The Ecology Center and the Sierra Club Bay Chapter kindly co-sponsored a two-part Solar Simplified series held at the Ecology Center’s recently remodeled and very nice site.

The number of necessary topics to cover the basics of solar is growing, thanks to recent developments from PG&E, from Alameda County’s vote in November 2016 to create a “Community Choice Energy” program, and from the growing interest in the interconnection between solar, electric cars, and battery storage. So we decided to split the workshop into two 90-minute sessions.

Part 1 on June 10 covered these topics:

• Components of a PV system
• Solar Financing
• Solar Economics
• Environmental Benefits of Solar
• How to Find a Great Installer
• Solar in California and the World

Slides for Part 1 are here. I handed out a printout showing many of the details and calculations given in the slides. The printout is here.

Part 2 on June 24 covered these topics:

• Solar Panel and Inverter Choices
• Electric Vehicles
• Batteries
• Home Appliance Electrification
• Community Choice Energy
• Net Metering
• Policies (that promote or stymie solar)
• The Future of Solar

Slides for Part 2 are here.