given the school district a window of about 10 days to close on the deal in order to take advantage of federal energy incentives which are due to expire in December. School officials are set to meet today to discuss the feasibility of moving ahead on such a large project so quickly.
Eye-On energy has also proposed a solar installation at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis , Minnesota.

The proposed installation at Triton is notable for its scale, which would be one of the largest in the state. But it also represents a good example of one of the business models in the alternative energy market making an appearance here. So called, third party arrangements, or power purchase agreements, PPAs, work through a contract negotiated to allow outside company come in to develop a solar array on an existing building. The developer pays the upfront cost of the solar equipment and installation and strikes a deal to sell the power to user at the site. This development structure is being used to build out solar installations on big box stores across the country, notably Wal Mart, but it has not had been prevalent here in Massachusetts.

PPAs are something schools, businesses and local governments may be seeing more of, said Phil Giudice, Commissioner of the Department of Energy Resources for the state.

“This is a market innovation to simplify the way people can get solar power up and running,” Giudice said. As an option, PPAs increase the viability of solar development by shifting the upfront costs to a third party.

The benefit to a developer like Eye-On Energy are: numerous state and federal tax credits, a set contract to sell the power the host user, and the ability to sell excess renewable energy on the grid.

Think of project at Triton. The school would be buying nearly all of the power generated by the solar array during the school year. During July and August, however, when school is out and consumption at the building is lowest, the array would generating its maximum capacity and that electricity could be sold on the grid.
Giudice said PPAs will likely have a larger and larger role in the state’s alternative energy development. They are part of Governor Patrick’s Commonwealth Solar program. Additionally, he said the state’s schools will increasingly be identified as options for energy development. How many square feet, or acres, are there on the state’s school? No idea, said Guidice, but there are “Megawatts and megawatts of potential.”

From the no global warming desk, an AP report in the Herald today discusses Coast Guard steps to open new far north outposts in the Arctic to provide support for newly navigable waters. “We have to prepare for the world coming to the Arctic,” said Rear Adm. Gene Brooks, commander of the Coast Guard’s Alaska district.

Power when the heat is on

Newton-based GMZ energy looks to generate electricity from waste heat lost up smoke stacks and in other places where heat is a by-product. The start-up, which was founded by researchers from Boston College and MIT, uses nanotechnology in a chip that creates an electric current when exposed to heat. via CNet

Fire up the diesel
The LA Times Rumbling seat blog reports that sales of Volkswagen’s 2009 clean diesels have begun. This marks a return of Volkswagen diesels to this country after two years of no sales due to environmental regulations. During that time, the US has switched its diesel fuel to a new low-sulfur grade at the pump and Volkswagen has developed a new engine technology to reduce exhaust gases.

Green gauntlet
NY mayor and Medford native Michael Bloomberg announced a plan to generate power with wind turbines on the city’s buildings, bridges and waterways. Bloomberg made the proposal at the National Clean Energy Summit , in Las Vegas, which also hosted the news announcement that Google would be making a $10M investment in geothermal energy
That got the attention in Boston of Mayor Thomas Menino who weighed in on behalf of Hub clean energy efforts, including plans to build windmills at four city schools and install $1 million of solar panels on city buildings.

Bloomberg’s proposal has been received some derision, as creative types everywhere have endeavored to photoshop windturbines on landmarks across the Big Apple, as I did here. Others have said it’s a great idea, but he is near the end of his term, making it a near political impossibility.
But the key in making progress is not trying to reach the finish line with just one step. There is something worth exploring in small-scale energy projects in urban settings. MassPort has a small-scale wind project up and running at Logan airport - 20 turbines, about 90 pounds apiece - on Logan’s office building. It doesn’t cover the building’s entire power demand by a longshot. But it’s a start in the renewable direction.

Roof Ray launched last week which gives everyone the immediate ability to calculate their solar potential and start dreaming, or scheming, their own solar build out. Count yours truly as one such individual. I’ve already calculated two systems on this eminently easy to use website.

Green World caught notice of the launch on CNET’s GreenTech blog, but notice has been blazing through the environmental technology blogosphere since Wednesday.

Roof Ray is an ingenious mashup of Google Maps and a technical solar system calculator developed by founders Chris Bura and Jeff Moss .

Google Maps is used to locate an individual property. In my case, it was my home in Haverhill. Enter your address and a Google satellite image brings you into the neighborhood where you can zero in on your house. Then, using a cursor, you click out the roof area available for a solar array. Using another arrow you click to place the N-S-E-W orientation of your roof. It’s a very easy website to jump in and start using. No registration necessary unless you want to save your system plans.

From that point on, Roof Ray will calculate a solar system for your property, estimates power generation using national weather statistics for cloud cover, sunny days, temperature etc. You enter your monthly energy costs, and Roof Ray will generate a return on investment. In the case of my Haverhill home, which has about 500 sq. feet of south facing roof, Roof Ray sketched out a system 6.5 kWh system that would cost about $48,000 to install, about $35,000 after federal and state incentives. Way out of line for our humble condo association.

The second system I designed was a much smaller 3.5 kWh system, also facing south, in Byfield. That came out to $27,000 cost, $19,000 net after rebates, which broke even in about 20 years. Much more reasonable on a single family home.

In order to calculate rebates, Roof Ray uses information provided by DSIRE, the Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency. This provides federal information as well as state-by-state information.

Without a doubt, this is a ballpark calculator. How, for instance, would Roof Ray know about the looming black walnut trees in the backyard of my Haverhill home. And what effect would that have on the calculations. Also, the calculator sketched out a full-size system for the roof area I calculated. My interest, as a condo occupant of a four-unit building, would be more in line creating a solar system that could run our water heater from May to October so we could shut down the oil burner completely during those months of the year. No problem. On its calculations page, Roof Ray provides the ability to edit all fields and scale down the system you’re interested in developing.

Ultimately, anyone interested developing their own solar system will have to do their homework and likely work with a designer.

Roof Ray gets the ball rolling. It’s a great example of putting green technology in people’s hands, and minds, and reducing the distance between an idea, a plan and an actuality. It’s also an awesome website that makes use of Web resources, public information and the ingenuity of the developers behind it.

It’s been a while since I started blogging and it’s been fun, but I find I just don’t have as much time to put into doing a decent blog post as I would like and you can only get away with that for so long and now with new projects I am just getting even busier so I will have to let this me my last blog posting. Unfortunately, many wonderful people have sent me fantastic nature and ‘green living’ items which I just never got around to blogging about and which I regret. But I want to thank everyone who gets out and enjoys nature throughout the region and when traveling, because that helps support the many organizations dedicated to protecting the environment. I also hope the seemingly limitless ‘green’ developments going on in the world catch on to help maintain this beautiful planet - Keep reading BostonHerald.com for more on ‘green living’ and other environmental news.

For bird lovers, you may not know about the Wickham Park and Aviary in in Hartford, Connecticut, which is worth visiting if ever you are in that area. Here are some photos: