1. Name your customers top reasons for looking into your services. (See Table 2)

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Roy Johnston
5 years ago
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1 A few weeks ago I sent out an to various contractors and manufacturers in the renewable energy field asking them to answer a few questions in the interest of our class. I sent it to over a dozen companies and five of them answered. Here are the questions I asked: 1. Name your customers top reasons for looking into your services. (See Table 2) 2. What type of systems do you install the most, PV, solar water heaters, wind turbines, hybrid systems etc? (See Table 3) 3. What systems are more efficient in MI? What can have the biggest impact on your return investment and on the environment? (See Table 4) 4. Do your customers tend to go for the most efficient or what might be more glamorous like a PV array? (See Table 5) 5. Where do you see the alternative energy industry in five years from now? 10 yrs from now? (See Table 6) What follows is an extensive cut and paste project that took entirely too much time so please read it! Just kidding you don t have to, when you see me just pretend you did to make me feel better! Table 1 just lists the different companies that wrote back with a contact name and info. Table 1: Contacts NAME CONTACT INFO Rich Vander Veen rfv3@mackinawpower.com Kerry J. Battle bjbattle@msn.com (PV systems only) Cedric currcorp@tm.net Joe Graham graham@blueskywind.com John Witte jwitte@advanced-dg.com (manufacture) Kenneth Peters sunsiaray46@earthlink.net

2 Table 2 Answers to: Name your customers top reasons for looking into your services. Wind power is a zero-emissions renewable energy source that can complement an industrial, commercial or residential mix. For industrials and commercials, it may help them to offset their Clean Air Act requirements. More and more companies are striving towards LEED certification. Wind Energy can help to achieve this goal. Essentially all PV systems designed and supplied by are for remote sites (no practical grid connection) and thus are an alternate to a gas or diesel generator for supplying critical power. They believe wind turbines will save the money and secondly it is good for PR. Reduce the electricity they consume from the utility Educational demonstration for schools You asked for the top reason customers would come to our company, and the answer is as follows. First off our customers are solar dealers and HVAC contractors. In Michigan you must have a mechanical license to install solar thermal. This is not necessarily so in the rest of the country. Secondly for solar thermal to be eligible for the Federal Energy Tax Credit the collectors must be SRCC Certified. Third many companies make DHW Collectors and have an SRCC Certification, but if you want to take advantage of Space Heating and Air Make-up and Agriculture systems you have only one company left in the US that still has an SRCC Certified air based collector, and that is SUNSIARAY.

3 Table 3 Answers to: What type of systems do you install the most, PV, solar water heaters, wind turbines, hybrid systems etc? We work with commercial-sized wind turbine generators. The GE Wind Turbines we work with are 1.5 MW each. The Vestas Wind Turbines are 1.65 MW. All systems are PV - stand-alone or PV/diesel hybrid systems. 250kW wind turbines to 1 MW wind turbines. PV n/a Table 4 Answers to: What systems are more efficient in MI? What can have the biggest impact on your return investment and on the environment? Wind turbines are great for Michigan if they are sited properly. See the Michigan Wind Map. They are the new "cash crop" for farmers who are striving to keep their beloved family farms. We lease land from farmers and offer them a 20 year lease payment, using only about a 1-1 1/2 acres of property per turbine. It minimizes the effect on their land and gives them another source of income. Because of the zeroemissions, farming can be done right up to the foundations of the turbines. Also attached is a slide showing the impact on the environment by a 50 MW wind farm. Efficiency has not been a factor; reliable power production is critical. Most systems are for summer-fall operation only, but several provide power throughout the year, including some systems in the UP.

4 Table 4 (continued) Strong winds and costly energy. Small residential wind turbines are expensive and often difficult to get approved. The smaller the turbine the smaller the amount of kwh generated by the machine and therefore the more they cost. Home owners need to be handy so they can repair the wind turbine when it breaks down. Very difficult part of the wind industry. Commercial grade turbines are more efficient and cost effective. Solar water/space heating The first order of business in my opinion should be your third question. Make-up air [space heat] is the most cost effective item that any one north of the Mason Dixon line can do to save money. It also is the best return on investment of all the renewal energy products. Wind Turbines are almost at to the point where they can compete with the utilities on a large scale and that is why they were excluded from the tax credit in my opinion. PV is ok if you are a long way off the grid and must pay a large sum to have it brought in. Other wise you are looking at a thirty year pay back. The energy credit will offset this somewhat for commercial but little for residential with a limit of $ 2, Solar water heating is ok but it will save about 1/10 of what space heating will save and if you so desire space heating systems can provide your hot water when the heating season is over.

5 Table 5 Answers to: Do your customers tend to go for the most efficient or what might be more glamorous like a PV array? n/a Primarily concern seems to be reliable operation without significant maintenance. Also many are concerned for appearance. They typically want savings and then they wish to take credit for using wind turbines They go for the glamour. They also receive rebate money from the State of Ohio. n/a Table 6 Answers to: Where do you see the alternative energy industry in five years from now? 10 yrs from now? Alternative energy is sharply on the rise. With growing concerns about imported oil from the Middle East, alternative energy is the next step to helping the US grow less dependent on foreign and fossil fuels. More and more education is being done in the US, as well as more manufacturing of different types of alternative energy mechanisms. Most PV systems will be larger and more will be for various tourism-related enterprises or organizations. Residential systems will be primarily for remote homes and homes for families with strong environmental concerns. It is very difficult to see beyond 5 years, although wind energy systems will become a much greater portion of electric utility generating facilities.

6 Table 6 (continued) It will continue to develop as a new energy field. Energy systems will get cheaper with more use. Continuing to grow at existing rate or slightly faster. Your final question on alternative I see as needing the renewal of the energy tax credit for the foreseeable future or the market will go back to the point on almost no significant contribution to our country. All most all forms of energy have some tax breaks so it is needed to level the playing field. When you reduce the heating load of a residential customer in the range of 20% to 30% or more the return over the years will huge when you factor in inflation.

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