FOUR AMERICANS, TWO THINGS IN COMMON AND ONE WORLD

Four Americans, Two Things in Common and One World; A solar tour of L.A.
Herman K. Trabish, October 5, 2009 (NewEnergyNews)

A tour of solar system installations in Los Angeles revealed the essential reason there’s real hope for America and the world.

Here’s the thing: Winston Churchill got it slightly wrong. It’s NOT that America can be counted on to do the right thing after it has exhausted all other possibilities. That’s how America’s LEADERS operate. Meanwhile, the vast majority of the people of this great nation know exactly what they have in common and almost always stand ready to do the right thing. They just need their leaders to give them the opportunity.

That’s the exciting insight revealed when NewEnergyNews went out to see some L.A. solar systems as part of the National Solar Tour created by the American Solar Energy Society (ASES).

The first stop on the tour was in the hills above the city center. Peter Parrish, the president of California Solar Engineering, runs his business out of his solar powered L-shaped Spanish hacienda-style 2-story hilltop home. He has 3 systems in his backyard.

A look behind the Parrish 3.1 kW array. (From California Solar Engineering - click to enlarge)

Peter is fair-skinned, heavy featured and sturdy with thinning curly white hair beneath his ball cap. A scientist-entrepreneur with a Ph.D. and a background in physics, he appears to be well into his middle years. He seems masterful and in control, confident but not blustery or assertive. Sunday afternoon, there were a handful of students working on a set of learning panels, a mixed bunch of husky guys who looked like they could fix whatever needed fixing. Though Peter had a lot going on, he was unruffled, gentle even, and focused, handling everything, ordering everything, sure of himself and his story, keeping everything easy going and lighthearted as he took calls on his cell, supervised the men and talked about the solar energy business.

The yearly output of the 3.1 kW solar array. (From California Solar Engineering - click to enlarge)

Peter's biggest system, over 3 kilowatts, powers his house. The smallest, the learning panels, is for the students he is training into the solar energy industry to take apart and put back together again as they learn the ropes and make their bones. And the third is an ingeniously designed portable system, a set of panels big enough to run small electronics and a small wooden trailer to carry all the panels’ complements (inverter, controller, batteries, etc.).

The savings from a solar system are impressive. (From California Solar Engineering - click to enlarge)

California Solar Engineering is doing about 50 installations a year and the school is graduating 90% of its students into the many facets of the solar industry, from installations and marketing to maintenance, troubleshooting and electrical design. Customers, Peter said, are putting up as many panels as they can handle these days because the word is out that there has never been a better time to install solar. Panel prices are down due to a temporary oversupply while federal tax credits and state rebates are up.

There has never been a better time to buy - but how much is it going to cost? Click thru and do the math.

Asked why he got into the solar business, Peter had a quick answer. 9-11. He was at the airport, awaiting a flight that would never fly and watching the endless repetitions of the planes flying into the World Trade Center when he decided his previous life and business consulting work were done and it was time to start a new chapter. That new chapter is solar energy.

The next stop on the tour was the Baumgart-Williams home on the slopes of the San Gabriel Mountains recently ravaged by wildfires. Ted Baumgart makes his living designing sets for L.A.’s entertainment industry and Cathryn, his wife, is a physical therapist. In his loquaciously guided home tour, Ted posited that every house is a fingerprint of its owners. In the case of the Baumgart-Williams home, which they sometimes call an eco-residence, nothing could be truer.

From Valley Solar Amigos 2009 (click to enlarge)

Ted and Cathryn are flannel, denim and generous to their core. Both are fit, if weathered by a full life of careers and raising kids into their college years. Ted’s beard is thick and dark, though his hair graying. Cathryn’s eyes are wide with interest, her hair is still shoulder-length and shining and, despite two grown kids, she still fits easily into snug, youthful fashion. They are open, engaged, engaging and above all committed to a sustainable lifestyle and home.

Surrounded by creativity of their own doing and immersed in delightful stories of their own rich lives, they are rebuilding the stone, wood and heart 2-story house to be as sustainable as possible, with recycled and retrofitted materials. Ted, an artist and sculptor with training in design, is doing the labor himself. As he talked about all the things he had done and mastered in the house, he seemed not a workman but a craftsman, not a jack-of-all-trades but an artist at them. He described his effort not as something that makes economic sense but as something that makes moral sense. He and Cathryn are keenly conscious of every act they make, every breath they take, as part of a continuum inherited from their forebears to be passed on to their heirs.

From Valley Solar Amigos 2009 (click to enlarge)

They, too, have three solar systems, but theirs are smaller and less productive. The big one is out back above the pool, another runs Ted’s elaborate outdoor train and some appliances and the third provides some power to the house. They want more solar but it would mean taking down the magnificent old pine on the south side of the house. Though quick to express their utter contempt for coal and all the harm it does to the environment and the atmosphere, Ted and Cathryn aren’t selfish enough to go after the tree.

From Valley Solar Amigos 2009 (click to enlarge)

Glenn Forbes is an animal of an entirely different breed. He’s an American independent. Wearing a camouflage t-shirt and long cargo shorts, his broad face beneath graying hair and a scraggily beard were a little like the nation itself, mature and experienced but somehow unmarked by history. His eyes, behind thick glasses, were open and steady. Hard and unfettered, Glenn was sure enough of himself to be straightforward and even generous.

From Valley Solar Amigos 2009 (click to enlarge)

Though the Forbes home is in the middle of an L.A. suburb and just off the freeway, Glenn is completely, 100% off-grid. He long ago built an amazing wind power tower and in recent years has been adding to his huge solar array that now totals 8+ kilowatts and is wired into a battery system big enough to run his whole house for weeks. In the basement battery room, there are enough bulk foods to ride out an equally long natural or manmade disruption of any kind.

In addition, Glenn cooks and heats with wood-burning stoves and has a gas-powered generator, just in case. He doesn’t care that burning wood spews CO2. He proudly asserts that he doesn’t buy into global climate change anymore than he buys into the city’s electrical grid.

From Valley Solar Amigos 2009 (click to enlarge)

Glenn’s solar array is really three systems. One, now in its 37th year of service, supplies his house with hot water. In 1997, after local brushfires razed his previous house, he rebuilt and added enough solar to be entirely independent of the city grid. He has never looked back. He recently inherited a third set of panels from a friend who moved. The three systems work with the wind power tower to provide Glenn’s suburban home with all the electricity it needs for lighting, cable TV, Internet and all the other conveniences of modern life.

From Valley Solar Amigos 2009 (click to enlarge)

Three stops, three distinct solar systems, three distinct kinds of people: An entrepreneur-scientist, a pair of spiritual seekers and an American independent. As far as NewEnergyNews could tell, they had two important things in common: First, they were all generous enough to open their homes to the public and show what could be done with a commitment to solar energy and sustainability. Second, they all could see what a commitment to solar energy can mean to the individual home.

In an old cartoon, a little girl races to her father just as he gets home from a hard day at work. “Daddy, daddy, what did you do today? Why is there air? Why is grass green?” Seeking just a moment of respite before giving himself over to her, the father spots a nearby magazine fronted with a picture of the earth as seen from space. He tears off the magazine cover, tears it into 8 or so pieces and gives them and a roll of scotch tape to the little girl. “Here, sweetie, here’s a puzzle. Go put it together and then we’ll play.”

Figuring the difficult to distinguish pieces of the picture will keep her well occupied, he goes to the kitchen for a snack. Moments later, she is back, the picture of the planet taped together perfectly. Amazed, he looks at his little girl. “How did you put the planet together so fast?!?”

“Easy,” she answers, taking the picture of the earth from him and turning the magazine cover over. “I saw the man’s face on the other side and I figured if I put the man together, the planet would be whole again, too.”

What the L.A. solar tour taught NewEnergyNews is that the individual men and women of America are a lot more together than a quick perusal of the cable news networks might suggest.

click to enlarge

The moral of the solar tour is that the thing individual Americans had in common when they came together to make this nation is the same thing they have in common today, a clear understanding of what is best for their homes and their homeland.

And, whether it looks like it or not right this minute on TV, that gives this one lonely world spinning in a great big black universe a bright fighting chance.