Wednesday, March 30, 2022

Solar Power: Let The Sunshine In

Spare a few thousand kWh, Sol?
I've been interested in solar power for a long time. When I was a third-grader in the late 1970s, you couldn't easily escape the phrase "energy crisis" in much the same way we say "supply chain disruption" today. Oil was short, and gas lines were long. And there were occasionally people on TV talking about alternatives to oil, coal, and gas including solar power.

The experiments and PR exercises around solar power from back then have evolved into a meaningful part of the 21st-century energy portfolio.  The US Energy Information Administration has forecast that of the 46 gigawatts of utility-scale power generation that's expected to come online in the U.S. this year, about 22 gigawatts will come from solar. For reference: One gigawatt is enough to power about 750,000 homes.

This is part of a broader trend. In 2020 the EIA said that renewable sources accounted for 21 percent or the second-highest portion of the nation's electrical generating capacity after natural gas and eclipsing coal, which has been on the decline since 2007, for the first time. 

This brings me to my home. I bought this home in Dutchess County, New York last June. And based on my readings of the power bills, my family of three is on track to consume about 14,000 kilowatt-hours this year. 

This would put our consumption above that of the average U.S. home. In 2020 the EIA pegged the average annual electricity consumption of American homes at about 10,700 kWh. The highest average was in Louisiana, while the lowest was in Hawaii. It would also put us well above the average consumption in 2020 for residential customers of our local utility, Cenhud. 

The roof, reimagined.
The bills have been higher than we could have realistically projected after living in New York City apartments for more than two decades. The house is bigger than our apartment, there are more appliances that demand power, and there's more space to cool in the summer. The recent shocks to global energy markets — a world roaring back to pre-pandemic life coupled with the war in Eastern Europe — haven't made projecting our energy budget any easier.

The image at left shows what we plan to do about it. Last week we signed a contract with Kasselman Solar to place solar panels with the capacity to generate more than 15,000 kWh per year on our roof. 

What lies ahead is, I think, going to be an interesting process. Ahead of me, there are financial questions concerning how to pay for it all, plus federal and state tax incentives as well as some state-based grants linked to watts generated. Then there's the obvious question: Will the system work as advertised? Will it save us money on our utility bills? In a series of posts here, I'm going to go down the rabbit hole on all things residential solar, and share the experience in hopes that others will benefit from what I learn along the way. Until then, dream of sunshine.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

John Lee Hooker, Bedroom Boogie, 1976

This is another favorite I’ve played over and over. It really conveys the feeling of a crowded bar with a great blues band playing, which is basically the way I’d spend most nights if I could. That is exactly where it was recorded: In a Chicago club called Wise Fools Pub, which still exists. A couple of extra tracks tacked on at the end are from other sources.






Wednesday, December 16, 2020

Van Morrison's Moving Live Acoustic version of "Sweet Thing" from the Summer of 1971

For nearly two decades I’ve been collecting recordings of live performances of musical artists I like. These are unofficial recordings, more often than not captured by fans in the audience at a concert. Mostly they’re not as good as a commercially rerecording, If you know anything about the Grateful Dead, then you know that the majority of its performing history has been captured by fans.

Generally, I’ve assembled this collection by way of torrent trackers like Dimeadozen and The Trader’s Den. They tend to be in lossless formats like FLAC, and then for listening and easy portability, I convert them to MP3. But I also keep the originals so that I can share them with other collectors.

By far the biggest chunk of my collection is from Van Morrison. I’ve bought nearly every album he’s released, and seen him in concert about a half dozen times. But I’ve also managed to track down a significant portion of his live-performing history. Most Van fans will tell you that if they could get more of anything, it would be from this early 70s phase when his solo career post-Them! was on the rise.

The good news is that if you’re willing to do the work, there’s a considerable amount of this period’s performances in circulation. The bad news is that it never quite feels like enough. Each one is different in its own nuanced way, and once you hear one, it’s pretty easy to head down the rabbit hole and search for more. And so it went for me starting in about 2003.

Here is a preview is one track from a Van performance on Aug. 8, 1971. The venue was a club in San Anselmo, Calif. called The Lion’s Share during a period when he was living in the Bay Area and playing a lot of gigs up and down the state.

Van played two shows that night and opened both with an acoustic set. This version of “Sweet Thing” is from the later show.