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Michael Dunne: Sometimes smaller is better than bigger, and simpler is better than complicated. Right now, that just might be the case for solar power. Yes, large rooftop solar installations can deliver a good deal of electricity, and more and more these arrays are delivering enough juice to power a home and feed electricity back to the grid. But they're expensive, and they're a complicated system. Today on the show, you'll hear about a simpler and cheaper solution to generate some power from the sun. It's called balcony solar, and it's already very popular in Europe and parts of Asia. Now, it's not perfect. It generates a modest amount of electricity, and there are some safety concerns. But you'll hear from a nonprofit that wants to expand it and an Oregon legislator who's trying to update regulations to make it work in our state. Cora Stryker is the co-founder of Bright Saver. Cora, thanks so much for coming on and talking to us.
Cora Stryker: Thanks so much for having me.
Dunne: Let's start off with this. Tell our listeners what Bright Saver is.
Stryker: We are a nonprofit. We started a year and a half ago with this vision of bringing to the United States what we're seeing in Germany. In Germany, you can go to IKEA, buy a balcony solar unit, bring it home, plug it in, and you're producing clean energy and reducing your electricity bills immediately. We don't have that here, almost at all. We're just starting to see an uptick, and so we started with this mission of getting affordable solar energy into everyone's hands, including renters. We are removing the barriers that make that difficult right now, and I'm happy to say we're well on our way.
Dunne: Talk about balcony solar. Is it really that easy? I mean, you just hang it up from a balcony or other type of platform and plug it in. How does it work in Germany, and are there regulatory or electrical impediments to balcony solar here in the states?
Stryker: In Germany it's quite easy. It's been around for about 10 years. There are 4 million of them in use right now, no major safety incidents, and the technology has really evolved with the demand. I was actually on a call very early this morning with a fellow in Pakistan who was talking about how they have their own DIY solar movement. It's different there because they have a different electrical system. Germany also has a different electrical system. What we're going for is something as easy as it is in Germany, where you just buy it at IKEA or even a grocery store. It's so ubiquitous, it's everywhere. You pay a few hundred dollars, bring it home and plug it in. It's really that easy. And by the way, it's called balcony solar because of these images of German apartment buildings where every single balcony has one. But you don't have to put it on a balcony. A lot of people put them in their backyards. It's really anywhere you can get clear access to the sun.
Dunne: It sounds like it's tailor-made for renters or apartment buildings, places that may not have access to rooftop solar. Is that right?
Stryker: Exactly. It's incredibly empowering for renters. I was chatting with a woman who lives in New York City a couple of weeks ago, and she said to me: I compost, I ride my bike to work, I really care about climate, I'm doing everything I possibly can, but I live in an apartment and I can't get solar. There's a huge pent-up desire among those of us who care about climate, but also among those who are really struggling to pay energy bills. That's a huge group of Americans who simply have no tools in the toolbox. This is an option for reducing your electricity bills and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time, even if you don't own your home.
Dunne: Can you give us an idea of what a basic kit can power? Maybe analogous to an air conditioning unit or something like that?
Stryker: It powers essentially one smallish appliance. It depends on the wattage. The very smallest systems are under 400 watts. Those systems will power your refrigerator or maybe a small window air conditioner. We do have systems all the way up to 1,200 watts, and those systems can power quite a bit more because you're sending electricity into an outlet and into your home wiring. Anything you're running at that moment, your TV, your router, your refrigerator, your air conditioner, all of that will draw on that energy first. The best data we have is from Germany, and there it's about a 15 to 25% offset of energy costs. We expect that to be a little higher in the United States because we're at a different latitude. But it really depends on the size of your system, whether it's oriented properly, whether it's obstructed and how large your apartment or house is. The bottom line is that it takes a meaningful chunk out of your electricity bills, though it will never cover the whole thing.
Dunne: Here in the states, are there regulatory hurdles that need to be cleared, or is it mostly that our electrical system is different and there are code issues?
Stryker: Two things. There's a regulatory gray area, which has created a gray market. What I mean by that is there are no rules explicitly on the books for these little systems. The only rules on the books are intended for rooftop or even utility-scale solar farms, which are much larger, five to 100 times as large as these little units. That's a regulatory hurdle involving interconnection rules. For these little systems, you shouldn't have to have an interconnection agreement with your utility. That's critically important, because if you have rooftop solar, you'll almost always be sending some electricity back to the grid, and you should be paid for that. That's where utility agreements come in. With these little systems, you're almost never sending electricity back to the grid. They're small. If you have a refrigerator, most of us do, you're probably going to consume all the electricity you generate. So we do need to reform rules on the books that are truly outdated regulatory artifacts. The other piece is the certification of the systems themselves. We can't just order a system from Munich and plug it into our outlets because they run on a different electrical system. There it's 230 volts, here it's 120. So we need adaptations to the technology itself. Those adaptations have already happened. We already have systems optimized for our house wiring and our electrical system, but we're in a very immature market. There are only a few reputable manufacturers with systems here, and many more disreputable ones. That's what I mean when I say the regulatory gray area has created a gray market. You can go on Amazon right now and buy one of these systems that is not certified for safety on our electrical system. That's what the bill addresses. It does two things. The bill in Utah has passed. There was one in Oregon, which didn't make it, though we do expect another one to be introduced next year. All these pieces of legislation do two things: They update the interconnection requirements for these little systems so you don't have to jump through all the hoops required for a rooftop system, and they set safety standards. That is incredibly important. We need to make sure that when people do this, they do it safely.
Dunne: On a spectrum from simply plugging something into an outlet all the way up to needing an advanced electrician's degree, how easy is it for a general consumer to hook up one of these systems and start generating solar electricity?
Stryker: It's quite easy in this country today. You can buy one on Amazon, bring it home and plug it in. Now, we don't think that's terribly safe. Those tend to be uncertified systems. We're at the beginning of this movement, and a year from now we'll be talking about a totally different class of systems. Right now, it is very easy to plug in very low-wattage systems, and it is safe to do so. Systems under 360 watts have been evaluated as safe to plug into any outlet in the United States. Systems larger than that could pose safety hazards if installed by someone without an advanced degree.
Dunne: I'm wondering about portability. You talked about how this is great for renters, and renters tend to move from place to place. Is this a solution that's portable? Can you just take it with you when you move?
Stryker: That's where we're headed. In Utah, the first place where this legislation passed, it's called a Portable Solar Generation Device. It has different names in different bills: plug-in solar, balcony solar. The idea is that, just as in Germany and other countries like Lithuania and Spain, you're a renter, you buy one, you own your own clean energy generation even if you don't own your home, you move, you unplug it and you bring it to your next residence. We're not there yet. The technology isn't there yet. But we expect to be there within months to a couple of years, certainly not a decade. We think about two years, probably.
Dunne: Cora, my last question is just to give us a general update on solar. I keep hearing that it's come down in price and that it's become significantly more efficient than earlier generations. And I'm also hearing that it's really growing as an alternative to carbon-based energy generation. Just give us an overall picture of where solar is right now.
Stryker: Solar is astonishingly cheap. I talked to a fellow from Pakistan today, and he was describing how in Pakistan there's this DIY solar movement. You have farmers in rural areas who buy solar panels and hire an electrician. Electricians are much cheaper in Pakistan than they are here. They set up these little DIY solar systems, and it has nothing to do with climate consciousness. It is only about saving money. That's true universally, and it makes sense. A photovoltaic module, if it's cheap enough, is going to be a cheaper source of energy from free sunlight than what you get when someone goes across the world to dig up oil or fracks in this country. The price has come down at astonishing levels, even faster than people like me thought it would, and it just keeps going down. Battery storage, by the way, also keeps going down. That's really what gives a lot of us hope when it comes to climate. Scientists are doing their jobs. They are building technology that is more efficient and cheaper, and they're making it accessible to all of us, but only if our laws allow people to use it the way other countries do.
Dunne: She's Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver. Cora, really appreciate this. Thanks so much for coming on and talking.
Stryker: It's great to talk. Thanks so much.
Dunne: Now let's hear from a Corvallis legislator who wants to pave the way for more balcony solar in our state. State Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald is a Democrat who represents Corvallis. Welcome back to the program.
Sarah Finger McDonald: Great, thanks for having me.
Dunne: As I understand it, you were one of the chief sponsors of House Bill 4080. Tell our listeners what that bill would do.
Finger McDonald: It would set up the regulatory structure to allow for plug-in or balcony solar. These are small solar arrays that can be hung off a balcony, mounted on a fence or placed in a yard to deliver power into your home through an electrical outlet. Just like their name, they plug into the wall to send those electrons into the system.
Dunne: How does that differ from rooftop solar? It sounds simpler.
Finger McDonald: It is simpler, because you can just plug it in. It's a small enough system that it's not likely to be sending a lot of power back into the grid. I have rooftop solar at my house, and on sunny days in the summer I send power back to the grid. With the plug-in solar on the small systems, it's not likely that there will be much, if any, electricity going back out to the grid. What the bill would have done is remove the requirement to have an interconnection agreement with your utility. You would still need to notify your utility that you have the system, but there wouldn't be an agreement covering power credits and all those other things that are part of the time and expense of putting in a rooftop solar system.
Dunne: It sounds like Europe and China have seen balcony solar become extremely popular. Do you believe it could work here in Oregon?
Finger McDonald: I do. I actually looked up the number this morning. Germany has 1.1 million of these systems that they know about. They didn't actually start requiring people to report having them until after they'd already been in use for a while, so they know the actual number is higher. Of course, they have a different electrical system than we do. But I think here it's an opportunity for renters and people who don't have access to a roof. Even if you own your condo or apartment but don't have a roof, it would be a way to generate a small amount of green energy. It's also an opportunity to build resilience. In addition to plugging into the wall, these units can include a battery so you can bank some energy for later. It's about enough power to run a window air conditioner, so it takes away some of the energy expense of cooling your home in our changing climate and relieves some of the pressure on the grid as more and more people are installing air conditioners.
Dunne: Other states have passed similar legislation. Is that correct?
Finger McDonald: Yes. Utah was first, and Maine and Virginia have also passed bills.
Dunne: The bill didn't pass in the last session. Is it dead, or is there a second life for it?
Finger McDonald: There's a lot of interest, judging by the emails I get. Oregonians who are being excluded from generating green energy are very interested in participating, and we absolutely feel like we can deal with the safety concerns that came up in the first session. I think we just didn't have time in a short session to fully explain this new technology. If you look at something like portable generators, which we have electrical code for, this is a similar situation, allowing power to flow into your house from an appliance. I'm actually very confident we'll be able to overcome the concerns as people learn more about the technology. We plan to bring it back, and I think we have a lot of support.
Dunne: Those safety concerns were a real issue. As I understand it, some who represent electrical contractors and electricians raised objections. What was their concern?
Finger McDonald: Their concern was largely, I think, because these are new and we haven't written the electrical code specific to these units. At the time we were trying to pass the bill last session, the Underwriters Laboratories certification, the safety certification for these units, was still in process. Every individual piece of the units has UL certification, but the whole system did not yet. I think as that certification is now happening and as other states adopt this technology, some of those concerns will be less worrisome.
Dunne: State Rep. Sarah Finger McDonald, a Democrat who represents Corvallis. Always appreciate talking to you. Thanks so much for coming on and explaining this.
Finger McDonald: Thanks. I'm excited about this.
Dunne: That's the show for today. All episodes of Oregon on the Record are available as a podcast at KLCC.org. Tomorrow on the show, you'll hear about a new map in our community that shows where pesticides are used in large quantities and how close they are to your home. I'm Michael Dunne, host of Oregon on the Record. Thanks for listening.
