More heat pumps were sold in 2022 than gas furnaces. And that was before the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) kicked in, which provides an $8,000 rebate for most heat pump installations — on top of a $2,000 federal tax credit and city/county incentives that can exceed $3,000. Heat pumps are cleaner, more efficient and less expensive than most conventional gas furnaces and air conditioners. But the variety in heat pump system configurations, efficiency, and costs is enough to make even a geeky engineer’s head spin when trying to determine the best solution for a particular home. My guest on this w ..read more

Batteries are becoming an essential part of home solar systems. With solar-connected batteries, homeowners can avoid paying peak utility electricity charges. Batteries can provide backup power during blackouts. And if you’re in California, after net metering ends in April 2023, you will need batteries to avoid peak electric rates. In the old days, automobile-style lead acid batteries were used for backup power and time-shifting energy use. I still have holes in my old blue jeans where battery acid splashed (my kids think they are fashionable now). Starting in 2016, lithium ion batteries became ..read more

According to Wikipedia -- which has supplanted the Oxford English Dictionary and Encyclopedia Brittanica as the world’s definitive source of information -- an Atmospheric River consists of narrow bands of enhanced water vapor winds that form over the oceans. In plain English, Atmospheric Rivers are windy rainstorms that dump a huge amount of water in a relatively short time. They account for about 50% of annual precipitation – so these storms are critical to reducing California’s current drought conditions. Since our crews work on rooftops, we’re very concerned about rooftop safety. As a resul ..read more

Fusion Power Breakthrough...Really? by Barry Cinnamon ..read more

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Over the years I’ve heard thousands of stories about people, companies and products in the solar industry. Fascinating to a solar geek like me, but too much in the weeds for most homeowners. As the solar and storage industry goes mainstream, we need to communicate to customers in a more mainstream way. Hence the need for storytelling — especially stories that have relevance to people’s daily lives. Sorry, I can’t do it…my stories are just too geeky and boring. Tor Valenza, AKA “Solar Fred,” has just what we need. Tor is a longtime solar expert a ..read more

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Entrepreneurs are the job engine in the United States. Many of the companies founded by today’s entrepreneurs have products or services addressing environmental needs. New technologies almost always gain traction through the work of stubborn entrepreneurs, including solar, wind, electric vehicles and energy storage. Public policies that encourage these new technologies are critical to their success in the market. Without smart environmental policies such as the solar investment tax credit, net metering, renewable portfolio standards and the wind ..read more

We’re talking about VAMPIRES on this week’s show — vampire electric loads. It’s Halloween season, and these little energy suckers are insidious. I guarantee that you have dozens of little devices plugged into your home that are using a small amount of standby power, sucking energy all day and night. It really adds up, and causes nightmares for energy geeks like me. Research shows that these “plug loads” are about 1/3 of a home’s total energy consumption. We’re not talking about big appliances or lighting – but sneaky little things plugged in or wired in all around your home. Think about what y ..read more

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon The best run solar companies I know are those that focus on a geographic region, and grow slowly and steadily. As with most other construction businesses, local companies generally understand their local markets better and have lower overhead — enabling them to provide better customer service at lower prices. The results are lower customer acquisition costs, more upgrades and ongoing service revenues. On this week’s Energy Show we have the pleasure of speaking with Vince Battaglia, the CEO of Renova Energy. Renova started as Vince’s MBA thesis ..read more

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Adoption of EVs will hit a brick wall when people realize how ridiculously expensive it is to charge EVs at work or at public charging stations. And these charging costs will continue to go up as the price of grid electricity skyrockets. Electric utilities have rigged the system for EV charging infrastructure so that they maximize their profits. Unfortunately, well-intentioned research studies — such as “Charging infrastructure access and operation to reduce the grid impacts of deep electric vehicle adoption” from Stanford — completely miss the ..read more

Copyright 2022 - The Energy Show, Barry Cinnamon Every time I fly into a city the glare from bright white commercial rooftops screams out to me “I need solar panels.” It is a little known fact that the 30% solar investment tax credit coupled with 20%+ depreciation benefits makes commercial rooftop solar the most cost-effective way of supporting local electric grids. Just think about how much more power would have been available to California if only 10% of commercial rooftops had rooftop solar + batteries. However, the commercial solar and storage market lags behind the utility and residential ..read more