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Major News! The 30% Federal Solar Tax Credit May Be Back…

In the midst of a summer of record heat and other extreme weather events, the big news is Congress is poised to pass sweeping legislation that addresses energy security and climate change. The $370 billion reconciliation bill, called the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, includes several renewable energy and climate measures expected to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by 2030. 

Great news for solar energy in particular, the bill calls for the current 26% federal Investment Tax Credit to increase to 30% of the cost of installed solar equipment for projects placed in service in 2022 through 2032 —an extension without phase-down for a steadfast 10 years! It would then step down to 26% in 2033 and 22% in 2034. 

The bill also includes up to $30 billion in incentives for U.S. companies to manufacture solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries. It is expected to head to the Senate floor for a vote in early August. Fingers crossed!

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A dozen New York counties are among the Healthiest Communities in 2022! Where do Nassau and Suffolk rank? 

Nassau & Suffolk Among Healthiest Counties in U.S.

A dozen New York counties are among the Healthiest Communities in 2022, including Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, according to a recent ranking by U.S. News & World Report. Nassau County ranked 98 and Suffolk County ranked 342 out of the 500 in the national list. 

U.S. News looked at nearly 3,000 counties to rank how they performed in 89 metrics across 10 health-related categories, including an environmental category new to this year’s list. The new category was included to help account for the growing threat of climate change in accordance with the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics, a policy advisory board to the head of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The fifth annual report highlights the healthiest counties throughout the country. 

Click HERE for details about Nassau County’s various rankings.

Click HERE for details about Suffolk County’s various rankings.

For more about the survey in general and its various categories, in addition to the environment, such as housing, food and nutrition, education, community vitality and infrastructure, READ MORE.

Ladies and gentlemen, no need to start your engines! Your cars are solar-powered! This summer, cheer them on in the great American solar

car race! Everyone’s invited to cheer on college teams from throughout the U.S. competing to design, build and drive solar-powered cars. Begun in 1990 and officially called the American Solar Challenge — previously known as the Sunrayce — this solar car race runs over multiple days and travels over a 1,500-2,000-mile course between multiple cities across America, this year following the Oregon National Historic Trail. 

It all kicks off on July 1st where teams undergo “scrutineering” inspections of either single-occupant vehicles or multi-occupant vehicles. Cars that pass the test then move on to the Formula Sun Grand Prix track race and must finish several qualifying laps at Heartland Motorsports Park in Topeka, KS. 

Teams that make it this far prove their solar cars ready for the cross-country journey, which presents a whole new set of challenges, with a mix of city and highway driving on public roads under varying conditions intended to test the reliability and endurance of each solar car and its team. MORE DETAILS HERE

U.S. Clean Energy Draws Record $105 Billion in Private Investment

U.S. clean energy drew a record $105 billion in private Investment in 2021. That’s a record 11% jump since 2020 and a whopping 70% surge over the past five years, according to Bloomberg’s BNEF, the firm’s energy data and analysis unit.

This represents 14% of the total $755 billion in global private investment made last year, $47 billion of which was for renewable energy and $35 billion for electrified transport, according to the report, 2022 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook.

“Clearly there’s investor enthusiasm and we foresee further growth, but if you want to actually address climate change, you need to get to levels that at least double deployment,” said Ethan Zindler, an analyst at BNEF,“What is needed is more support.”

Read the full report, “2022 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook”. 

If you feel that your seasonal allergies are more severe and lasting longer in recent years, you might be right. A new research study says climate change is to blame. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) researchers found that pollen seasons in North America lengthened by 20 days and contained 21% more pollen, on average, since 1990. 

The NAS analysis’ key findings: 

·       Pollen seasons grew by 20 days and had 21% more pollen over the last 40 years.

·       Rising temperatures appear to be the most significant factor driving the change.

·       More severe pollen seasons are linked to worse outcomes for people with asthma and allergies.

Further, the latest study by University of Michigan researchers found that the U.S. will face up to a 200% increase in total pollen this century if the world continues producing carbon dioxide emissions from vehicles, power plants and other sources at a high rate. Pollen season in general will start up to 40 days earlier in the spring and last up to 19 days longer than today under that scenario. 

This study not only looked at pollen overall, but also considered the impact of warming winters on more than a dozen different types of grasses and trees such as alder, birch and oak. Seasonal allergies affect about 30% of the population, and they have economic impacts, from health costs to missed workdays.  READ MORE

While many individual components of a solar panel can be recycled, the ultimate environmentally friendly goal is to make the process circular, which means old solar components could be processed to be used in the manufacture of new solar components. One way to keep solar panels out of landfills is through panel reuse, either by direct reuse or after refurbishment, affording a second life generating clean energy at a different location. Another is recycling individual materials including glass (75% of a panel’s makeup), the aluminum frame, copper wire, and the plastic junction box. Other materials such as silver, internal copper, possible lead or cadmium are not easily recyclable, and are poor candidates for landfills. The good news is that researchers are hard at work seeking to create fully recyclable solar modules. A team in Germany announced recently that it had produced solar cells from 100% recycled silicon. Another team in the Netherlands is developing a full-size, recyclable solar module which they claim enables complete recycling without com-promising its current useful life. For more information, click here.

For thousands of years, native Americans’ farming practices in desert conditions have called for planting under the shade of mesquite and other trees to shield crops from intense sun and mitigate parched ground.

Along come ground-mounted solar panels, the modern-day version of this practice to plant rows of crops underneath them.

“In the Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson (AZ), where a canopy of elevated solar panels helps to protect rows of squash, tomatoes and onions. Even on a November afternoon, with the temperature climbing into the 80s, the air under the panels stays comfortably cool.”

Researchers at work at Biosphere 2 are reimagining and remaking agriculture in a warming world. They are involved in agrivoltaics (agriculture + photovoltaics), asking “How might the shade of a solar panel array overhead lead to cooler temperatures and less excessive sunlight for agricultural plants?” Biosphere 2 is the world’s largest controlled environment dedicated to understanding the impacts of climate change, and affiliated with the University of Arizona. READ MORE

Photo credit: Courtesy of College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, University of Arizona 

Although, by all accounts, today’s American drivers still need to learn to love electric vehicles, in the 1990s there was an electric vehicle well loved and poised to replace gas guzzlers

of that time, the first-ever mass-produced EV from a major automaker, General Motors EV1. Shout out to one of our customers – you know who you are! – who reminded us of the story of that early EV told in the documentary, “Who Killed the Electric Car?” – still worth viewing (we heard it may be available via Amazon prime).

Sidenote: Stanford Ovshinsky, “the Father of Modern Solar Energy” and one of the greatest inventors of our time was interviewed in that film. We featured his amazing story in a 2012 Sunny Times issue in which we also reported that Dan Sabia, our company founder, met him at a symposium in 2007. Read the article.

The federal government has set a goal of having electric vehicles (EVs) account for 50% of all new vehicles sold by 2030. At the pace we are going, we will fall short with EVs expected to account for just 34% by then, according to a recent report by ING Think. Overall, America’s EV market grew at about 28% a year between 2015 and 2020, compared to 41% in the EU and 51% in China, the report says. 

Of note, only four in 10 Americans say they would consider buying an EV, while 46% say they’re unlikely to do so, a Pew research report found. Millennials were more open to purchasing one, particu-larly in comparison with Baby Boomers and older. Similarly, younger generations are more receptive to the idea of phasing out gasoline-powered vehicles entirely.

More to think about, courtesy of Stanford Ovshinsky (1922-2012):

 ”I grew up in the Great Depression and saw a lot of things that were wrong in society—poverty, unemployment, just terrible things happening to human beings. And from a very early age social responsibility was one of my interests. Whatever I did, I wanted to not only be a scientist involved in new technologies, because that’s what excites me, but I wanted to be a scientist who could use my work in science and technology to help make a better world. That means solving the science problems that can build new industries and that can serve the country and the social needs of the people. For example, we talked about photovoltaics, or PV. PV can be the answer to 60% of the carbon emission problems we are facing today, and the problem of global warming.”

The dream of a “green” Christmas can easily be reality. Green can be more than a featured color in holiday decorating. 

Consider these five easy “green” ways to deck your halls by focusing on the natural, simplified, reusable or recyclable.

1. Nature as decorator. Spread holiday cheer by benefit of nature’s bounty. Some of the most beautiful and festive holiday decorations for your home can be found in your own backyard, in the produce section of your local grocery or at one of Long Island’s many neighborhood nurseries.

Make use of red or green fruit such as apples and berries, pinecones, fallen tree branches, pinecones, nuts, acorns, cinnamon sticks, stringed cranberries or popcorn around your front door and throughout your home. 

Ivy, holly and poinsettia plants always add charm, but just be sure to keep the latter two away from children and pets since they are poisonous if ingested.

Use beeswax or soy candles in your menorah or advent wreath rather than battery or electrically operated choices.

2. Use what you have. No need to go as far as that Charlie Brown-type Christmas tree set up in your college dorm festooned with paperclips, beer cans, and candy-bar wrappers, but the idea of using what you have makes sense.

 Purchasing new decorations will not only cost you, but the items themselves will cost the environment in terms of the energy used to produce them, the petroleum consumption if manufactured of plastic, and possibly both in the disposable packaging.

Whether a tree, a mantle or a dinner table, look at last year’s decorations or flea market finds, and group them in new ways — by theme (all snowflakes, all Santas….), by material (all glass, all metal…) or by color (all silver, all red-and-white…). Decorating with vintage family items may bring a remembrance of mantelpieces and trees past. Putting your own spin on them may start new traditions.

3. Make your own. Homemade decorations don’t have to be complicated, or perfect, for that matter. That lopsided angel your son made in elementary school or the hand-carved wooden reindeer your uncle carved can add charm and character, and might even elicit a family story or two.

Other choices might include decorating your tree, evergreen garland or wreath with pinecones and nature’s other offerings, as listed above, or perhaps candy canes or other edibles such as cookies on a ribbon, raffia or string, or ornaments in the form of cut-out snowflakes from paper, or fashioned from recycled fabric, cards, wrapping and other paper, last year’s calendar, extra copies of photos, old magazines, junk mail, and the like.

4. LED or solar holiday lights. A modern-day Hanukah in which one day’s worth of fuel lasts eight would be miraculous and inspiring, but reducing the amount of electricity used for holiday lights can be a bit wonderful in itself. If your home has not yet switched to solar electricity (by the way, rooftop solar panels can withstand Santa’s reindeer and sleigh!), trade those old incandescents or CFLs for light-emitting diodes (LED) or solar-powered holiday lights indoors and out, and use auto-timers.

Both types of lights come in a variety of styles and colors today. Solar ones include icicle strings, snowflakes, and even candy canes, available at major retailers. While solar lights use no traditional energy at all, according to PSEG, LED lights cut energy by up to 96 percent. A typical Christmas light string of old-fashioned incandescent lights uses 35 watts per hour, with a life expectancy of only 3000 hours, while LED Christmas light strings use only 4 watts per hour, and have life expectancies of 100,000 to 200,000 hours, or 20-plus years, and they run cool, reducing worries about fire. 

5. The great “green” tree debate. Putting up a non-biodegradable, petroleum-manufactured artificial tree that will sit in a landfill forever doesn’t seem to be the environmentally responsible thing to do, but neither does cutting down a new evergreen every year, does it?

How to resolve this classic debate? If you have an artificial tree, use it, or reuse one someone else no longer wants. If you purchase a real tree, recycle it. In the Town of Hempstead, for example, curbside tree and wreath recycling takes place this year on Wednesdays, January 6th and 13th. 

One last possibility:  buy a potted evergreen. After the holidays are over, plant it!

By Nancy Hiler via nancy@builtwellsolar.com

Do you have a “green” holiday decorating idea to add? Have you gone “green” in other ways? Are you or your business taking steps to be green? Please email your tip or idea to nancy@builtwellsolar.com. We will credit you if we publish your item in our blog or newsletter.

Thanksgiving is the day we set aside to recognize and appreciate how fortunate we are for all we have, something easy to forget in the dash and demands of everyday life. The idea of making this particularly heartfelt occasion a bit less wasteful and a bit more in tune with nature is in keeping with that spirit of gratitude. It’s also consistent with the historic truth that the very first celebration actually paid homage to the land and to the harvest.

Bestselling “Food Rules” author Michael Pollan once wrote, “Don’t eat anything your grandmother wouldn’t recognize as food.” Using ‘GoGurt’ as an example, he said grandma may have thought it might be toothpaste. Fact is Thanksgiving starts off on a  “green” carbon footing since it is one of the few holidays in which most of us eat an entire meal of traditional, grandma-approved fare. 

Think seasonal, local, organic 
As every meal did for Grandma, a traditional Thanksgiving dinner includes foods that are seasonal, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, broccoli, and pumpkin or applies for pies. Seasonal produce is eco-friendly because, in all likelihood, it is local, and therefore not expending the extra fuel needed to transport it or even import it from milder climates, not to mention helping to support nearby farmers where possible and, let’s face it, just plain better tasting! Unless you are one of the few Long Islanders who grow their own vegetables, this time of year particularly, consider local farm stands and supermarkets for seasonal, local and organic produce.

Green gobbler
Turkey, the usual focus of the feast, is of course native to North America, so it’s raised at least domestically. The nation’s largest turkey producer, Butterball, is located North Carolina with other major producers in Minnesota, Arkansas, and Virginia. Still, there are a handful of poultry farms closer to home, including Long Island’s own Makinajian Farms in Huntington, Mecox Bay Farm in Bridgehampton, and Miloski’s Poultry Farm in Calverton. 

Turkeys, as well as ducks and geese, raised on Long Island farms and elsewhere that meet certified organic standards, including being raised free of pesticides and other chemicals in feedstock, make them great “green” choices, often available through specialty retailers such as nearby Trader Joe’s. If you want to go totally vegetarian, try a Tofurky Roast made with organic soybeans

Green guzzling
Starting with filtered tap water rather than bottled, serving “green” drinks is all about thinking “local” and choosing natural and organic ingredients once again. Choose the quintessential Thanksgiving drink, apple cider, produced by an orchard nearby . Consider also making your own juices or adding a dash of juice from oranges, cranberries, pineapples, lemons or limes, and serve fair trade tea and coffee.

When it comes to alcoholic beverages, “green” is of course not about adding a bit of Green Crème de Menthe or Green Apple Schnapps to your glass, although that may be tasty and festive. Only about a handful of wines are certified organic by process, but many earn the label of organic with by their ingredients.  Try a taste test the offerings from Long Island’s sustainable vineyards, micro breweries or distilleries. 

Waste less
On Thanksgiving, we all not only tend to eat too much, we also tend to cook too much to begin with, leading to big-time waste. An Environmental Protection Agency study found that Americans generate about 30 million tons of food waste every year, and all but about two percent of that ends up in landfills. Not only is that an obscene statistic in light of world hunger, the rotting food that ends up in landfills produces methane, a huge source of greenhouse gases. 

The bottom line for Thanksgiving? Start by making and saving less food, if possible, and then send as many leftovers as possible home with the guests. Soon after the big day, drop off that unopened extra jar of cranberry sauce and other nonperishables at local food pantries.

And, break out the good, real china, the crystal glasses, the cloth tablecloths and napkins, etc., instead of paper or plastic disposables. And, decorate your table with nature’s bounty as well, fruit, vegetables or potted plants from neighborhood farmers markets or nurseries. 

Save more 
While cooking the Thanksgiving feast, heat from the oven and stovetop fill the house, not mention body heat of guests, shift that thermostat down to cut energy use, and add to the ambience with soy or beeswax candles. Speaking of the oven, it’s more energy efficient to pack the oven to capacity to heat as many things at once as possible, and to pack the dishwasher to cut water use.

Green is the new black
Finally, consider turning Black Friday “green” by joining in “Buy Nothing Day,” a global initiative in response to the over consumption that goes on during the holidays.

By Nancy Hiler via nancy@builtwellsolar.com

Do you have a “green” Thanksgiving or other holiday idea to add? Have you gone “green” in other ways? Do you use or sell “green” products or services? Are you or your business taking steps to be green? Please email your tip or idea to nancy@builtwellsolar.com and we will credit you if we use it in a future blog or newsletter.