(This is a guest post from Roy Gayhart, originally posted on his blog at Whole Solar, a Women Owned Small Business, which is part of an affiliated group of wholesale distributors and manufacturer’s representatives who share a passion for solar energy.)
I just got through listening to President Obama’s speech about the BP Oil Spill. When I wrote the blog What the BP Gulf Oil Spill Means to BP Solar in May, who could have imagined we’d be where we are now? Around that time government officials were estimating that oil was leaking at a rate of 5,000 barrels a day (a five-fold increase from initial estimates). A few days after that blog was written, NPR began reporting that the spill rate could be closer to 70,000 barrels per day. That set off a controversy, with BP’s COO disputing the NPR oilspill estimates. A month later, a US scientific team has fixed the estimates of the oil spill rate at between 35,000 to 60,000 barrels a day.
We are in day 57, with no end in sight. We’ve gone from “the largest oil spill in American history” to the “worst environmental disaster in American history.” We continue to hear about the chaotic manner in which BP has handled the crisis. We’ve gone from what was described in that earlier blog to the realization that the BP spill was turning the gulf into a dead zone.
In the earlier post that I’m updating here, I explored the branding repercussions affecting BP Solar. Since then, I as able to access a talk given by a BP Group Vice President of Marketing on April 26, 2001 at The CNN Fortune Time Global Marketing Forum in Rome, Italy. Her talk was titled “Branding in the 21st Century; A BP Perspective.” She points out BP at that time was “a company made up of 100,000 people thrown together as a result of a series of mergers and acquisitions. Almost overnight the new BP became:
> One of the biggest companies in the world with over 100,000 employees worldwide
> The largest oil and natural gas producer in the US and UK
> The largest non-OPEC oil producer in the world
> The world’s largest solar company
> And a company with more than 28,000 service stations world-wide.”
In somewhat of a sad foretelling manner she stated: “I believe at the end of the day, the strongest brands still result from powerful emotional connections that companies are able to make with the general population.” She went on to identify three themes that identify “what people expect, and demand, from great brands:
> Great brands deliver not what a company makes, but what customers need.
> Great brands make a positive impact in people’s lives.
> Great brands demonstrate alignment between external words and internal actions.”
Fast-forward from 2001 to 2010 – I’m reading articles titled You Don’t Trust BP? It’s Too Late, BP and Big Oil: Shut Down America’s Greenwashing Machine and Americans Don’t Care if BP Goes Bankrupt Paying for Oil Spill, Poll Shows. Somehow I doubt this was the branding goal BP had in mind.
So, again I ask, where does this put BP Solar? There hasn’t been a lot of press on BP Solar since the the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Distaster. Renewable Energy World tells us:
BP Solar With over 35 years of experience and installations in over 160 countries, BP Solar is one of the world’s largest solar companies and has manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Spain, India, and China.
As I wrote in the earlier blog, Home Depot has exclusively carried the BP Solar brand. Since I wrote that last blog, Home Depot in California has thrown out all of its long-time loyal solar installers and replaced them with Solar City. Perhaps this is a play to replace a tarnished brand with the Solar City brand. In any event, anyone buying solar panels at a California Home Depot will get BP Solar AND Solar City. This might apply in Home Depot Warehouses outside of California as well. Will it work for Home Depot, Solar City and BP Solar? I guess we continue to wait and see.
(This is a guest post from Roy Gayhart, originally posted on his blog at Whole Solar, a Women Owned Small Business, which is part of an affiliated group of wholesale distributors and manufacturer’s representatives who share a passion for solar energy.)
At the Solar Power International Show, Rhone Resch, President and CEO of SEIA, presented The Solar Bill of Rights, which I’d like to share. In a message of industry unity that was later complemented by calls for exerting political by New Mexico Governor Richardson, Rhone laid out eight amendments of the Solar Bill of Rights and then stated, “We declare these rights not on behalf of our companies, but on behalf of our customers and our country. We seek no more than the freedom to compete on equal terms and no more than the liberty for consumers to choose the energy source they think best. These rights, like those on which country was founded, are a simple matter of common-sense. In fact, you might even call them ’self-evident.’ But that doesn’t mean they’re self-evident in the halls of power, especially when our opponents are pumping as much haze into the energy debate as they are into the environment.”
So here it is, in Rhone’s own words:
Solar Bill of Rights.
First Amendment: Americans have the right to put solar on their homes or businesses. Today’s systems beautify and add value to communities and homes, and yet antiquated rules prevent many homes and businesses from going solar. From restrictive covenants to onerous connection, permitting and inspection fees these rules create fundamental barriers to solar. Utilities should not be allowed to restrict green power with red tape.
Second Amendment: Americans have the right to connect their solar system to the grid with uniform national standards. This is as simple as creating a standard jack for telephones. Can you imagine buying a phone in Nevada and bringing it home to California and finding out it doesn’t fit into the wall jack? Other industries don’t stand for this and neither should we.
Third Amendment: Consumers have the right to Net Meter and be compensated at the very least with full retail electricity rates. Call this solar’s eminent domain—utilities use the power we make, and we expect to be compensated at its actual value. This is not just the cost, but the true value of solar including our security benefits, peak power benefits and environmental benefits – as well as the true price for carbon.
Fourth Amendment: The Solar Power Industry has the right to a fair competitive environment. It’s the most basic right there is—equality under the law. Today, solar has anything but. And that’s not just an opinion, that’s a fact. From 2002 to 2008, federal subsidies for fossil fuels were $72 billion while solar received less than $1 billion. This is completely disconnected with the desires of the American people. Recent independent polling shows that 92% of the public supports greater use of solar. And yet taxpayers are forced to subsidize companies like ExxonMobil, companies that are the richest in the history of the world. It’s that simple—and that wrong. Subsidies aren’t the only issue of fairness, which leads me to number 5.
Fifth Amendment: We also have the right to equal access to public lands. Oil and natural gas companies are operating on 45 million acres of public lands. Today, solar companies have access to ZERO. America has the best solar resources in the world and we can’t harness the full potential of the sun without accessing our sun-baked lands of the West. Of course, there’s little point in collecting energy unless there’s a means of distributing it.
Sixth Amendment: We have the right to interconnect and build new transmission lines. Here, too, we seek no more than what other industries already have. The next great build out of our transmission lines must connect the vast solar resources in the southwest to the population centers across the United States.
Seventh Amendment: Americans must have the right to buy solar electricity from our utilities. Consumers have no choice but to buy power from utilities. Although recently some utilities have started to listen to the 92 percent of Americans who want them to prioritize a kilowatt of power drawn from the sun over any other energy source. We have a long way to go. Therefore, for any renewable portfolio standard to be effective, at either the federal or state level, it must contain a large carve out for all solar energy technologies.
Eighth Amendment: Consumers have the right, and should expect, the highest ethical treatment from the solar industry. From minimizing our impact on the environment to providing systems that work better than advertised to ensuring that we accurately communicate how incentives work for consumers, our industry must operate at a higher ethical standard than any other. We will not stand for those who cheat, lie and take advantage of the good name of solar energy.
We declare these rights not on behalf of our companies, but on behalf of our customers and our country. We seek no more than the freedom to compete on equal terms and no more than the liberty for consumers to choose the energy source they think best. These rights, like those on which country was founded, are a simple matter of common-sense. In fact, you might even call them “self-evident.”
But that doesn’t mean they’re self-evident in the halls of power, especially when our opponents are pumping as much haze into the energy debate as they are into the environment.
The Carson National Forest just announced in The Taos News that fire danger is high. Temperatures are in the 90s, and humidity is low. Even after all that snow in March and April, there is a high risk of fire. It doesn’t take long for things to dry out in the desert!
Fire season officially starts on May 15. Fires can be started by lightning and fireworks, but, more frequently, humans. People burning trash, out-of-town campers, and people throwing cigarettes out of their car windows are all responsible. Once in a while, it is arson. Please be careful!
Whether you live in the beautiful Pinon and Ponderosa forests in New Mexico, or in the mountains of southern California, you can protect your home with firescaping – landscaping for fire resistance.
Create defensible space.
Defensible space is your home and all outbuildings and 30′ of adjacent yard around each. It should be as clear of flammables as possible. If you are on a slope, your defensible space is 100′.
> Use fire-resistant roofing materials – tile and metal instead of wood shakes and shingles.
> Plants with the highest water needs should be closest to the house – groundcovers, lawn, flowers and other herbaceous plants. Do not plant volatile vegetation, such as evergreens, in this area.
> Plant fire-resistant plants.
> Plant in loose clusters, instead of densely.
> Mulch to retain moisture, but do not use pine bark.
> Keep plantings of shrubs and trees to a minimum. Prune them, and keep them in good health. Dead and dry vegetation is wildfire fuel.
> Trees should be pruned at least 10′ off the ground, and branches should not hang over the house.
> Do not plant vines to climb up trees. Ground fires will quickly climb them to the canopy.
> Lawns should be well-watered and cut low.
> Hardscaping – walkways, patios, stone walls, driveways and parking areas- is an effective firebreak.
> Your driveway should be wide enough for fire equipment to come in and turn around.
> Remove flammable vegetation at least 10′ on either side of the driveway.
> Keep leaves and debris out of your gutters.
> Keep your defensible space free of flammable materials, such as wood piles and scrap lumber.
> Keep hoses and tools handy in the event of a fire.
Consult your local county extension office or US Forest Service for information specific to your area.
Photos courtesy Firewise. Learn about Firewise Communities.
My first house, as a single 30-something, was a 16′x24′ passive solar post and beam saltbox in New Hampshire. It had more space than I needed – full basement, two stories and a cozy reading loft on the ‘third floor.’ Utility bills were low. Being passive solar, it did not need supplemental heat on sunny winter days. Being small, it did not take much wood to keep it comfortable at night.
