Hire Electric » solar

Happy New Year from Hire Electric

Jonathan Lewis — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:30:04 +0000

Flag blowing in the wind in front of our 153kW solar installation in Christmas Valley, Oregon From OMD Slide Show

Solar Seminar in Richland, WA. Dec. 15th

Jonathan Lewis — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:30:22 +0000

Thursday, December 15, 2011 • 6:30 p.m.

Holiday Inn Express Hotel

1970 Center Pkwy. (behind Staples)

Richland, WA 99352

Free Solar Seminar!

Our first three seminars were a great success with about 20 people excited to learn about the new Washington State incentive programs. Our next seminar will be at the same, central Tri Cities location on the 15th of December.

Bob Skinner and Jonathan Lewis of Hire Electric will cover the basics of going solar in today’s economy, the Washington State incentive program, Washington manufactured inverters and solar panels, community solar options, federal tax credits, electric vehicle charging coupled with solar and much more! Munchies provided. Bring lots of questions.

Please RSVP here: hireelectric.com/rsvp/

138kW Solar Array in Christmas Valley

Jonathan Lewis — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 06:24:20 +0000

The Christmas Valley Project in the news:

For the past several months we have had the great privilege of working on a large commercial solar array for the Oregon Military Department with Randolph Construction Services and Bradford Engineers. The project uses all Oregon Manufactured solar equipment with solar panels form SolarWorld in Hillsborough, OR and inverters from PVPowered in Bend. Here are a few photos of the Horizon/Desert Solar Project:

Path to Net Zero Workshop

Jonathan Lewis — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:36:06 +0000

Energy Alternatives and Efficient Building

a workshop and tour to help reduce energy consumption …the Path to Net Zero!

Energy Alternatives and Efficient Building will include a day of presentations, discussions, demonstrations and tours to learn about technologies used in net-zero home construction and low- to net-zero energy use by businesses.

Date: Saturday, November 5, 2011. Program begins at 8 a.m. at Columbia Basin College, in the new Center for Career & Technical Education, 2600 N. 20th Avenue off Argent Road on Tech Way.

Cost: $5 for morning session only (includes refreshments) $12 for the afternoon session, which includes demonstrations, tours, and lunch $15 for both morning and afternoon sessions!

AGENDA & DEMONSTRATION LOCATIONS: 8am – 8:45am: Introduction to the Sustainable Energy & Environmental Network and ways to get involved

8:45am – 9:30am: Tyson Pischel with Pischel Construction and Green Builder Warehouse, will share his hands-on, real-world experience of building affordable, energy efficient homes.

9:30am – 10:15am: Jonathan Lewis with Hire Electric will explain the benefits and use of solar photovoltaic (electric energy).

10:15am – 11:30am: Ray Lam with Silk Road Environmental will present and demonstrate the company’s solar thermal system.

LUNCH / 12pm to 1pm: Meet at Entrees Made Easy, 127 Gage Blvd (not far from Costco and next to Bonefish Grill), in Richland

1:15pm: Tour of net-zero home, built by Pischel Construction, in the Creekstone Community of Kennewick.

2:15pm: Badger Mountain Winery, demo of solar PV sytem installed by Hire Electric and tour of winery with no- host wine tasting!

IMPORTANT! Transportation is not provided. Carpooling is encouraged.

Registration: Contact Kelsey Myers 509.542.4832, kmyers@columbiabasin.edu Deadline: October, 30th 2011

Net Zero Event Flyer FINAL

Oregon Senator Pleads for Level Solar Playing Field

Jonathan Lewis — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 19:28:10 +0000

Solar panels: latest hot spot in US-China trade tensions

September 9, 2011 3:54 pm by Leslie Hook

reblogged from: http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2011/09/09/chinese-solar-panels-new-battleground-in-us-sino-trade-relations/

There are many things China comes under fire for when US politicians take the stage: stealing American jobs is an old favourite, as is “manipulation” of the renminbi to keep Chinese manufacturing cheap. Then there are the exports of toxic petfood, or lead-coated children’s toys. But the latest broadside from Capitol Hill hits out at a new, and somewhat surprising, target: cheap Chinese solar panels being installed on American homes.

The attack comes from Senator Ron Wyden (D., Oregon), who alleges that Chinese-made solar panels are unfairly subsidised by the state and hurting American businesses. His charge, whether true or not, speaks to the growing concerns within the US as China – now the world’s top maker of solar panels and wind turbine – becomes increasingly competitive in the clean energy sector.

Wyden calls for the US to impose tariffs on imports of Chinese solar panels and pursue litigation against Chinese solar panel maker at the World Trade Organization. In a letter to President Obama, he compares importing Chinese solar panels to being reliant on imports of foreign crude oil:

Our view of energy independence does not entail substituting America’s reliance on Middle Eastern oil with a dependence on Chinese solar panels. Without strong enforcement of US trade statutes, however, that is just what will happen.

As solar panel makers around the world have been struggling with falling panel prices and slowing demand, Wyden writes that Chinese solar panel makers are causing “injury” to American panel makers:

Advanced producers—whether they are American, Japanese or European— are losing market share in almost every growing market to Chinese producers. Chinese imports of solar panels are surging and are on pace to increase 240 percent this year, compared to 2010. Furthermore, imports of Chinese solar panels increased 1,593 percent between 2006 and 2010. We need only look at the bankruptcies of major American innovators and producers of solar panels to see the material injury these imports appear to be inflicting on our domestic industry.

While it is true that US solar panel makers have been hurting this year—three US solar companies have filed for bankruptcy in the last month—Chinese solar panel makers have been feeling pain too.

Share prices of Suntech and Trina, two of China’s biggest producers, are down 44 per cent and 51 per cent, respectively, since the beginning of this year, reflecting negative industry sentiment. Although revenues for both companies grew in the first half of this year, analysts believe that overcapacity and slowing demand growth will squeeze all solar panel producers in coming months. Those same analysts have been predicting “consolidation”—i.e. bankruptcies and mergers – for some time.

Badger Mountain Open House

Jonathan Lewis — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 05:12:09 +0000

Happy Labor Day!
We’ve had a very busy summer here at Hire Electric with a number of jobs lined up for the fall including a Bergey wind machine for the City of Ellensburg; solar and small wind at Kaclec Medical Center in Richland, WA; and a 130kW array for the Oregon Military Department in Chrismas Valley, OR. With all this labor it’s nice to have a day off to kick back and celebrate. Thank you all for your support over the years and we hope you have a wonderful holiday.

Site Analysis
To find out if your home or business is ready to go solar, give us a call and we can talk about a site analysis.

www.hire-solar.com
541-296-5574

Badger Mtn. Open House!
Kennewick’s Premier Organic Winery Goes Solar. In the fall of 2007 we put up a 3kW solar array on the tasting room at Badger Mountain/Powers Winery. This was our first commercial solar project and very exciting for both Hire and Badger. Since that time we’ve been trying to help the winery secure a USDA REAP grant to install more solar on their barrel storage building. Each year we would get turned down. Fire, aim, fire, aim, fire…2011 the winery hit the grant jackpot and was awarded funding by the USDA. Last week Hire completed the installation. At 2,200 square feet and 36.4kW, it is the largest of its kind at any winery in Washington State.

Consequently, the winery is planning an open day to celebrate this project. The intended schedule for the event is Tuesday, Sept 6th, from 10:30am to 1:30pm, at the estate.http://www.badgermtnvineyard.com/

The list of people attending includes Chris Cassidy, the National Business Renewable Energy Advisor for USDA National Office in Washington, D.C.; Robin Pollard, Executive Director of the Washington Wine Commission; and Kent Waliser, Chairman of the Washington Wine Commission. The gang from Hire Electric will also be on hand to answer questions and bask in the sunshine.

You’re all invited. Hope to see you there!

To see how much power Badger Mountain’s solar array is producing click here.

This event went really well. Tom Osborn from the BPA showed up with his camera, several people from USDA were there, folks from Benton PUD came by as well as many others. Greg Martin from Northwest Ag Information Network of Kennewick, WA did a radio spot on Greg Powers and Robin Pollard. A TV crew from KNDU was also on hand.

http://www.winepressnw.com/2011/09/03/7246/powers-winery-vineyard-embraces.html

Interview with Jonathan Lewis about the installation: http://www.aginfo.net/index.cfm/event/report/id/Line-on-Agriculture-20131

Flier for Solar Seminar in Tri Cities, Washington Dec 15, 2011

Jonathan Lewis — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 18:00:02 +0000

Solar Seminars in Tri Cities, Dec 15, 2011 at the Richland Holiday Inn Express. Here’s the flier:

Unsmashable Washington Solar Panel! – Funny Video.

Jonathan Lewis — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 02:40:10 +0000

Unsmashable Solar module from Isaac Lewis on Vimeo.

Community Solar in Washington State

Jonathan Lewis — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 17:40:14 +0000

Electric Vehicle Presentation at GTA Meeting

Jonathan Lewis — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 16:21:28 +0000

Excellent turnout at the GTA meeting in Hood River last night. Thanks to all the CGCC RET program folks for showing up! Leviton and Platt Electric brought one of the new ChargePoint public charging stations to demo and gave a very informative presentation. Les and Jennifer from Ray Schulton’s Motors were on hand to talk about the Leaf – hopefully we’ll have one live and in action soon. Nick Southall form Common Energy brought their electric trike (made in Hood River) to demo. All around nice evening. Although it doesn’t make a lot of sense without the dialog behind it, here’s the presentation I gave on EV’s: