Author Archives: Meredith Ratledge

Stephen Kalland has worked with energy efficiency and renewable energy for over 20 years. His work with the North Carolina Clean Energy Center includes public policy as well as workforce and economic development. Here, Steve speaks to the solar momentum in North Carolina as well as how the next generation should continue to look forward.

United Solar Initiative: In your experience, what has laid the foundation for the growth of solar in North Carolina- in terms of policy, big business, and otherwise?

Stephen Kalland: Well, I think if you go back far enough, the foundation was really laid more than 20 years ago with the creation of the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association and the North Carolina Solar Center, my organization. These were the two early entities that kind of had North Carolina keep energy on its radar screen, in the early years when there was not much going on in the industry.

You know, the political work in particular that NCSCA has done- has done a lot over the years- you know the market that we have now, there’s a lot of policy involved in that market. But it’s not necessarily any one big piece, it’s a collection of a lot of smaller pieces that have made it happen.

And some of those pieces that have been around dating back to the early 80’s, and have been painstakingly crafted and put into place and nurtured by these early organizations and have kind of grown to a point where when market prices fell to an appropriate level, the market really took off.

USI: What is the most exciting thing you’ve seen in terms of new sustainable or renewable energy technologies?

Kalland: Well there’s a lot of new technology out there that’s not really renewable that is going to drive the next generation of technology. It’s more what I would call enabling technologies. Things like smart grid technologies of various types- everything from group management and integration at the network level down to the thermostat on my wall.

You combine that with the evolution of more practical microgrid technology, energy storage technology that’s starting to roll out more aggressively at costs that are more economically feasible.

Even right now the most exciting thing is frankly the opportunity that all of these new smart technologies are creating for data. At a time in the very near horizon, there’s going to be a huge amount of data available that we’re going to have to figure out what to do with. Bringing to bare some of the tools that are being developed in the world of big data, bringing them to bare in the world of energy management, technologically is not very far away.

I think potentially it can create fairly sizable benefits to the economy and the people. I think the problem we’ve got is, while the technology is not very far away, the regulatory framework and the policies take advantage of those technologies…. So we’ve got some work to do to try to adapt the system to best take advantage of the new technology.

USI: What is the most pivotal thing you think our generation should focus its efforts on to see big changes and continued growth in the clean energy sector?

Kalland: Well I think probably the biggest issue that your generation- and when I say your generation and I’m talking to you and people down to the age of my oldest son who is 15- I think the biggest thing in regards to energy is mindfulness.

My generation doesn’t even know what energy is. They’re pretty much convinced it comes from a switch on the wall or a socket on the wall and doesn’t really think, for the most part, about the implications of how it’s generated, how it’s transmitted, how it’s used very much. And I think that’s what’s really led us to the problem we have today with things like climate change right on down the line to coal ash pollution.

So you know, your generation will have a whole new set of technologies available to it to try and move it in a direction that’s not going to have these same problems. And if you are mindful of it and continue to make it an issue, and this is the problem- if you look at political polling since we’re on a big election day today up in New Hampshire- if you look at political polling, energy issues are fifteenth on the list of things people are worried about.

But if you dig into energy issues, they’re the root cause of a lot of other issues. They’re the root cause of a lot of issues we’re dealing with in the Middle East. They’re the root cause of a lot of issues we’re dealing with in terms of poverty, of access to opportunities for young people, particularly in low-income communities. There are just a lot of things that energy touches. But it just doesn’t touch it in a way that is tremendously transparent and visible to a lot of people today. So, yeah- mindfulness is probably the big thing your generation needs to focus on.

USI: Why is the Clean Tech Summit important for the state’s renewable industry?

Kalland: Well I think again, it’s an opportunity to bring together some of the old technology and some of the new technology and talk about how we can work together to move the agenda forward.

Looking at the agenda you’ve got folks from major electrical utilities, you’ve got folks from the regulatory communities, and you’ve got a lot of folks working not only in the renewable field but are working in some of these associated supporting technology fields we talked about. I saw a whole session on the ‘Internet of Things’ and I’m really excited to go to those sessions.

So I think, in general, these conversations need to happen and they need to happen frequently to drive us to where we need to be.

USI: Why solar?

Kalland: Why solar? Well, so I teach environmental science to undergrads here at NC State. And I’ve been involved in the energy field now for twenty-some odd years.

You know, the reality is, there is no silver bullet for our problems. But of the bullets we have in the gun, solar, particularly when combined with a smarter grid and energy storage capabilities, is about the closest to a silver bullet we’re gonna find.

We’re just not ready to pull the plug on existing power plants and supplant them with solar tomorrow, and we may not be ready for a while. But solar is the technology that probably has the best opportunity to continue reducing its costs, improving its efficiency, and improving its applicability with all of these new technologies that are coming down the pipe that will make it more and more useful.

So you know, nothing’s perfect, but solar is approaching as good as it gets with the technology that we have today.

Article By: Meredith Ratledge

Jim Rogers is the former CEO and chairman of the board for Duke Energy. He continues to advocate for sustainable energy access as written in his book Lighting the World. More about Jim’s book can be found at https://jimrogersenergy.com/. Here he discusses the fight against energy poverty.

United Solar Initiative: Since leaving Duke you’ve written a book called Lighting the World, which points to the current state of world energy poverty. Why is energy poverty an issue?

Jim Rogers: It’s my judgement that access to electricity is a basic human right. It is foundational in that it enables medical care, education, economic development, and more efficient farming. And the efficient farming is especially important given that about 50% of people in low-income countries– and I always say low-income countries rather than developing countries because I think it’s a better way to talk about it– but in low-income countries, farmers make a living in the agriculture sector.

And the UN has finally found that electricity should be one of their sustainable development goals for 2015- 2030. And this is a breakthrough for the UN because when setting their goals in 2000, they failed to recognize access to electricity as a millennium development goal.

USI: What are the specific benefits to fighting this form of poverty in our world?

Rogers: I think that the math is stunning. About 1.2 billion people have no access to electricity. Of the 1.2 billion, 600 million plus are in Sub-Saharan Africa, roughly 300 million are in India, another 100 million in Indonesia, and the remainder scattered around the world. So bringing access to electricity basically enables societies to develop and to grow, to start to lift people from poverty. And actually, if you study the US, a high-income country in the world today, in the 20th century providing access to electricity and all that enables fundamentally changed our economy, transformed the lives of people, extended the life expectancy for both men and women. So access to electricity has played a very dominant role in the development and the cultures of high-income countries.

USI: What role do you see for-profit energy companies/utilities playing in the fight to end energy poverty?

Rogers: My focus has been on the 1.2 billion people in rural areas of low-income countries. There has been a reluctance of state-owned utilities to extend the grid to these rural areas. And the important fact today is that the price of solar has fallen to a place where it is cheaper and matches the capability to pay better in these low-income countries than extending the grid. So the important point is we are able to bring electricity to these people, help lift them from poverty, give them an opportunity to own and then deploy technologies up the ladder of the various solar technologies. And we do all of this in a way that puts them on a trajectory that allows them to be climbing out of poverty without adding to the carbon emissions in the world in the same way it has occurred in high-income countries.

USI: You’ve advocated for energy efficiency and a transition to a low-carbon future. What do you see as key to that transition?

Rogers: Well the transition is already underway. And in the last decade the falling renewable cost, specifically of wind and solar, has really driven the replacement of coal plants with natural gas, especially shale gas, which has 50% the carbon footprint of coal. Renewables have zero emissions, and at the end of the day, they have grown dramatically. The way I think about it is, whether you’re in a high-income or low-income countries, five years ago solar wasn’t as cost effective or competitive as other alternatives. And actually, my writing of the book couldn’t have occurred five years ago because I couldn’t have made the case solar was a more affordable alternative and matches the increasing capability to pay as people get on the income trajectory brought on by greater economic development. So I think the development of solar and wind is transforming how we provide electricity both in the US and other high-income countries as well as in the rural areas of low-income countries around the world.

USI: Why solar?

Rogers: There are several things that underpin the importance of solar today. One is you’ve seen the fallen price that makes it affordable and competitive with other alternatives. The other reason solar is so important- it is basically carbon free and allows us to continue crossing the bridge to a low-carbon world. Coupled with that is the fact you’ve seen the emergence of storage technologies, which really, either way, addresses the intermittency of solar. So my belief is that in the longer-term, and you’ve already seen this recently, solar trumps wind because it can be distributed. And at the end of the day, solar will be cheaper, solar will be distributed, solar will lead to a more resilient grid in the high-income countries and will lift people out of poverty in the low-income countries.

Article- Meredith Ratledge

Photo- Clean Technica

Representative Chuck McGrady is an important environmental figure in North Carolina legislature. Here he discusses his perspective of the solar industry as a Republican member of the North Carolina General Assembly.

United Solar Initiative: Can you discuss your advocacy for the environment despite being a Republican in the House? What issues do you regularly face?

Chuck McGrady: Republicans, over the last two decades, don’t have a very good reputation in terms of environmental protection. But I view protecting the air and water as really conservative issues. I mean it’s about leaving the place as good or better than you received it for future generations, and that sounds pretty conservative to me. And so, my work has involved a lot of environmental work. I think it’s noteworthy that I am sometimes not voting with the majority of my Republican colleges on a lot of environmental legislation that comes along, but when something really big occurs, for example, the large coal ash spill into the Dan River about a year and a half ago, then the Speaker and leadership in the House, in turn, can craft the legislation to manage the coal ash issue and lead paths first in the nation to pass coal ash legislation. And I’ve been able to slowly bring along my colleagues. And I’m making the case for Republicans needing to be about protecting air, water, and land, and so I’ve gained some credibility with my colleagues and I’ve been able to do more work in that area.

USI: Why do you think the environment is such a partisan issue, and do you think there is anything that can be done to change that?

McGrady: I think it’s sort of a historical anomaly. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, the environment was a bipartisan issue. But beginning with President Reagan and two President Bushs, the leadership of the party was with western Republicans. And frankly, these issues break down east to west more than republican to democratic. But, when the party was being lead by western Republicans, they didn’t share the same views as their eastern colleges. In the east, we’ve got cities, and we’ve learned through time that when you’ve got a lot of people along a river you have to learn how to protect your water source and deal with your waste- solid waste, sewage, or something else. In the west, you don’t have that issue, so the focus in more on extractive industries of various types- mining and whatnot. So I think the party has sort of lost its focus on the issue, and the Democrats were opportunists that picked up the issue and were actually able to use the issue effectively in the debate over politics. I’ve always been hoping to change that, so that’s been a goal for several decades now.

I think that Republicans ought to be perhaps more willing to approach these issues in a non-regulatory fashion, and would be something consistent with their conservative philosophies. And I would hope that Democrats and Republicans can agree to protect the air and water and the only debate would be on how we can do that.

USI: Is there anything you would like to discuss about the expiration of the North Carolina tax credit on solar?

McGrady: Well I lost that battle. I was a strong supporter of renewing the solar tax credits. We got a slight extension, meaning that projects that were begun before the end of the year will continue to receive the tax credit. I don’t have big hopes for being able to put it back in place. Philosophically, my colleagues don’t like these types of tax credits, and have been slowly but surely been trying to do away with a whole range of tax credits of the same sort. And this year we just weren’t capable of extending it.

USI: Do you think there was anything that could’ve been done to prevent this?

McGrady: Politics is about relationships. A large number of my colleagues obviously didn’t view the tax credits as valuable enough to keep in place. If you could go back two or three years, my push would’ve been to have the supporters of the tax credits, be it solar, wind, or other renewables, spend more time building relationships with my colleagues and getting them out and showing them what was being done on the ground. I think there was some amount of misinformation about the tax credits and how they were being used.

USI: Why solar?

McGrady: It’s a clean source of energy. So, for example, we’re not dealing with coal where you’ve got coal ash, or with nuclear where you’ve got a waste stream that will last in/for perpetuity. Most other types of energy have air quality or water quality impacts. That’s generally not true of solar. One could argue it takes metal, glass, and wiring to create a solar panel, but its overall impact on the environment is much less than other sources. And as it becomes a financially viable alternative, I think it needs to be a part of the mix. I think as we improve our battery capacity, solar and other renewables will become even more important. So I see a really good future for solar, even if we suffered a bit of a setback with the failure to renew the solar tax credit.

Article: Meredith Ratledge

Photo: Citizen-Times

Greg Gangi is a professor at UNC, Chapel Hill, and director with the Institute for the Environment. He discussed his motivation behind teaching and how this accompanies his relationship with leaders in the solar industry in North Carolina.

United Solar Initiative: How would you describe your relationship to the solar industry?

Greg Gangi: Well I just got an 8.25 kW system put on my house this week. It’s not hooked up yet, so the inverter hasn’t been installed, but in a few weeks, I’ll be producing my own electricity. So that’s really exciting. And then on another level I’ve known a lot of the entrepreneurs who’ve developed the solar industry in North Carolina. I have a good relationship with them and I’ve been sending them a lot of students via either internships or jobs into their companies. So that’s been a really nice relationship for us because it gives students great opportunities.

USI: Why are you a teacher and how does this align with your support of the renewable sector? Does support of one aid in support of the other?

Gangi: I think there are many things to being a teacher, so I think this aligns more with the idea of being a mentor. Mentoring is very important also, and I think it’s important to help students with career development, so the growth of the renewable industry in North Carolina has been great for our majors.

USI: How does your advocacy of the solar industry come to fruition in the classroom?

Gangi: It’s not so much advocacy, I just point out the obvious like price declines and how solar is reaching grid parity. I use solar also as an example for how technology can scale up, and that’s part of a larger discussion about clean technology and how clean technology can really help bridge the divide between environment and economic development.

And then of course, as part of teaching, again, I’ve been trying to look at different ways to teach so there’s still the standard lecture format, and I’ve struggled to find ways, especially in the intro class that is very broad, and there’s not a lot of problem sets to do a flipped classroom. But I’ve been doing other things like the Clean Tech Summit, which brings the clean technology industry to campus, and so students then can really learn from people from a wide range of industries doing things related to clean tech whether it’s finance or renewable energy developers or smart grid companies. This, I think, is a really good way to show students what’s out there. I can stand up and lecture; it’s another thing to go there and have lunch with somebody who is a CEO of a company. That just provides an entirely different perspective.

Article: Meredith Ratledge

Photo: Jack Molloy

Ron Strom, the landlord of the Root Cellar, a small coffee shop in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, recently took the initiative to install a rooftop solar system on his business as a way to combat climate change. He discussed his reasons for the decision and hope for its impact on the local community.

United Solar Initiative: When did the idea to install solar panels first come to mind? Was there a certain instance that sparked the idea creation?

Ron Strom: One of my 24-year-old twin daughters, Samantha, an environmental studies major at Middlebury, had been nudging me for quite some time to get a solar quote for our home; it turned out to be too shaded for solar. We then opted for a 60kw rooftop installation on a small retail center in Chapel Hill, NC that our family owns. This has been a way for our family to make a true, impact investment, for our community.

USI: How long did the installation process take?

Strom: The installation took only a couple of weeks. The approval from Duke Power took a few months.

USI: What would you say to other home-owners/business leaders thinking about installing solar on their rooftops?

Strom: Listen to our children; they are far more sensitized and called to action to combat climate change. And they and their children will be experiencing the consequences of our decisions for far longer than we.

USI: Why do you think solar energy is important?

Strom: Our small rooftop system, consisting of 233 solar panels, is the renewable energy equivalent of removing over 100,000 pounds of carbon dioxide, 100,000 vehicle miles from the road or planting 1,200 trees to help sequester carbon. 2015 will be ‘yet another’ hottest year on record for the planet. Each of us must do what we can to support renewables. We are at a tipping point for our planet.

Article: Meredith Ratledge

Photo: Jack Molloy

Megan Neligan, a senior at UNC-Chapel Hill and working as a finance analyst for Cypress Creek Renewables, provides insight on her perspective as a student pursuing a career in the renewable sector. She encourages students to see the solar industry as a great career opportunity.

United Solar Initiative: What is your official position with Cypress Creek and could you describe that for me?

Neligan: I am a Project Finance Analyst. I originally transitioned from Project Development Analyst a few months ago and went through training to work on different financial models, different decks, and help out with anything that touches the finance side of solar.

USI: Why solar?

Neligan: So, my freshman year I originally was interested in environmental issues but wasn’t sure which way to take it. And I think by going to UNC, I ended up having a direction that kind of herded me towards solar, to begin with.

You know North Carolina as a solar state is incredible. It’s grown so much. It put so much solar in the ground in 2014 and that’s only increasing in 2015. So just being exposed to all of that within my first six months of being in school was really pivotal for me. And from then on out, when I was speaking to people at home in Texas it just drove me to get into solar even more and get into the finance side because I’m from a conservative community in Dallas that really cares about its oil and gas. And to be able to say to someone now in 2015 that ‘Look, in some areas, utility scale solar is at parity with gas prices,’ that’s incredible. So, that kind of pushed me in originally and kept me here and kept me running.

And it changes the world. And it helps make everything green and wonderful for the grid.

USI: It is my understanding that you took a gap year your junior year?

Neligan: I took my spring semester off junior year and spent that fall applying to many internships and reaching out to different companies. And I reached out to Matt McGovern who is the CEO of Cypress. I’d met him at InterSolar, a conference in San Francisco, the year before, and asked actually for career advice about the finance side of things and how to navigate the waters and how to get into that because I wasn’t a business major. And it turned out to be one of the best emails I ever sent.

USI: Was there a particular instance that sparked the idea of taking a gap year?

Neligan: I had gone abroad for [the] Burch [program], and that was an incredible experience. And doing my research there on energy cooperatives and sustainable rural development really sparked the rest of my research and sparked everything else I was interested in school. And I’m realizing, if I want to be doing solar, how do I make this happen? And that’s what pushed the finance side of things because I thought that was a great enabler.

But for the gap year, I was looking again at programs abroad. And there’s nothing wrong with going abroad just to have your experience. That’s a wonderful thing, to just soak everything up. I had been really lucky and spent I think every summer except one or two since I was eleven abroad for some part of the summer. So I decided I would want to use this time to push forward my career and see which way it took me. I was looking for anything that had to do with solar finance. It was kind of in that moment when I wanted to get out of Chapel Hill for a bit and didn’t know which way to take it, that going and working seemed like a really good and exciting option for me.

USI: What would you say to students hesitant of joining the environmental movement or those afraid to pursue it as a ‘sound’ career?’ Because that is a skepticism that I’ve heard.

Neligan: Yeah, I get that. And I see a lot of my friends who are environmental studies majors who are unsure should I jump into something environmental related or should I go with a more secure job in maybe tech or something else. And I think, you know, as long as you’re getting a skill-set here at Carolina and really focus on maybe Excel modeling, data management, or journalism. Whatever your chosen path may be in addition to environmental work, jump into it . It almost baffles me why students aren’t just jumping into solar. Because I think it’s something like 21 states now have 100 MW of solar installed. Which is awesome. But in terms of overall solar installed in the US, which is growing every day, it’s the top five states that cover three-quarters of the entire industry. Which, you know, look at that incredible opportunity for growth. You have these established companies in North Carolina or across the U.S. that are looking for young talent, and there’s so much room for these companies to grow. I mean I think you see certain established companies but that doesn’t mean the market is anywhere near tipping and being at its largest.

There’s so much room for growth and I think everyone that is environmental studies, business, or computer science and vaguely interested in environmental work should just be leaping at this as a career opportunity. I think solar is the way to go, but I’m biased. You can do well by doing good, as many have told me.

USI: What would you see as the major roadblocks to the solar industry?

Neligan: At this point, I guess, yes, there are roadblocks. The ITC is going to expire and drop 10%. Maybe it won’t, but that is likely. North Carolina’s state tax credit is expiring at the end of 2015. However, in some regions we’ve now reached parity with natural gas. I think, you know, sometimes people talk about  how over-subsidized fossil fuels are, and that’s very frustrating. And I think that solar and renewables overall should continue to be subsidized as different regions are still gearing up. Some areas could have their market stand on their own two feet and be fine without subsidies. But other areas are not there yet, only because maybe they haven’t dabbled in solar at all. There are 21 states with over 100 MW installed. And I think in some ways that’s a roadblock for some regions of the industry that are trying to get into solar. But I think at this point, you know, we’ve figured out a lot of the finance and new innovations for panels. The industry is doing really exciting things. And yes there are roadblocks, but I don’t think they are insurmountable in any way. I don’t even know if they are even huge roadblocks, just speed bumps we have to get over. We’re pretty much there, if not there already. We are there already.

Article: Meredith Ratledge

Photo: Jack Molloy