The
Future Is Now: Hudson Valley Clean Energy
by
Ross Rice
With
all the new assistance, 2003 became a great year to get into the
clean energy business. Irish and Wright got office space in downtown
Rhinebeck [with a rented garage nearby], and put their shingle out,
offering an array of new products: solar photovoltaic systems for
electricity, solarthermal systems for hot water, and geothermal
systems for heating and cooling. Business, mostly generated by word-of-mouth,
started picking up as more people became aware of the credits and
rebates, not to mention the obvious long-term benefits. The new
affordability of the technology appealed to people on both sides
of the political aisle. “Half of our clients do it for the
environmental reasons, the other half for the financial ones. That
means we’re getting Democrats AND Republicans,” chuckles
Wright, as we walk over to the main “power center” of
the new warehouse, which they recently completed and moved into
in May.
The
new warehouse/office space makes a perfect showpiece for HVCE’s
products. Starting with the photovoltaic system, Wright shows us
an example of the PV panels, which contain 6” silicon wafer
cells, with tempered glass on the outside. 850 square feet of these
panels [in two arrays] line the roof of the warehouse, pointing
due south, providing a full 100 percent of the power needs of the
building. [Roof pitch and panel direction are not completely critical
to performance, as long as the cells get sun exposure from 9 AM
to 3 PM.] Two power cables from the arrays connect with two boxes
inside that both convert the raw DC power to useable AC current,
and contain small computers that monitor the overall input and output,
relaying that information to Central Hudson, whose meter sits adjacent.
The arrays, cabling, and converter boxes: that’s it. As Wright
said, this system was sufficient to provide 100 percent of the warehouse’s
needs—but electrical power was only one part of the equation.
CONTINUE...
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