After receiving many requests of wanting to see more installations, here is a picture collection of our recent installation at our office at the Fletcher Business Park. This 12-panel system was designed to supplement one of our building’s three boilers.
The panels have an increased angle to optimize their thermal performance during the winter months, when the boiler will be getting the most use. Increasing the pitch means that the panels will be able capture more direct sunlight during the months when the sun has a lower angle in the sky. This type of ballast mounting is used on flat roof installs or in some cases, ground mounting.
Large scale solar install + heavy machinery + several days out of the office doing techy work = happy Danish engineer
Here you can see how several tanks can be tied together on the same project. The modular nature of these systems mean that we can scale them to order, however large that may be.
This week we were very proud to recieve the North Carolina Leadership Award at the NC Sustainable Energy Conference, hosted by the NC State Energy Office. Among two other recipients (Michael Shore and Sen. John Snow) we were recognized for the total savings our renewable energy systems have brought to the state, the historic scale of the potential Rivercane project, the relationships we’ve made in the quickserve industry (Arby’s) and the pioneering work we’ve done promoting the nation’s first solar adsorption chiller. We’ve been busy around here and its always rewarding to have hard work recognized. Congratulations to the other local recipients and all the other people that participated in a great conference this week at NC State University.
We just set up a page dedicated to connecting directly with the community through Facebook.com. If you have a question, comment or just want to say “Hey,” now you can connnect with us by using your Facebook account. Just search for us, become a fan and the rest is up to you. This is just a more personal way for us to be available to answer any questions or pursue any topics that may be of interest to the solar community. Check us out!
The tide is certainly changing for clean energy investments. Yesterday the UN held its Third Investor’s Summit on Climate Risk, which attracted the likes of over 480 investors who pooled a record-breaking collective of over $20 trillion in investment capital. This high-rolling crew assembled in such numbers not to mitigate the damage of a declining market, but to celebrate the investment potential that clean energy technologies represent. The event was hosted by Ceres, the UN Foundation and the UN Fund for International Partnership. As an initial result of this summit 50 international investors formed the Climate Change Action Plan, which accounts for $1.75 trillion in assets. The action plan is planned to pursue many commitments including:
Support clean technology, with a goal of deploying $10 billion collectively over the next two years.
Aim for a 20 percent reduction in energy used in core real estate investment holdings over a three-year period, and consider green building standards in making investment decisions.
Require and validate that investment managers, investment consultants and advisors report on how they are assessing climate risks in their portfolios, whether from new carbon-reducing regulations, physical impacts or competitive risks.
Encourage Wall Street analysts, rating agencies and investment banks to analyze and report on the potential impacts of foreseeable long-term carbon costs, in the range of $20 to $40 per metric ton of CO2, particularly on carbon-intensive investments such as new coal-fired power plants, oil shale, tar sands and coal-to-liquid projects.
Push the SEC to issue guidance leading to full corporate disclosure of climate risks and opportunities.
Push Congress for a mandatory national policy to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the 60-90 percent reductions below 1990 levels by 2050 that scientists suggest is urgently needed to avoid the worst and most costly impacts from climate change.
These promising commitments were inspired largely by a new report published by the McKinsey Global Institute that was distributed at the summit. It stated that large-scale investments in energy productivity will earn double digit rates of return and bear the potential to curb global energy demand growth by as much as half. These people are not in the business of ethics, but are in the business of business. Its an exciting time though when positive ethics for our future are completely aligned with sound business sense. Solar has historically been the lead runner in investments and will continue to establish itself as a prime means of reducing energy loads and greenhouse gasses. Whether it be residential installations or multi-trillion capital investments this technology is going places, and is making a difference in our world.
One of the greatest hurdles in achieving a sustainable future is overcoming conventional wisdom. Over time it has held that climate change was a hoax. It has held that renewable energy installations such as wind turbines and solar panels reduce property value. It has held that the actions of one person cannot sway significant impact in a world defined by accelerated growth. Again and again all have been proven wrong.
Now the time has come to dispel one of the most pervasive myths of sustainable conventional wisdom, that renewable energy is unaffordable.
With our new financing options we have now made it possible to dramatically reduce your energy costs and carbon footprint for as low as $49.99 a month. For less money than a cup of coffee a day a household can install a whole solar thermal system and begin immediately saving money and greenhouse gasses. This is how easy it works.
We have structured our plan to take advantage of state and federal tax credits on the front end. Simply put, we require a down payment of $3400 which can all be recovered by tax credits. Your upfront expenses return to zero. Then for only $49.99 per month your home will have the majority of its hot water heating supplied with abundant and renewable solar energy. That includes a two-panel system, complete with an 80-gallon solar heated water tank, with all labor expenses included. After tax credits, the whole package is $49.99 a month. Or, if your a non-down payment type of person you can choose $89.99 per month financing, with no down payment at all. No strings. No hassles. No smoke and mirrors. Just easy, affordable, sustainable energy.
If you have been interested in taking control of your energy security and increasing the value of your home, there has never been a better time to turn that into a reality. Explore our website and feel free to call our office so we can start to make this happen, together.
Welcome the sustainable future, for the rest of us.
Last week marked the beginning of another exciting project around here that is a slight change of gears from business as usual, working with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The Secretariat himself hand-selected our own international energy management guru, David Wallace, for a private consulting position updating the Convention’s database on policies and measures.
Now… that will be described in English so that you can understand how important and how un-painfully-boring this opportunity is despite the techy name.
The UNFCCC is the treaty that was ratified in 1994 as a way for world governments to address the many challenges presented by global climate change. The Kyoto Protocol was adopted in addition to the UNFCCC, sharing identical goals as the Convention while adding time specific deadlines for greenhouse gas emission reductions. Quite the controversial piece of legislation. At this point, climate change is universally agreed upon. How to reverse its trends and consequences is not. As a means to keep the UN informed of each country’s progress along their stated goals, each participating nation is required to submit national communications every 3-5 years describing updates in national climate policy. These communications are dense reports, rich in data, loaded with information, and about as easy to read and utilize as the Rosetta Stone. So, these communications are then distilled down into a large database where they can be readily cross-referenced and benchmarked without the need to read each monolithic report.
David, with the assistance of AE’s Harris Stewart, have been endowed with the responsibility of updating this database, so that it can reach its maximum potential as a useful tool combating climate change. They will be reviewing ten years worth of climate policy, completing voids in the database and exposing inconsistencies with what is being reported and what is actually happening on the ground. As a result, the UNFCCC’s database will be more transparent and useful. They have even been requested to submit an overview paper on the database, including comments and suggestions of how such policies should be reported under the Kyoto Protocol.
Though this is leftfield of our normal activity at Appalachian Energy, its working toward a common goal of creating a sustainable future, using the tools of today to solve the problems of yesterday. We are proud that the job of editing one of the most fundamental international agreements in history has landed itself in our shop.
Lately the old adage, “may you live in interesting times,” has really been ringing true around here at Appalachian Energy, with the latest addition being the proposed Rivercane development, literally in our backyard. If you haven’t heard about it, now is the time, because this project is going to be raising the sustainable development bar.
Imagine 38 acres of wooded land overlooking the Black and Blue Ridge mountains. The property is minutes away from Hendersonville Road, with easy access to Fletcher, Hendersonville and Asheville. It sits a stonesthrow from the Steelcase building (our home), offering instant commutes while remaining in natural isolation beside Cane Creek. Imagine 400 residential units, ranging from town homes to mutli-family units nested among local shops, cafes, restaurants and office space. Trails meander throughout parks, village greens and even connect to the greater greenway at Fletcher Community Park, a quarter mile away. Now imagine all this with solar.
Rivercane is proposed to become the nation’s LARGEST solar heated and cooled residential development and is iconic for our vision as a company. All facilities will receive water and air heating and cooling from the sun, collected in 1,600 solar panels. This will meet the majority of the development’s energy demands, while drastically reducing costs through our, now proven, RESCO model.
But Rivercane is exciting beyond a large-scale solar installation, because we self-identify with it in so many ways. This project represents revitalization. The project site (previously the old Asheville airport) has remained vacant for decades, but will become a center of community-oriented economic development. This project represents innovation, integrating a host of sustainable practices ranging from mixed-use to the best methods of the Healthy Built Homes program. Development and conservation will go hand in hand as over 24 acres of land will remain in preservation, with 18 acres being permanently dedicated to the Carolina Mountain Conservancy.
Rivercane will be built for people, not cars; community, not sprawl; and will redefine modern sustainability. Stay tuned.
Here are some pictures from our big press event yesterday with Arby’s franchisee, The Winning team.
We got their solar system up so quickly, we didn’t even have time before yeterday’s press event to upload the pictures of CJ, Matt and erik doing the installation itself, so here are they are now:
For more information that is being transmitted across the country, check out these news releases:
