Solar Energy Comeback : COMPANIES HOPE TO BRING THE SUN BACK INTO HOMES

In the course of a year, the energy needed to power every vehicle, machine and factory on earth, as well as heat every building, is equal to about 50 trillion kilowatt-hours.

Or about 40 minutes worth of sunlight.

Here in Orange County, the energy released by the sun in the form of light and heat can total five million kilowatts on the brightest days.

That is more than double the generating capacity of San Onofre’s twin nuclear reactors.

Abundant, cheap and clean energy. The promise of power in perpetuity. The solar age. Welcome to the late 1970s.

More than a decade later, the remnants of that age can be seen on rooftops across Orange County. Low black boxes called solar collectors are reminders of another energy crisis and the resulting scramble for alternative fuels. Homeowners did their part for energy conservation by installing solar hot water systems, while at the same time collecting hefty tax credits awarded by a grateful nation. The tax credits ended in 1985, and the home solar industry nearly did too.

“Everybody and their brother was manufacturing or installing solar equipment,” recalled Mike Gallant, owner of Generic Electric in Orange. “After tax credits ended, it was a matter of months and the entire industry had been shaken out.”

Gallant is a survivor of the solar massacre of 1985. Dozens of companies failed, big marketing firms washed their hands of the solar industry, and a once enthusiastic public ran back into the welcoming arms of the Southern California Gas Co. for its home heating needs. It seemed that the great solar experiment had gone into eclipse.

But a surprising thing happened on the way to oblivion. When Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein stormed into tiny, oil-rich Kuwait, he may have also ridden inadvertently to the rescue of the solar home market in this country.

As the bully of Baghdad threatens to ignite the world’s first energy war, the call for development of alternative energy sources and conservation of existing fuel supplies has sounded across the nation. Solar energy is suddenly fashionable again. Small wonder that a solar industry association in Florida recently indulged in some black humor when it nominated Saddam Hussein as its Solar Man of the Year.

Les Nelson, president of the California Solar Energy Industries Assn., says he believes the Middle East crisis will “probably lead to renewed interest in residential solar uses. Not that people are suddenly going to run out and put solar in their homes, but there should be some action (on solar energy) on a government level.”

In other words, Uncle Sam may once again look at solar energy for the home as a viable energy alternative, and not just as a leftover from the Arab oil embargo of the 1970s.

Nelson, who is also operations manager for Revco Solar Engineering in Laguna Niguel, admits that there is little connection between in-home solar use as practiced in Orange County and the threat to American oil interests in the Persian Gulf. That is because natural gas is the overwhelming choice for home heating needs in Southern California--not fuel oil as in some other parts of the United States.

Fuel conservation may not even figure in the Southern California solar equation--for now.

Airborne pollution, specifically that caused by the release of nitrogen oxides through the burning of natural gas, is of more immediate concern to solar advocates, especially now that the South Coast Air Quality Management District is studying proposed clean air rules that would mandate solar-assisted hot water heating on all new-home construction. Only one Orange County city, Placentia, currently requires solar assistance on new homes. (One other city, La Palma, officially encourages its use by builders.) According to Nelson, the major opponents of solar mandates are home builders, the pool and spa industry, and the Southern California Gas Co.

“The builders and pool people don’t want to add any more cost to their products, while the gas company is worried about solar cutting into its future sales growth,” he said.

Theoretically, it would be possible to provide a large part of both the space and water heating needs for the average Orange County home through the use of solar power. Possible, but not practical, agrees Nelson. “When you say ‘in-home solar’ to most people, they automatically think of space heating. But very few solar space-heating systems are ever installed.”

Nelson points out that upfront costs of $5,000 to $7,500 for space heating are too high to justify a savings of perhaps 50% to 60% on heating bills--savings that can only be realized about six months out of the year. Architectural passive space heating, such as thermal windows, skylights, greenhouse-like sun spaces and special construction techniques, can cut heating costs, but few Southern California homes are designed with such solar technology in mind.

It is in the area of hot water heating that solar energy has traditionally proven most popular with Orange County homeowners.

“Most of the hot water systems installed in Orange County are bought by people moving into new or used homes, or by those who have refinanced their homes,” Nelson said. “In this way, the $1,800 to $2,300 cost of the systems can be folded into the home’s mortgage, with an out-of-pocket expense of usually $15 to $20 a month over the life of the mortgage.”

Nelson estimates that a family of four can save 50% to 70% on its monthly heating bill, or about $30 to $40, depending on usage.

Residential solar hot water heating actually dates back at least a century. In the late 1800s, thousands of American homes used solar-powered “batch” heaters--water tanks mounted on the roof in glass-covered, insulated boxes--to supply hot water.

By the 1930s, however, the availability of cheap natural gas spelled the end for the simple solar heaters. Natural gas became the fuel of choice for heating in areas where supplies were plentiful.

Some 40 years later, the Arab oil embargo resurrected residential solar energy, only this time as a way to help reduce our dependence on foreign fuel supplies. At the same time, public concern about pollution, widespread disenchantment with rising energy bills, and the allure of federal tax credits helped spark interest in solar energy as an alternative to oil.

From turn-of-the-century America to the 1970s, it was back to the future as solar water heating once again made its appearance on the residential energy scene.

Solar technology and materials have improved markedly in the past 100 years, but the heat of the sun is still collected by water flowing through black boxes attached to the roof. According to solar industry estimates, as many as 60,000 houses in Orange County currently have some sort of solar-assisted hot-water system.

There are basically two types of solar water heating systems available to the homeowner: active and passive.

Active systems heat water with what is called a metal flat-plate solar collector. Inside the three- to four-inch-high, glass-covered heater box is a series of small tubes backed by blackened metal. These metal “solar fins” absorb heat from sunlight, in turn heating the water flowing through the tubes. An electric pump circulates the preheated water from the collector to a storage tank for use in the household system. Sensors and a control device operate the pump, moving water from the roof to the house as needed.

(Not all metal flat-plate hot water systems use water in their solar collectors. In climates where freezing is a continuing problem, an antifreeze solution is circulated through the tubing, eliminating the threat of a low-temperature rupture. This closed-loop system uses a heat exchanger in the storage tank to transfer heat from the antifreeze to the household water. Think of a heating element placed in a pot of water. The process of heat transfer from the element to the water is the same as that which occurs in the closed-loop solar system.)

Passive hot water systems also use a roof-mounted collector to heat water. In contrast to the small tubing found in a metal flat-plate collector, rows of much larger (usually about four inches in diameter) copper pipes are arranged behind glass or clear plastic in an insulated, black-painted box. Because large amounts of water are being heated in the collector itself, there is no need for a separate storage tank such as the one common to active systems. Nor is there any need for pumps, sensors or a control device; water moves under normal household pressure.

The passive collector is connected directly to the home’s hot water heater. Preheated water flows between the collector and heater in a continuous cycle--which is why conventional hot water heaters are still needed as an automatic backup on both active and passive systems.

Active and passive systems usually provide 50% to 70% of the daily hot water needs for a family of four (the remainder of the hot water is provided by conventional water heaters) and cost roughly the same to install ($1,800 to $2,300), according to Nelson. Although the current market is about evenly split between active and passive systems, Nelson believes that passive systems--due to the absence of moving parts and relative ease of installation--will probably be more popular with builders if solar-assisted hot water heating is mandated for new homes.

Solar energy advocates admit that in-home solar hot water heating is a hard sell in today’s market. Even amortizing costs over the life of a mortgage translates to energy savings of only a few hundred dollars a year. As a result, last year, fewer than 500 residential units were installed in Orange County, according to solar industry estimates.

Five hundred in-home solar hot water systems do not an industry make. But when the water to be heated is in a swimming pool, the solar picture changes.

Industry studies estimate that the number of solar pool installations in Orange County will total about 2,500 this year, reflecting a modest but encouraging annual market growth of about 5% to 10%. Pool heating, in fact, has been the savior of the solar industry.

Pool heating has always been solar generated--direct and free of charge--during the hot summer months. But heating a back-yard pool during the spring and fall can mean monthly gas bills as high as $300. The urge to splash in heated comfort and the horror of having to pay for it has convinced many homeowners to go without. Gas heaters have been shut off. Pools sit chill and unused for up to nine months out of the year.

Nelson claims that because the solar-collecting area needed to heat a swimming pool is anywhere from 75% to 100% of the surface area of the pool, heating with traditional flat-plate collectors (pool heating is solar active) can be prohibitively expensive, and the system hard to install.

The development of plastic solar collectors has changed all that. These sectional panels are made up of a single row of about 250 black plastic tubes, each about the diameter of a pencil, through which water flows.

There is no cumbersome heater box because the flexible, lightweight collectors run at lower temperatures due to the temperate needs of pool heating (although spas, with their smaller water volume, can reach temperatures of 100 degrees or more using the solar pool systems). While metal flat-plate collectors can be used to heat pools, says Nelson, they are usually less effective and harder to install than plastic panels.

Because the solar-collecting area needed to heat the swimming pool is anywhere from 75% to 100% of the pool’s surface area, installation costs can run a hefty $3,000 to $5,000. Still, it is pool heating that is currently driving the solar market, according to Nelson.

Solar installer Mike Gallant agrees.

“It’s worth it to customers who want to get an extra five or six months’ use out of their pools,” he explained. “At that rate of use, the systems can pay for themselves (in energy savings) in two to four years.”

Not so for the former star of residential solar energy, in-home hot water heating. Although paybacks are slow, Gallant believes that judging the in-home solar hot water market on an individual level can be shortsighted. “While the individual homeowner isn’t going to realize that much savings on his month-to-month (energy) bill, the overall impact in terms of fuel conservation and pollution control on the Southern California area, or the nation as a whole, could be phenomenal.” Provided, he adds, that solar programs for in-home water heating are widespread.

Although some form of government backing for residential solar energy would be welcome, many in the industry oppose a return to federal tax credits.

“It would be a big mistake,” warned D.S. Mowlavi, owner of Solartrope in Orange, the only solar supply company in Orange County to survive the industry shakeout in 1985. “It would be the very worst thing for the solar industry. Absolutely no good. We do not want them.”

Mowlavi blames tax credits with attracting “a bad element” to the solar industry during its early years. Price gouging, technical ineptitude and outright chicanery were not uncommon among the solar opportunists who fed off a market artificially propped up by the lure of tax credits.

Nelson agrees that tax credits “are the last thing our industry needs. The companies that have survived the past five years are solid. They know what they’re doing and they can be trusted or they wouldn’t have made it. The equipment available today has been proven. The Rube Goldberg stuff that proliferated during the tax credit era is gone.”

To help insure that standards remain high, a 60-page book of operating guidelines and certifying minimums for solar applications has been developed by the industry for use by manufacturers, installers and local governments.

Nelson and other solar energy advocates recognize that some past criticism of the industry has been justified, especially when it comes to collector aesthetics. Critics claim that a squat, black solar collector on the roof is about as visually attractive as a bomb crater in the driveway.

Rick White, a solar equipment installer in Thousand Oaks who works closely with Orange County builders who use solar systems in their new homes, says manufacturers are trying to solve the problem of system aesthetics. For example, collectors designed for new homes now fit almost flush with the roof, giving the panels “a skylight look.” There is also a solar panel manufactured by a Japanese firm that resembles roof tiles.

“A lot of the old systems you see are awful,” he said. “People drive down the street and see some crazy contraption somebody put on a roof 10 years ago, and they think all solar systems look like that. That’s not so. Not anymore.”

Nevertheless, say the critics, a lot of solar collectors on the market today, while perhaps efficient and durable, have a profile only a solar engineer could love.

Ultimately, Nelson says he believes that society will have to learn to accept solar technology, warts and all, as our non-renewable fossil fuels are rapidly depleted. “We’re going to see a lot more solar in our daily lives, not less.”

That includes the longtime dream of producing cheap electricity directly from the sun, using solar cells. In fact, advances in solar cell technology have led the Japanese publication Business Tokyo to predict that by the year 2006, in-home power production using solar cells will be commonplace. As to who will manufacture these solar cells, the magazine doesn’t say, but the implication is clear.

Nelson, for one, is unconcerned with who does what in making solar energy a part of everyday life, as long as somebody does something. “You have to remember that solar in the home was once looked upon as a pretty screwball thing. Well, we’ve come a long way since then. Solar isn’t some grand event waiting to happen in the future. We can make use of it right now. It’s just that a lot of people don’t know it yet.”

PASSIVE AND ACTIVE SOLAR OPTIONS

There are two types of solar hot water systems: active and passive. Both heat water using roof-top solar energy collectors. Active systems use a pump and sensors to move water from a flat-plate-style collector to a storage tank for use in the home. Passive systems have no moving parts or storage tank. They heat large amounts of water in collectors which is then cycled under normal household pressure into a standard hot water heater. Both systems provide 50% to 70% of the hot water needs for a family of four and can be installed for about $1,800 to $2,300. ACTIVE: Pros: * Slightly better overall heating efficiency. * Collectors can be added less expensively for increased heating load. Cons: * Increased risk of equipment failure due to moving parts. * System needs to be adequately protected against freezing, which can rupture collectors. * Storage tank required. PASSIVE: Pros: * No moving parts. * Easier installation. * No freeze danger due to collectors’ large water volume (40 gallons). * No need for storage tank. Cons: * More expensive to increase capacity on some models. * Fully-loaded collectors can weigh 350 to 400 pounds, creating a potential need to reinforce roofs. Pool Collector: Pool solar collectors are flexible plastic panels made up of about 250 small tubes through which water flows for heating as part of an active, pump-powered system. Because panels work at lower temperatures, heater boxes are not needed. Active Collector: Commonly called a metal flat-plate collector, this black-painted, insulated box contains a series of small tubes backed by blackened metal. These metal “solar fins” absorb heat from the sun, in turn heating water flowing through the attached tubes. The collector is covered with glass to increase heating efficiency. (Not pictured) Passive Collector: Water to be heated by sunlight flows through a black-painted, insulated box containing rows of 4-inch-wide copper pipes. A glass cover helps trap the sun’s heat. Pool and Spa: Solar heating can add up to six months of pool use (more for a spa) at little or no operating costs, with a two-to four-year pay back in energy savings when pool is in full use. Systems cost from $3,000 to $5,000. Solar Cells: Garden lights are powered by solar cells set in the top of each unit. Unlike thermal passive and active hot water systems, solar cells operate on photovoltaic technology, converting sunlight directly into electricity. Each unit charges during the day, producing up to eight hours of nighttime illumination. Automatic operation is due to built-in sensor. It needs no wiring. Prices range from $20 to $60 per unit. Architectural Passive: The oldest form of solar heating is based on the greenhouse principle: Sunlight enters an attached sun space, heating the interior air. Windows, skylights and special construction techniques can reduce heating costs significantly. Few homes in Southern California, however, are designed to take advantage of architectural passive solar techniques.

Source: California Industries Association