Energy Solutions Clearing House

If you haven’t heard about it yet, then let me illuminate you: GM is developing a new car that uses an electric motor to turn the front wheels, not a gasoline or diesel engine. There will be a gasoline engine that can use E85 ethanol and a diesel engine version as well, but these Internal Combustion Engines (ICE) will act as a ‘range extender’, powering a generator that will produce electricity for the electric motor once the Lithium Ion Battery Pack has used up most of it’s charge to run the car an initial 40 miles on electric alone. If your daily commute is less than 40 miles both ways, you will never stop at the gas station to fill up. Instead, you will plug your car into a standard 110 volt outlet in the garage and recharge the battery pack over night. Should you decide to go on a longer trip, the ICE will automatically start up and run at a constant speed to turn the generator which provides electric power to run the electric motor and recharge the battery pack. Overall you should see over 100 mpg after using up the battery charge and the ICE kicks in to continue down the road.

This is similar to a Serial Hybrid because it uses an electric motor to turn the wheels (whereas a Parallel Hybrid uses an ICE with electric motor assist through a complicated transmission) and is a brilliant piece of engineering. The Serial Hybrid is not a new concept - diesel electric locomotives have been using this setup for over 70 years. I say ’similar’ to a Serial Hybrid because the definition of a Serial Hybrid has the backup ICE running all the time to power the electric motor with the battery pack acting as a buffer. With the Volt, it runs as a pure Electric Vehicle (EV) for 40 miles then the range extender ICE kicks in to run the electric motor to propel the car down the road until you  are able to stop and recharge the batteries again. Putting this ‘E-Flex’ system into an automobile makes it a game changing development in the auto industry and will make GM an innovation leader once again. Expect to see this car in production by Sept 2010.

Besides the huge wind farms sprouting up in the midwest, companies are now offering products to bring practical electrical generation using wind to the homeowner. One example is the Skystream 2.4kW Grid Tie Wind Generating ‘Appliance’ made by Southwest Windpower. Figure around $17k to install, so payback even at our high electric rates in NH (.16/kWh) is around 20 years. New Hampshire Electric Co-Op is offering up to $5000 as a rebate to install one if you are a customer. There is currently no Federal Tax Credit for Wind Power, but that may change. Return on your investment should not be the main reason to install one. The average house uses 800k watt hours/mo and the Skystream should deliver half of that (400kWh) with a 12mph average wind. There is little to no maintenance as the Skystream is self contained and may only need inspection of components in 10 years. Full info is available on their website. The newer generation of ‘wind power appliances’ are much more reliable than say 15-20 years ago. If you live on a hill or ridge or out in an open field, you may have a possible site for wind generation of electricity. The average sunshine in Concord, NH is 4.4 hours per day, but there are times when the wind is blowing 24 hours per day. This is yet another way to reduce your ‘carbon footprint’. Did you know that it takes 1 ton of coal to produce 2500 kWh of electricity and that produces 2 tons of CO2? You could potentially reduce your personal CO2 ‘production’ by 2 tons using a wind generator that produces half of your electricity.

Your ‘biggest bang for the buck’ in Alternative Energy Investment is with Solar Thermal Hot Water using Evacuated Tube Collectors. A typical renovation project with Radiant Floor Heat runs about $18k for 1500 sq ft in parts plus another $5k - $6k for installation depending on how much you do yourself. You receive a $2k federal tax credit for this system, and NH Elec Co-Op is offering up to $1500 as well. Payback is 8 years (assuming you are saving 600 gal/yr) with oil/propane at $5/gal and decreases a year for every $.50/gal that they go up. For new construction, figure about a 4 year payback since you would have spent 60% of the installed Solar System cost on outdated boiler technology to begin with. Depending on the insulation quality of your heated space, you could save anywhere between 50% and 85% of your annual heating and hot water bill. And did you know that for every dollar you save on your annual energy bill (by installing alternative energy products) that you increase the value of your property by $10? Saving 600 gallons of oil a year not only increases you property value by $30,000 but it also saves 5 tons of CO2. What’s in your wallet?

Currently Photovoltaic Grid Tie Systems (PV) are at a cost of approximately $8.50 per watt installed. In NH a recently passed bill allows for up to $6000 toward installation of a Grid Tie System of 5kW or less plus the $2000 Federal Tax Credit. Also, one of the local utilities (NH Elec Co-Op) is offering a $5000 incentive if you are a customer. With electric rates at $.16/kWh, the payback on a 2kW system (without incentives) installed for $17,500 is almost 20 years, but with incentives half that. This assumes that these systems will produce 300kWh per month at $.16/kWh, and electric rates are due to increase 15% soon as well which reduces your payback period.
However, ROI and payback periods are not always the motivating factor in purchasing a system like this. You are making a capitol investment in your property for the purpose of saving on your energy bill starting immediately and going forward for years to come, and you are adding more than dollar for dollar value to your property with the installation ($10 added property value for every annual energy dollar saved). Should there be any future major disruption to fossil fuel availability, you would be somewhat self sufficient. System cost now: $17k, Payback now: 10+ years, Reducing carbon emissions/global warming and saving the planet for our kids: priceless.