Hiring the right renewable energy company: Part I - www.micronesiarewableenergy.com

AN ENERGY system can work well and pay for itself over time. If you plan on installing a renewable energy system for your home or business, it is important to hire the best contractor to properly install the system. There are many factors to consider when choosing a contractor. These tips will pertain mainly to contractors who install solar systems, but the basis can be used for any renewable energy project.

The quality of the workmanship you are seeking is important when selecting a contractor. Here are a few questions to ask to ensure you make the right choice:

Experience

How many years of experience does the contractor have? Make sure a contractor has experience in the type of energy system you are looking to install. A solar contractor who has been in business or in the solar industry for a while will understand how to work with customers and can compete effectively with other firms. They would be very knowledgeable of products as well as the latest codes and permitting issues surrounding the installation of photovoltaic (PV) systems. PV systems use light like the sun to supply energy to be converted to usable electric power.

Certified

Is the contractor properly licensed or certified? Confirm that they have a license. Ask to see a copy of their licenses or contact the Guam Contractors Licensing Board at (671) 649-9676. The installer or subcontractor must hold a valid electrical license.

Insurance

Does the contractor have adequate insurance? Contractors maintaining workers compensation insurance will protect the homeowner from possibly paying medical and legal bills of an injured worker during instillation.

Complaints

Does the contractor have any active judgments or complaints? Contact the Guam Contractors Licensing Board for verification of complaints filed against the contractor. Ask what is the nature of the complaints and if the complaint was resolved. An example could be the failure to complete the project on time or inadequate workmanship. Even good contractors may have complaints, but it is more important to know how they are handled.

References

Does the contractor have references? Ask the contractor for contact information or review their online testimonials. A contractor who does quality work will be happy to provide references. Here are some questions to consider asking the references: Were they satisfied with the work performed? Was the workmanship up to par? Was the contractor flexible and easily approachable? Was the contractor professional and businesslike? Was the project completed in a timely manner? Were there any problems to address and how quickly were they handled?

Being clear on the quality you want is critical. The old saying “you get what you pay for” applies here. Ask if the material that will be used is from a manufacturer that has been in business for at least 10 years. This is very important when it comes to PV systems. Ask for the contractor to use only Tier One materials. Tier One materials are from the top 2 percent of solar PV manufacturers. These manufacturers control each stage of the manufacturing process and use the best grade of silicon to produce their solar cells. Solar cells that use a higher grade of silicon perform better and last longer.

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Tracy Voacolo is the president of Micronesia Renewable Energy. She has more than 20 years of experience in the renewable energy industry. Tracy can be contacted at info[at]micronesiarenewableenergy.com.

For more information about Micronesia Renewable Energy, visit http://micronesiarenewableenergy.com/. 

What are the benefits of renewable energy? - www.micronesiarenewableenergy.com

THERE are numerous benefits of using renewable-energy technologies, but for this column I simply broke them down into three class groups. Let’s take a few minutes to dive into each one.

Economic 

The economic benefit of renewable energy can help stabilize your energy costs. Usually, the initial costs of the system you choose to install to lower or eliminate your energy bills will be your capital investment. For example, if you have enough space to install equipment that uses solar energy, once you pay off the initial cost, you may possibly zero out your utility bills. Your monthly utility cost would be a small administration fee from the utility provider to remain connected to the grid.

With solar energy, there are relatively low maintenance costs and extended warranties that can be obtained for the inverters. Your repayment for the system is your hedge against any future increases in energy. Solar energy is reliable, efficient and profitable. Most will see the paybacks coming in at three and a half to four years, using the federal tax benefits. Some of these tax benefits offer as much as 50 percent bonus depreciation and is only available until the end of this year. I encourage businesses to take advantage of this now, including the 30 percent ITC credit. Residential customers can also take advantage of the 30 percent federal tax credit.

Environmental 

Renewable energy systems produce zero greenhouse gas emissions while generating electricity. Renewable sources of energy also produce few air and water pollutants. Whether you believe in climate change or not, last month NASA had pictures of Alaska – which is usually very rare because of cloud cover in that part of the world. The pictures are strikingly disturbing with the amount of the glacier that has disappeared from this beautiful landmass. The more renewable energy systems installed globally, the less oil and conventional fuel we will need to feed our ever-increasing population. With the petroleum drilling companies eyeing Antarctica, I really start to worry for our race on this planet. The sun will give us the path to oil independence.

Social 

One of the greatest benefits of this new industry is job creation. The renewable energy industry is new, exciting and will need talented and skilled engineers and tradesman to take part in the energy revolution. Renewable energy produced and used on a local scale will also provide a degree of local energy control, security and reliability, and not dependent on the ever fluctuating energy costs. If you are a business owner, consumers are becoming more aware of renewable energy and are five times more likely to purchase from a business that are environmentally friendly. Those businesses who walk the talk and who have installed energy-efficient devices or renewable energy to hedge their own energy costs will gain a reputation for caring for the environment and ultimately their customers. So if you are a business that has installed any type of energy-efficiency measures, make sure this gets into your marketing material or display a sign proudly at your place of business.

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Tracy Voacolo is the president of Micronesia Renewable Energy. She has more than 20 years of experience in the renewable energy industry. Tracy can be contacted at info[at]micronesiarenewableenergy.com.

For more information about Micronesia Renewable Energy, visit http://micronesiarenewableenergy.com/. 

The affordability of solar energy - www.micronesiarenewableenergy.com

“IF IT wasn’t for the cost, I would love to install a solar energy system on my property or at my business.”

Many grants, incentives, tax credits and rebates make green power more affordable than you might think.

Having financial stability with respect to your utility cost is a must for most businesses and households. Not only can you own your personal power-producing energy plant for your business or home, but you can also hedge your energy costs. In the short term, you will know exactly what you will be paying until the system is paid off. Once you pay off that initial cost, the dollars you would have paid to the utility company can be added back to your bottom line – where your money matters most.

Let’s take a look at some incentives available to businesses that want to install solar energy:

• Modified Accelerated Cost-Recovery System: Businesses may recover investments in certain property through depreciation deductions. The MACRS establishes a set of class lives for various types of property. In addition, the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 further extended a 50 percent first-year bonus depreciation provision for eligible renewable-energy systems acquired and placed in service. This legislation extended the placed-in-service deadline for 50 percent first-year bonus depreciation by one year, from Dec. 31, 2012 to Dec. 31, 2013.
• Business Energy Investment Tax Credits: This credit is available for eligible systems placed in service on or before Dec. 31, 2016. The credit is equal to 30 percent of expenditures, with no maximum credit. Eligible solar energy property includes equipment that uses solar energy to generate electricity, to heat or cool.

There is a federal tax credit available for residential energy property. Initially established by the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the tax credits were extended to other sources of energy property by the Energy Improvement and Extension Act of 2008. Other key revisions included an eight-year extension of the credit to Dec. 31, 2016. A taxpayer may claim a credit of 30 percent of qualified expenditures for a system that serves a dwelling unit located in the United States/Guam that is owned and used as a residence by the taxpayer.

The programs mentioned can assist in making solar energy a more attractive investment for you or your business. These are just some of the benefits of reducing monthly expenses through short-term hedging your costs for energy and providing you with energy security for years to come.

In most businesses, the payback period is usually 3.7 to 4.2 years. It is very impressive resulting in you having your own power plant that produces clean, efficient, reliable and affordable renewable energy for the next 30 years.

In residential dwellings, the paybacks are usually 4.5 to 5.5 years. Still very impressive with the realization that most families in Guam stay in their houses or keep the houses in the family for future generations. Solar energy makes sense now more than ever, and with the economies of scale and superior advancement of this technology in the last five years, owning your own system is a reality for everyone.

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Tracy Voacolo is the president of Micronesia Renewable Energy. She has more than 20 years of experience in the renewable energy industry. Tracy can be contacted at info[at]micronesiarenewableenergy.com

For more information about Micronesia Renewable Energy, visit http://micronesiarenewableenergy.com/. 

What are some renewable energy technologies? - www.micronesiarenewableenergy.com

WHAT are the basic technologies of renewable energy and what is the best technology for us here on Guam and Micronesia?

First of all, let’s remember the golden rule of saving money with energy: “The most money you will ever save on energy usage is the energy you never use.”

Sounds simple enough, but this all comes down to lifestyle, dedication and education. Teach your children at an early age to turn off lights when they are out of the room for more than 10 minutes, turn off your computer and monitor at night, and turn your air conditioner up a few degrees at night. At the end of the year, you will save a tremendous amount of money.

Here are a few of the basic technologies of renewable energy:

• Wind energy is simply the conversion of wind into a useful form of energy. Windmills can be traced back to the early 12th century. The first production-based windmill used to power households was placed into operation in Scotland in 1887. Today, the leaders in wind energy are China followed by the United States then Germany. Guam and Micronesia are great locations for small wind turbines, which produce up to 100KW. In the foreseeable future, GPA will be soliciting bids for a wind turbine project in the Katol Region of Guam, located on Cross Island Road. This will be a pilot program for gathering additional data needed to support the feasibility of wind energy on Guam for future projects. I have also been around the island and have seen some households with mini wind turbines that generate up to 5KW.
• Wave energy technologies extract energy directly from surface waves or from pressure fluctuations below the surface of the ocean. Wave energy can be converted into electricity by offshore or onshore systems. Offshore systems are situated in water deeper than 131 feet (40 meters). Some technologies use the bobbing motion of the waves to power a pump that creates electricity. Onshore wave power systems extract energy from breaking waves and are usually built along the shoreline. Hawaii is starting to experiment with wave technology which will be a good guideline for the use and practicality of wave technology in Guam and Micronesia.
• Solar energy uses the radiation from light or heat from the sun to create energy. I believe solar energy is Guam’s greatest resource for renewable energy. It is also the fastest way to liberate ourselves from the reliance on foreign oil. Guam’s average solar day is 5.9 hours annually of solar radiation. This simply equates to a lot of potential energy being wasted. If harnessed, we can lower the island’s carbon footprint, lower our dependence of oil and simply lower what we are paying out of pocket for energy. With the economies of scale of the solar revolution that is taking place globally, we can take advantage of the lower prices of installing solar energy devices. Solar energy can be captured with solar energy modules or by solar thermal devices, which are most commonly used on the island for heating water.

Now is the time to start saving money.

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Tracy Voacolo is the president of Micronesia Renewable Energy and has more than 20 years of experience in the renewable energy industry. Contact her at info[at]micronesiarenewableenergy.com.

For more information about Micronesia Renewable Energy, visit http://micronesiarenewableenergy.com/. 

What is renewable energy? - www.micronesiarenewableenergy.com

EVERYWHERE you turn, someone on Guam is talking about renewable energy.

This is the new buzz word.
But what actually is renewable energy, how does this affect you, and can you actually benefit from this new and profound word?

The simple answer is yes.

So let’s dig in a little. Renewable energy simply is energy that comes from resources which are continually replenished, such as sunlight, wind, rain, tides, waves and geothermal heat. Renewable energy is exciting because the time has finally come both on a technology and an economic basis that we can stop wasting resources that we cannot replace and stop damaging our environment. Renewable energy will never run out.  Those other sources of energy are finite and will someday be depleted.

The type of renewable energy that you can use depends greatly on the environment where you live. Here on Guam and in most of Micronesia, where we have an abundance of sunshine, solar energy makes the most sense. This involves placing solar panels on our roofs and, in some cases, ground mounted structures to collect energy as the sun shines down on these panels. With solar energy, once installed, there are no moving parts, so it is basically maintenance free. You are well on your way to be added to the list of exceptional human beings that are helping to not only preserving Guam’s environment but the world’s environment for our children and our children’s children.

It is very important to understand that this new buzz word is an investment – an investment that will pay off and be very profitable in the years to come.  Most renewable energy investments are spent on materials and workmanship to build and maintain, rather than on costly energy imports. This means that on Guam, your energy dollars stay here in the local community to create jobs, rather than going overseas.

Renewable energy also adds to our energy security. Our island is dependent on foreign oil for our energy. In the last decade we have been prisoners to the ever-increasing escalation of oil prices with no end in sight. Our demand for foreign oil should be decreasing while our need for renewable energy should be increasing. Our need for conventional energy sources based on foreign oil is vulnerable to political instabilities, trade disputes, escalating pricing, embargoes and other disruptions.

Renewable energy is the new buzz word on Guam. It will eventually affect every person here in a good way. This new industry will add clean, efficient, reliable and profitable energy to our island at a time when we most desperately need it.

I stumbled across a quote the other day by Victor Hugo that is so fitting to this industry: “There is nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come.”

Well said, Victor.

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Tracy Voacolo is the president of Micronesia Renewable Energy and has more than 20 years of experience in the renewable energy industry. Contact her at info[at]micronesiarenewableenergy.com.

For more information about Micronesia Renewable Energy, visit http://micronesiarenewableenergy.com/.