I’m Doug McKenzie, living in Berkeley having moved back from Palo Alto in 2016. Solar electric power, and rooftop solar in particular, has the greatest benefits and the fewest drawbacks of any electricity source, and therefore, with help from batteries, it will become the dominant power source. I want to help us get there sooner rather than later. I’m on the Board of the Northern California Solar Energy Association (NorCal Solar).

I began teaching intro-to-solar workshops for Palo Alto Utilities in 2013. Solar is conceptually easy and elegant: shine sunlight on a panel and out comes electricity. It’s basically just the opposite of a light bulb. But everything else from equipment choice and installer to financing and economics, can get complicated and confusing. Electric vehicles and battery storage were a small part of the conversation back in 2013, but especially since April 2023 when California implemented “Net Billing” also known as Net Energy Metering 3.0 (NEM3), storage is much more relevant. EVs have come a long way since then, many more models, lower prices, and many more public charging stations.

Solar on its own was complex enough, but adding storage makes it much more so. What size of battery, for what purpose (generally load-shifting to charge up with midday solar and discharge during the evening and/or backup power for grid outages), for how many days of backup and will you back up the whole home or only critical loads? Cost based on all these factors varies much more widely than a solar only system.

There are few unbiased people or places to go to, to figure out how to get started. This is unfortunate,  considering we’re in the beginning phases of a many-decades long disruption to our whole energy industry. For over 100 years, one monopoly power company generated and delivered all your electricity. Now with solar, with Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) entities such as East Bay Community Energy and MCE Clean Energy and many others, with batteries, with EVs, with Microgrids and Virtual Power Plants (VPP), with appliances that need to know when to run and not run, with smartphone apps, and like it or not artificial intelligence to (hopefully) keep it all running smoothly, anyone without confusion probably isn’t paying attention. My goal is to be the “start here” button for understanding solar and batteries (either on wheels or in an EV) and ultimately, preparing you for the future as we wind through our energy industry disruption. I can help you through initial confusion to gaining conceptual understanding, and then help with all the details so you’ll be confident in talking with contractors, knowing what you want, comparing bids, understanding financing alternatives, and making all the right decisions.

Feel free to contact me or ask a question.