Haines Member Farm, LLC is a community supported agricultural farm (CSA) in Haines, Alaska. The 5-acre farmland’s breathtaking view will make you forget about the sturdy brush gripping your ankles. This farm will be the owner’s additional step taken toward 100% self-sufficiency. The ultimate plan is simply to grow strawberries. 

One of the first steps in starting the farm is to clear the land, so why not diversify? Allow 12 little pigs to enjoy eating this vegetation, feed and scraps while trodding the ground, preparing it for planting. Pigs are great for large, fenced areas to turn over the soil, root out shrubs, bushes and persistent weeds. These 60 pound pigs will grow into delicious 230 pound hogs…”Strawberries and Prosciutto for Sale.” 

After toying with her inner capitalist for a while, the owner learned how easy is it to stress out a pig; a common problem that can be caused by hauling, vaccinating, etc. Well, what else could loosen her grip on this lovely self-sustainable idea? Here is her cost benefit analysis that leads to the most reasonable financial solution.

Cost Benefit Analysis: Clearing Farm with Pigs or Plow

Based on this analysis, foregoing pigs this year is the best financial decision for the owner’s situation. She is still committed to pigs, someday! Finding them locally avoids risk. Reducing the scope of what can be accomplished this year will allow more time to save, plan for pig sitters and their housing, stretch out expenses, and let new ideas germinate to reach her self-sufficiency goal. A five-year plan is underway. We’ll share that so you can customize it for your CSA farm and self-sufficient lifestyle goal.   

Solar Energy has been around for decades, but the popularity has grown by leaps and bounds over the last few years.  Solar is propping up in more and more conversations, in news articles and on the web.  The popularity of renewable energy in general reminds me of the dot.com boom of the late 90’s, which I also had the pleasure of working in.  The major difference I see between the dot.com boom and renewable energy boom is that I see a lot more value spread across the renewable energy field.  There is less “flash in the pans” if you will. Now that does not mean that solar does not have its share of flakes…just not as many. 

Today, we are going to discuss strategies for picking a solar energy installer so you can weed through the pretenders and find the right installer for you.  First off, there are many installers out there that are starting out - they may not have a huge body of work, but they are very well educated on the science and design of solar.  These installers are not to be discounted.  Secondly, there are a lot of general contractors/electricians/hvac guys out there who are successful in their field and have a large body of work in their specialty but did not take the solar courses and do not know an azmuth angle from their az and have little to no solar experience.  These installers are not to be given too much credit for non-solar work.  So my first two pieces of advice for picking an installer revolve around one thing - education.  There are plenty of solar install courses out there and if your installer has not taken one, then chances are that the design of your system will not be optimal and you will be paying for a system that does not yield the maximum amount of power possible.

 Next are industry standards.  The unwritten rules for solar installation is that the installer takes care of all aspects of the install from the initial site survey, to the design of the system, to the coordination and management of electricians, structural engineers, crew required to handling all the paperwork, permitting, rebate applications, through the install and meeting with town/state inspectors after the job is complete.   The way the industry has grown, the installer is the one stop shop that will handle all the above.  Like any contractor, the installer may sub-contract portions of the project (which is completely normal), but the contractor is still fully responsible of all coordination and supervision of the project.  You, as the customer should not be coordinating all the sub-contractors.  More than likely, your installer follows this unwritten rule but it is always good to check during your initial meeting with the installer.

Which brings us to the incentives.  As we reviewed in a previous post from SunBlue Energy (Stimulus for the Rest of Us), the US government offers a 30% tax credit on all renewable energy projects with no project cap.  Your installer can assist you with filling out the tax credit, but the installers’ responsibility ends there.  Your accountant should be briefed on all the incentives and provide you an overview of the tax implications prior to your purchasing the system.  Solar is an extremely good investment so make sure you are maximizing the incentives as they pertain to you.

 Now that we have covered federal tax credit, we can move on to the state incentives.  Each state/region has different incentives.  In many states, a rebate requires that the installer fill out an application for you.  Once completed/submitted by the installer and approved by the state, you are ready to rock.  It is important to note that certain state/regional rebate checks are sent to the installer and therefore covered by the installer as a portion of the deal.   Make sure you check your local state rebate to confirm that this is the case.  If it is, then there should be no reason for you pay to for that portion of the project.  The rebate check will be simply sent to the installer after completion.

Above are all a few specific tips for picking a solar energy installer.  When it comes down to it, you are hiring a contractor to handle a home improvement.  So the most important rules to follow are those that you would follow for any other contractor. 

·        Make sure you get at least 2-3 quotes

·        Confirm that the contractor has the proper license and insurance required

·        Ask for references and make sure that there is a contractual agreement in place that outlines the work to be performed, price and progress payment schedule. 

·        It is also important to outline what is important to you - local guy, smaller company, tall dark and handsome, lives in Sleepy Hollow, NY, runs a company called SunBlue Energy, whatever your preference.

Stay true to yourself and if it smells fishy, then go to the next installer - there are plenty of fish in the sea.

Contributor: Christopher D. Hale, Owner at www.SunBlueEnergy.com

The system was approved today by the town building department.   The last hurdle is the utility company putting in the bi-directional meter.   There are 7 switches to flip to get this working (picture attached).   For the building inspector test run, it was producing 4.3 KW of power at 10:30 AM on May 11, 2010.   We still have some trees to drop so it gets more sun in the early morning and late afternoon.   What I’ve learned doing this - PATIENCE.   It is a work of art though and well worth all the waiting.

The Path to Power

A Summary of all we do toward energy independence

The 1200 sqf house with 6kw of solar panels

This is the first complete alternative energy project for Cheetah Power. The house only needed 3kw of power, however, the utility company gave us a rebate for a 6kw system so the solar installation company figured out how to put up another 3kw. We are going to be using the extra power to generate heat and electricity for green houses to grow citrus fruits. This is part of our expanded plan to become not only energy self-sufficient, but food self-sufficient as well. For a $22k investment (this includes state and federal rebates and incentives), we’ll save $84k in utility bill fees over 30 years. Additionally, we’ll be positioned to weather the increases in food prices due to the rising oil prices.

My neighbors in Mud Bay are worried about the noise of my helix wind mill.  It’s highly un likely when the wind is a blowing in ‘da hood, that they will hear anything other than the wind.   Their concerns are based on a windmill the former owner had on the property over 15 years ago.    As I understand it from some of the long time neighbors, the former windmill took up the majority of the two acre field and was well over 100 feet high.   It was also extremely loud.    My new windmill is a vertical windmill made by Helix for urban enviroments that produces a noise signature LESS than most ambient noise produced from windy locations.  http://www.helixwind.com/download/factSheet63_1_Helix_Noise_Assessment.pdf , It is four feet wide and stands less than 35 feet tall.   Anyone who has ever come out to my point when it’s windy, knows well the roar of the wind.   When it’s calm, the vertical helix wind turbine won’t be operating any how, therefore, there will be no noise.

I am doing my first presentation on what I’ve been doing with Cheetah Power tomorrow night (Dec. 14, 2009) at the Puget Sound PMI Chapter meeting. The presentation starts at 7:45 PM at the Bellevue Hyatt.

I have been working the alternative energy scenarios on my Connecticut property this past year.  When I started, the State of Connecticut was no longer doing the individual incentives for solar power.  While I was in the process of installing a 6kw solar system, they reinstated their program.   I put my project on hold, applied for the rebate and was awarded a $9071 rebate for my 6KW system based on the amount of energy it’s going to generate (which is pretty close to 9071 KWH per year).

To increase the amount of power my panels were going to create and get the maximum rebate possible, I had to chop down one tree (in a stand of about ten other trees).  Small price to pay.

I reran my payback analysis figures based on today’s scenario.  It came out that they system would pay for itself in 15 years.  The expected system life is 25 years.  I will keep the house until the market goes back up within the next 20 years (it’s bound to happen - CT has experienced two real estate “corrections” of this magnitude in the past 30 years).   This is still the best place to park my money for creating a retirement nest egg.

It is going to cost me a little over $28k to install the 6kw solar system.   Based on what else I could be doing with that money, this will generate a 4.5 x better return over 20 years than anything else I could be doing with my money right now.   Even the safest place to park your money - US Treasuries adjusted to keep up with inflation - the solar panels still generate a 2.3 x better investment.

The bolts arrived and the concrete pad for the first windmill is poured.   Next we have to get the pole and in a month after the concrete pad cures, we can install the windmill.

Pouring the first wind mill base in Alaska

We have had a bit of a delay in installing the 5kw helix wind mill in Alaska.   But we are moving along.   here is where we are with this project:

1.  Continuing with the wind feasibility study.  A huge 60+mph gust took out the weather station.    Since we are down south at meetings and conferences, we had to get a local friend to put it back up.

2.  The Helix 5kw windmill was shipped.  Part of the packaging was damaged.  We’ll have to inspect it when we get back up there in December.

3.  We had sticker shock for the concrete pad pour.  There is only one concrete vendor in town and they charge 3 times more than any other concrete place in the US because of their monopolistic hold on the town.  We are holding our nose and paying their bill.   And contemplating setting up our own concrete plant to give folks in town an option and introducing some competition.

4. We ordered four sets of bolts for the concrete pour even though we are just installing one wind mill now since we want to put in three more wind mills next spring.   The bolts are showing up next week.

5. Kent is taking a class on installing the windmills this week so we can put the windmill up in December.

6.  We are ordering the pole for the windmill this week.   When you get a windmill - they do not sell you everything you need to install it.  BIG lessons learned.