The Minnesota Renewable Energy Society commissioned a “Tiny House” with help from donors and volunteers over the 2012 summer. The Tiny House was built for the 2012 Eco-Experience at the Minnesota State Fair. The goal of this house is for educational purposes as well as to show the versatility of a house this size. The Tiny House is 18′ long, 8.8′ wide and 13.9′ high. Some of the interesting and innovative characteristics of this house are solar thermal panels for hot water, solar PV for electricity,  solar air heat panels, a solar tube for interior day lighting, and energy efficient windows on all sides of the house. The house is made out of cedar siding, a metal roof, knotty pine for the interior walls, and the floor is finished in wood Pergo. Lastly, inside the house features an enclosed bathroom area, a kitchen, storage benches, a reading nook, a sleeping loft for a queen sized bed, and numerous DC lights powered by the PV panels. The house is estimated to cost around $40,000 and can be mounted on a foundation once it is lifted off the trailer that is pictured.

Learn more about the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society here.

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

Big Ideas in Solar
10 game-changing innovations for financing, cost parity and consumer adoption.
By Seth Masia and Gina R. Johnson

Think You Know Solar-Responsive Design?
Take the Quiz
By Norbert M. Lechner

Connect with Local Solar Leaders 

Don’t miss your opportunity to participate in the ASES National Solar Tour, Saturday, Oct. 6, in most locations.
By Gina R. Johnson

Going Deep for Energy Savings
The deep energy retrofit of a 1960s affordable housing property in Boston had an ambitious goal: to reduce energy consumption at least 72 percent.
By Heather Clark

Securing Land for Large-Scale Solar Projects
California restricts development of millions of acres of agricultural land under the Williamson Act. What are the options for overcoming this barrier?
By Mathew J. Swain and Ashley E. Breakfield

Investing

Renewable Energy Hits Milestones

The Trade

Small Wind Turbine Labeling and Shut-Off Directions

System Accomplished

Solar for The Big House

New Products

Solar Power International Showcase

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE
Perspective
PV Power Map
Advances
Inside ASES

READ THIS ISSUE
There are several ways to read the issue online:

Subscribers/ASES members: Log in to your member account here, and click on the “SOLAR TODAY Digital” link in the left sidebar. Or, look for your print copy in the mail.

Read on e-reader: Find this issue soon on iBooks or the Kindle! (additional charges apply)

Not a subscriber or member? Sign up today and don’t miss an issue (print and digital versions available).

ISSUE HIGHLIGHTS

Big Time for Solar
Our annual market report finds more, larger systems helped double installed U.S. photovoltaic capacity last year over 2010.
By Larry Sherwood

An Off-Grid Retreat
Though renewable energy wasn’t the clients’ priority, their dream retirement home exemplifies solar thermal innovation.
By Hector Muñoz-Baras, AIA, NCARB, LEEDap

White is the Greenest Color
Selecting light-colored roofs and walls is one of the easiest ways to save energy and money. So why don’t we see more white roofs?
By Norbert M. Lechner

Rescuing Vacant Homes, Revitalizing Communities
How one nonprofit is transforming broken-down houses into energy-efficient affordable housing — and creating good jobs for rehabilitation builders.
Text and photos by Richard Crume

Taste of the Solar Tour
Now in its 17th year, the ASES National Solar Tour is the world’s largest community solar event.
By Gina R. Johnson


Innovators
Sandy Butterfield: Pulling Power from the Air

Investing
ABB: Connecting Clean Energy to the Grid


The Trade
Best Practices in Small Wind: Tower Climbing Safety

System Accomplished
Solar Canopy Soars Above Trucks

New Products
Intersolar North America Showcase

ALSO IN THIS ISSUE

Perspective 

PV Power Map

Advances

Inside ASES

READ THIS ISSUE

There are several ways to read the issue online:

Subscribers/ASES members: Log in to your member account here, and click on the “SOLAR TODAY Digital” link in the left sidebar.

Read on e-reader:  iBooks or the Kindle! (additional charges apply)

Not a subscriber or member? Sign up today and don’t miss an issue (print and digital versions available).

Photo Credit: Doolen Residence by greenmommaadventures.wordpress.com

The first tour to take place on the annual ASES National Solar Tour event was located in Anchorage, Alaska on June 9th, 2012. This was a free, self-guided tour that looked at installations of Solar Thermal, PV, and other Renewable Energy and Green Building technology at seven different locations, both commercial and residential. The goal of this tour was to show local neighbors how to be sustainable by cutting their energy bills and generating their own electricity. The tour taught that it is possible to save up to 70% in water heating bills by using solar collectors as well as saving 20% on your electric bills.

The tour organizer, Andy Baker, led a group throughout the tour as well as informed them on some of the prevalent technologies at each location. He states that:

“Solar is the most accessible energy we have. The cost of energy is going to continue to increase in the future, but the sun will still be free. So the more we learn to use this and bring the cost down, the greater the future we can expect from it.”

To see more details on the sites on the Anchorage Solar Tour, click here. Alaska’s local news source, KTUU, did a feature on the Solar Tour. If you want to view this, please click here and go to 7:15 seconds.

Photo Credit: Solar Building by greenmommaadventures.wordpress.com

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ASES will hold numerous Solar Tours this fall throughout the country where you can show your home, host a tour or go on a tour. If you’d like to donate to support ASES in its mission to promote solar, please click here. If you’d like to learn more about putting solar on your home or to find a local solar professional, click on the Find a Solar Installer Near You on the right side of ASES.org.

Photo Credit: Akhil Jariwala, Creative Commons

A session at the World Renewable Energy Forum on Community Solar Energy Development was full of informative presentations on how to think outside the box a bit to help make solar PV and wind energy more prevalent in our world. Traditional solar applications tend to focus on a small slice of individual homes, which have south facing roofs unencumbered by shading. Financing for a solar array is often difficult to obtain and buying outright is difficult for many homeowners. This session provided innovative methods on how to provide solar to the many instead of the few.

• Clean Energy Collective presented and mentioned that their goal was to have community solar farms which create a win-win for the utility and its customers. Solar farms have a few benefits for customers including accessibility to as many utility customers as possible with very small minimums. Also, another benefit is of extending rooftop solar incentives that would be normally declined to the homeowner because of poor rooftop solar access. Utilities can benefit from community solar farms by the provision of automated monthly bill credit information from the solar developer without any burden to the utility and real-time telemetry monitoring to adequately track and schedule facility production.

• FLS Energy presented next and started off saying that their goal is to provide solar energy to everyone. The way they do this is to own the solar assets whether they be PV or solar thermal and then provide a power purchase agreement. This model works for a business or community that lacks the upfront funding, for non-profits, or for groups that want long-term maintenance and performance guarantees. FLS Energy works on Section 8 housing to provide tenants with low-cost solar thermal units and recently offered a solar thermal power agreement to a university because this university wasn’t allowed to take advantage of the tax incentives.

• Regenesis Solar Power in Fort Myers, Florida provides solar thermal to a community through the local gas or electric utility. They act on behalf of the utility and go door-to-door offering solar thermal for no upfront costs, just a $34.95 monthly fee on their utility bill for 20 years. The utility can expand their renewable energy offerings with no effort as well as accelerate efficiency and demand reduction initiatives.

• Solar City leases solar modules to customers for a monthly fee. They are evolving into the community solar arena by working to install arrays on military housing at cheaper rates than the utility can provide and is working to install more solar on affordable housing. They are also proponents of “virtual net metering.”

With these innovative community leasing strategies, solar for everybody is no longer a distant pipe-dream. What are you folks doing to bring solar to your community?