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.

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.   

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.

If you think you have an area that would offer sufficient wind to create energy from wind power, you need to do a wind feasibility study.   A wind feasibility study gives you measured data so you know the direction, and speed of the wind at various times of the year.   Without the measured data, you are making an uneducated guess about the viability of the site for creating wind power.

Right now I am doing two wind feasibility studies on two different locations.   The first wind study, it took about a month to get all the equipment working correctly to accurately log the wind speed and direction over the internet.

The first problem I ran into was location.   I had a large pole already on my property that I thought I could mount the weather station.   The location of the pole was in a wind shadow on the property - so while it was in a convenient location for me to capture the wireless data and be able to view it via the internet, it was not in the location where there was sufficient wind to create power from a wind turbine.   So I had to move the weather station to the windier location on the property.    I needed mounting equipment to do this.  It took several attempts to get the weather station to stay upright, especially in high winds.  I finally got the weather station pole to stay up right in high winds by attaching three 75 foot twisted wire cables to the pole anchored into the ground by three foot long steel posts (the type used in pouring concrete).

The new location of the weather station was not close to the house with the internet connection.  I tried a signal booster from the wireless transponder on the weather station - but there were large boulders in between where the weather station was and the weather station receiver.   So I had to get a DSL connection into a small house by the weather station.   After about two weeks of collecting data, we noticed that there was a stand of trees about 50 feet in front of the weather station that was blocking most of the winds from the south from reaching the weather station.  You guessed it, down they came (they were on my property).   It didn’t make any sense to block the wind from the proposed wind turbine site or the weather station collecting data to assess the speed and direction of the wind.

The second weather station is up on a hill where I have another piece of property.  The neighbors had a large telephone pole I could use to mount the anemometer (measures wind speed and direction).   They also had electricity and an internet DSL connection.   We mounted the anemometer on their pole, hooked up the weather station inside their house and connected it to the internet.  IT WORKED.   For a day.   Then they disconnected it claiming it was messing up their internet connection.   Not sure how this could be - but regardless, it required that I have a temporary power pole connected on my property and the phone company connect DSL and a phone line on my empty lot so that I could continue the wind feasibility study.

Having set up two of these wind feasibility studies now, I’m learning.   Here is what is required to set up a wind feasibility study:

1. Figure out where the wind blows the strongest and the most consistently on the property where you want to put up a wind turbine.  You might need to clear some trees, or remove structures obstructing the flow of wind through your area.

2. Determine how you are going to mount your weather station or anemometer- make sure you mount it about the same height as your wind turbine will be.   The higher you go, the stronger the wind gets and the more you will need to take measures to keep the equipment upright.

3. Get the equipment - some states have weather station loaning programs.   You will still have to get the mounting equipment as this varies based on location.   If you want your own weather station long term, I recommend the Davis Vantage Pro 2 Wireless Weather Station.  It comes with a solar powered transponder that sends all the weather station data to the Davis Vantage Pro 2 weather station console.  Get it with the internet connectivity equipment.   You can get the USB connector to just download the information from the weather console onto your computer - HOWEVER, it is far easier to connect the weather station console to the internet and see the data from wherever you are.

I found it easiest to purchase it directly from Davis Instruments.   They are very prompt and I got my equipment within three days up in rural Alaska.   You do not need to get the entire weather station, but it costs as much as the anemometer, solar transponder and weather console.   The ONLY reason I would NOT get the entire weather station is because the large rain bucket from the weather station puts too much weight on the weather station pole.   If you can securely anchor the weather station pole and the weight isn’t a problem, just get the entire weather station.   It provides a much more comprehensive picture of the weather where you would want to put a wind turbine.

4. When you get the equipment, set it all up indoors to make sure it works BEFORE you mount it outside.  This means assembling all the parts, hooking up the solar transponder, and making sure the weather station console is picking up the data.  Once you get that working, then you can connect your weather station to the internet.  This is extremely simple as you just plug the internet adapter into the weather console and connect it to your DSL modem.   You may need to get an ethernet hub so you can plug in multiple devices to your DSL (computer, weather station, etc).   The weatherlink software explains how to set up the weather station on www.weatherlink.com.   It also explains how to download the weather data onto your system with their weatherlink software.   You can also track your weather data on the Weather Underground station.  This takes a bit more work.   But it is fairly simple if you are technically oriented.  If using the internet in anyway confuses you, hire someone to help you set this up as you will save yourself a lot of headaches.

5. Once the system is working inside the house, now it’s time to mount the system outside.   If you have a clear line of site from where you are mounting your weather station to your house where the weather console is, you are done.  If not, you have to get power and an internet connection to within line of site at your weather station location.

How much does this cost?

That depends on your mounting requirements, site prep requirements, availability of power and internet.

Basic costs could include:

1. Clear trees - one day of labor - I had the tractor and the guys already working for me.  Land clearing estimates would apply - $100 per hour for the equipment and $25 per hour for each laborer.  Four hours of work - $600.

2. Mounting the hardware - three days of experimenting and the mounting hardware.  Cost for my labor - I’m free (for my projects) but you could expect to pay someone who knows what they are doing $150 an hour.   Cost for the hardware - $350.  Cost for the installation - estimate $600.

3. Cost of the weather station equipment - $1100.   I still have to return the signal repeater I purchased that did not work, that was an extra $300.

4. Cost of temporary power - $250 to install.  Estimating $25 per month (on the high side)

5. Cost of the phone line and dsl - $50 per month.

6. Cost to monitor the wind study - again my time is “free” on my projects - I spend about an hour a week looking at the reports.   If you have to pay someone, estimate $500 per month.

Total Cost for a Year Long Wind Study (if you’re paying someone else to do it) = $9800.  This does not include their travel costs.   If you can “borrow” the equipment,  use existing poles, and tie into existing power and internet,  hypothetically, you can do this for no cost.     The more you can do yourself,  obviously the less it will cost.    If you’re doing this for someone else, they should pay you as they are going to get a payback from your efforts.

How long does it take?

That depends on where the wind feasibility site is.  If you don’t have power and dsl - it could take up to a month to get the whole system installed.   If the site for the weather station is ready, estimate a week to get the equipment and a couple hours to set it up and install it.  If you’ve never done this before, estimate a month for the first one to work out all the bugs.

A note here - if you are doing a wind study in a remote location - you really need to think about how you are going to use the power that you are creating in this remote location.   If you are going to create the power for use by a small community - you will need transmissions lines out to the site.  You can get remote data loggers for the anemometers - and pull the information off the data loggers when you visit the site. This will add to the cost and complexity of doing the wind study.

There are a wide variety of financial incentives available to homeowners to aid in the conversion to a more self-sufficient lifestyle. Below are the top four states in terms of the amount of financial incentives offered to homeowners. The rest of the states’ incentives can be found on when clicking on the picture below.

Below describes each of the different homeowner financial incentives that are featured in the above chart.

Tax Incentives

• Corporate Tax Incentives: These include corporate tax credits, deductions, and exemptions. This can apply to residential sectors as well as commercial in a few special cases, such as in South Carolina where they have a Solar Energy Tax Credit that allows taxpayers to claim a credit of 25% of the cost of installing a solar-energy in any building owned by the taxpayer.
• Personal Tax Incentives: These include personal income tax credits and deductions, and are used as a tool to offset the cost of purchasing and installing energy efficient equipment in your home. This type of incentive usually has a maximum monetary amount of the deduction or credit.
• Property Tax Incentives: Include exemptions, exclusions, and credits. A vast majority of these types of incentives ensure that the added value obtained by implementing a renewable energy system is not included in the valuation of the property for taxation purposes.
• Sales Tax Incentives: This type of incentive provides an exemption from the state sales tax for buying energy-efficient appliances, a renewable energy system, and other items related to reducing use and increasing efficiency in the home. Some states have established a “sales tax holiday”, where a sales tax exemption for renewable energy items is available for a few days out of the year, giving consumers a push to purchase these items in a set time frame.

Loans

Loans provide financing needed to buy energy efficient or renewable energy systems and equipment. Loan terms are usually 10 years or less, and they are usually offered with very low-interest rates to cover a wide variety of energy efficient projects.

Rebates

Rebate Programs provide money after the fact to support and promote the installation of energy efficient projects. Rebate Programs are usually administered by utilities (municipal utilities and electric cooperatives, but can also be administered by the state.

Grants

Grant Programs: This type of incentive is offered by states to supports the development and use of energy efficient projects and renewable energy technologies. These incentives vary greatly from program to program. Some offer financial support for a wide range of areas related to alternative energy, while others or more specific and may offer funding for projects utilizing a specific type of technology. While grants are primarily available to commercial, industrial, utility, education, and government sectors, there are some available for the residential sector, which is illustrated in the table.

Other Incentives

• Green Building Incentives: These incentives are used to promote the creations of green building, which are building that are designed to minimize harmful impact on the environment. These incentives commonly come in the form of a reduction or waiver in building permit fees. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is a well-known program to certify energy efficient building.
• Leasing/Lease Purchase Programs: This incentive allows customers to lease an alternative energy generation device (i.e. photovoltaic system) from their local utility. This is done primarily for customers in remote areas, where the cost of extending traditional forms of electric distribution lines would be too expensive to be feasible. Some programs have the option for the customer to then purchase the system after a specified amount of time.
• Production Incentives: This incentive provides payments based on the amount of kilowatt-hours a renewable energy system generates. These are also known as performance based incentives.
• Utility Rate Discounts: This incentive can be offered by utility companies to encourage household energy efficiency. They are provided for households that meet a certain energy efficient rating (the Energy Star Program is well known for this), and in meeting those requirements the owner is awarded a discount on each month’s electricity bill.

Now this is an incredibly innovative design - the Jelly Fish Windmill. Lets do a back of the envelope payback analysis. Being at this renewable energy conference this week in Las Vegas, I am more convinced than ever that we are going to see major electrical rate increases as the utility companies pass on their cost of upgrades onto the end consumer. So lets just say for ease of calculation that your electric bill in five years is $.20/kwh - that makes this new windmill cost savings of $8 per month. If it costs you $200 to acquire, and it really is as easy as plugging it into the wall so you have no installation costs, than the payback period is about two years. $8 per month doesn’t seem like much, but a payback period of a little over 2 years - WOW. You can place these about 15 feet apart so for a house 40 feet wide, you could put two on there. They are also working on a 1.2 kw design - and two of those could provide the typical house at the typical current usage profiles about half their electrical needs. This could very well be the most affordable solution to becoming energy self-sufficient coming down the pike.

The Keynote Roundtable of the Renewable Energy Conference was a who’s who of the trade associations in each of the renewable energy field domains.

Ms. Denise Bode
CEO
American Wind Energy Association

Mr. Douglas Durante
Executive Director
Clean Fuels Development Coalition

Mr. Karl Gawell
Executive Director
Geothermal Energy Association

Ms. Linda Church-Ciocci
Executive Director
National Hydropower Association

Ms. Julia Hamm
Executive Director
Solar Electric Power Association

Mr. Rhone Resch
President & CEO
Solar Energy Industries Association

Mr. Edwin F. Feo
Partner
Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP

It also included the Keynote Speaker -
Mr. Roberto Denis
Senior VP Energy Supply
NV Energy

I captured the insights of the distinguished panel on twitter as it was occurring. They were asked questions by the moderator regarding the state of affairs in each of their respective industries and where they say the biggest challenges are. They opened the discussion up to the audience but didn’t allow for but several questions. The interchange between the panel on issues regarding government policies and the challenges with respect to distribution was interesting and deserved far more treatment than could be accorded in a short hour panel discussion.

What emerged for me was the realization that this field needs very strong coordinating leadership. It left me wondering why there was not representation by the leaders of the Department of Energy on the panel. Coordinating the development and distribution of the renewable energy nationwide is a matter of national security and needs to be guided and controlled by the federal government with innovative, visionary and stringent standards. It cannot and should not be left to each of the renewable energy specialties or the vendors. Yes these folks need a place at the table but they lack the vision of an integrated whole to address the challenges facing nation states for the national security issues with our long term energy policy.

You can see the stream of comments on each of the individuals at http://twitter.com/michellecheetah. Their perspectives are interesting. For example: Rhone Resch
President & CEO of Solar Energy Industries Association said that it all it took to become a solar installer was to hang out your shingle. I would recommend that Mr. Resch go try to do just that and see how far he gets with becoming a solar panel installer. It is a bit more complicated and regulated than that (and thank god). Another interesting comment by Mr. Edwin F. Feo, Partner, Milbank Tweed Hadley & McCloy LLP emphasized that the reason why utility companies wanted to adopt renewable energy projects was to justify rate increases so they could improve their profitability. (YES, I knew I was on track with my reasons for wanting to become energy self-sufficient as a way to hedge against utility rate increases). Ms. Linda Church-Ciocci, Executive Director of National Hydropower Association may have provided some of the most educational comments regarding how investment tax credits are more important than production tax credits as if you don’t have capital to even do these projects, you won’t get the benefits of the production tax credits because there won’t be any production. Ms. Denise Bode, the CEO of American Wind Energy Association, pointed out that in the next five years, there are wind power projects that will exceed our current wind energy production by five times. She also stated that America was now the number one producer of wind generated electricity. Mr. Douglas Durante, the Executive Director of the Clean Fuels Development Coalition said his industry was in the process of revising some mistakes they made in policy legislation that was ill conceived at the time. He didn’t further elaborate but counseled his peers on the panel to be more far sighted in their legislative policy making. Mr. Karl Gawell, the Executive Director of the Geothermal Energy Association, pointed out that over half the cost of using geothermal energy was in drilling yet most people focus the investment dollars on creating the production factory. Ms. Julia Hamm, the Executive Director of the Solar Electric Power Association pointed out that Utility companies have large percentage of their workforces near retirement. Her comment left me wondering if the new green jobs be able to meet work requirements of managing the energy needs of the country.

I have two friends - Bob and Jane. They met soon after college, married, settled in his home town, and started a family. Bob had a good job in the town’s finance department. Jane ran a small catering business with a nice local client base. Bob saw his friends from college climb the corporate ladder, move out of town, purchase big McMansions in the outlying country. Bob wanted more out of life. Jane was happy where she was. Bob wanted a divorce. Jane decided to keep peace in the family, she would help Bob get what he wanted. Jane gave up her catering business and went to work full time for a large insurance company Now she works over 60 hours a week just to make sure she can keep her job. Bob started up a company but it didn’t work out as well as he thought it would so he took an entry level job in a company where he has to commute 100 miles to work and back each day. They did all this so they could afford their own McMansion way out in the country. Lets look at the “quality” of their life now:

1. To heat their McMansion in the winter costs over $1500 per month.
2. Their electric bills are twice what it costs most families - why - Bob needs to keep that old fridge in the garage for when his “friends” come over for a beer.
3. To keep up appearances for their “lifestyle” they have amassed over $20,000 in credit card debt.
4. They both pay over $500 per month payments for gas guzzling cars where they owe more on the car then they are worth. These two cars use over $300 each in gas per month since they have to drive so far for everything now.
5. Their kids go to a high school where over 50% of the kids have drug and alcohol problems. Nice schwanky neighborhood that is.

Their kids are growing up and will be heading off to college soon. They have not saved a penny for the kids college education and their retirement accounts are pretty lean.

The odd thing is they don’t want to replace all the light bulbs in their house to low wattage bulbs because the cost of the bulbs are too high.

We need to create a “new” American Dream:

1. Live in a house you can pay off in at least 15 years. Public schools are what you make them, ANYWHERE.
2. Drive a car that you can afford to drive without payments. Live close to the services you use routinely so you can walk or ride your bike.
3. Reduce your monthly expenses to where it’s a pay as you go lifestyle instead of creating long term recurring expenses (like for utilities).
4. Save at least 20% of what you make for a “rainy” day. This way you don’t have to take or stay in a job you can’t stand.

Here is a diagram of the new American dream.

Yesterday, February 12, 2009 was a worldwide Twestival for Clean Drinking Water. This was where people who use Twitter to communicate with each other, got together in over 175 cities worldwide to raise money for clean drinking water initiatives. Cheetah Learning raised $2300 for Clean Drinking Water by donating 5% of revenues made for the day from their Twestival activities to teach people how to do project management for clean drinking water projects.

Obtaining clean drinking water requires power. It requires the power to get the water up from the ground and it requires power to make sure the drinking water is free from disease producing microorganisms. One of the ways to better insure that there is adequate clean drinking water is to adequately process waste water. This takes even more power. Yes you can use some low power methods to adequately process waste water, but modern day methods that insure far better processing for preserving clean water requires tremendous electricity.

The Hill Canyon Waste Water Treatment Facility in Thousand Oaks, CA uses solar power and methane to power it’s waste water treatment facility.

The solar power system cost $1.5 million to install and produces about 15% of the treatment centers power. The solar power system is owned by Renewable Ventures/MMA and sells electricity to Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant for 16.8 cents/kW. The methane system uses methane gas from the facility’s anaerobic digesters to power (2) 250 kW generators. This system cost $.5m (1/3 the cost of the solar system) and provides approximately 45% of the facility’s energy needs. This system is owned and operated by U.S. Energy. The Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant purchases this electricity at a rate of 6.4 cents/kW.

This is very interesting that the methane system cost 1/3 as much as the solar system and produces 3 times the electricity. What I love about this story is that it is the waste they are processing that creates the largest percentage of electricity to process that waste.

The inverse relationship between money spent on the system vs. the energy produced appears to be a universal truth as I have seen it in existence in many other realms. The engineers perpetual question is - how can I spend the least amount of money and get the maximum energy out. The engineers managing the Thousand Oaks facility are doing a fantastic job with answering this question.

There are some fascinating schemes out there to use solar power for your electrical needs with very little upfront investment - some appear more ready to go than others.   I was looking at CitizenRe’s approach over the weekend.    This is where they have set up an army of “ecopreneurs” to sign up home owners to have solar panels installed on their homes for a security deposit of $500 and then they have them pay a rental fee for their solar panels that is the same rate as what they are currently paying for electricity.   They get to lock in their electrical rates for the duration of their contract which can go up to 25 years.  Damn this looks like a very attractive offer.

HOWEVER, I didn’t see in their marketing material where  they have installed one solar system yet.   Now if you’re just getting into this concept,  you might think this is a new idea - but they have been around a LONG TIME - especially in terms of today’s technology time frames.

I was researching what others were saying about Citizenre and found this blog post written two years ago about Citizenre.    They were supposed to have their manufacturing facility up by September 2007.   Two years later, they are now claiming their manufacturing facility will be online by Jan. 2009.  I did not see any mention of it on their website and all their marketing material is still talking about not making any promises to people who you get signed up about an installation date.   So it appears they have missed this deadline as well.

One of the things they do emphasize in their marketing materials is that if people have the ability to put solar panels on their homes and pay the upfront costs, they should by all means do this.   They suggest people visit www.findsolar.com to find a solar installer in their area.

If you really want to do solar but you can’t afford the upfront costs, there are other ways to get into this for low cost - finance it with a home equity loan, or go with a long term lease that some of the larger solar installers offer.  They have it set up where you end up paying the same amount as you are for your electricity as well.   And at the end of the leasing period, you own the panels.  We are summarizing these plans in our March Newsletter.

If you want to go solar, I’d recommend you go with a company that can deliver on that arrangement today rather than waiting for a promise to deliver sometime in the future.  If Citizenre can deliver on what it promises, it will truly be a remarkable company.   I am hoping they succeed.   In the interim, I’m going to continue with the approach on designing and installing my own systems on my properties and figuring out my own creative ways to finance the installations.

I’m evaluating using a geothermal heat pump to heat a property I manage in Southeast Alaska. The drivers for considering this application are:

1. Presently the property is heated using a diesel oil powered furnace for radiant in floor heating. The price of diesel oil is controlled by one monopolistic company in town and the prices go up but not down.

2. The property is vacant about 30% of the time - primarily during the coldest winter months. The heat pump will keep the house warm enough to prevent damage from freezing if no one is on site. The property has a large central chimney with a large wood stove that would suffice as the heating back up on days where the heat pump system may not provide sufficient heat when people are present.

3. There are numerous options for the geothermal heat source of water - the property is on a large body of water that never freezes.

The best site I have found so far that succinctly defines how geothermal heat pumps work is by the California Energy Commission - http://www.consumerenergycenter.org/home/heating_cooling/geothermal.html