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The Ecology Center and the City of Berkeley have teamed up to put on a workshop on How to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint in 2010.  The workshop will be held on February 25 from 7-9 pm at the Unitarian-Universalist Church at 1924 Cedar St.  in Berkeley.  You’ll learn how to reduce your own footprint and local resources available to help your friends and neighbors get on board.  Can’t make it?  Don’t fret–check the Ecology Center calendar for future workshops.

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Energy Star is a great example of a way a conscientious homeowner can save money by making his or her home more efficient. Started in 1992 by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the program is designed to help consumers find energy efficient appliances in order to save money while reducing greenhouse gases. In order to get the Energy Star seal of approval the appliance has to use 20-30% less energy than the current federal government requirements. The Energy Star appliances range from refrigerators to telephones to furnaces and are widely available.

Every year the average household spends an average of $1300 to $1900 on electricity. That’s a lot of dough, but with the Energy Star appliances, these households can save between $400 and $600 a year. With that kind of savings, Energy Star appliances quickly pay for themselves and then some. In addition to those great savings, the Federal Government has recently announced a “Cash for Appliances” rebate program. The program, similar to “Cash for Clunkers,” will make it easier to recycle your old appliances and provide rebates for new Energy Star appliances. For most states, the program is going live in February and March.

No matter how you choose to make your home more efficient, it’s important to realize that it isn’t hard to do. Whether you unplug your laptops, purchase head-turning gadgets or stick to tried and true Energy Star appliances, you will consume less electricity and save money, a win-win situation.

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For all you gear heads out there, there are some pretty cool ways to upgrade your home into a more energy efficient state.

The other day, I stumbled across the Wattbox. Currently undergoing field trials, the Wattbox is designed to control central and water heating. What makes the Wattbox unique is that it learns occupant’s habits. From Science Daily, “The Wattbox’s heating controller sets its own schedule by learning householders’ habits according to the times they use hot water and switch on electrical appliances. From this, it sets the thermostat to suit the householder’s lifestyle taking account of the outside temperature.” According to the Wattbox website, the overall energy savings from an installed Wattbox, was 15.7% in the winter and 34% during the summer months. That’s an incredible saving.

The next device I came across was called the DaySwitch. The DaySwitch focuses on reducing energy use by tailoring indoor lighting to natural light. The designer of the DaySwitch, Andrew Bierman said, “DaySwitch is an automatic device that will simply shut the lights off when there is plenty of daylight available.” The designers of the DaySwitch estimate that people who install their device could reduce lighting energy consumption by up to an impressive 30%. For some more great ideas, checkout this slide show from the 2009 Green Gadgets Design Competition.

Unfortunately, while these gadgets are very cool and exciting, they aren’t widely available.  However, there are some appliances out there that are ready to be installed in your home. Smarthome, a home electronics store, has entire department dedicated to home efficiency. These devices include, but aren’t limited to, outdoor lighting that runs on solar panels, a combination microwave and convection oven that purportedly requires half the cooking time of a normal oven and a lint removal system for your dryer that helps reduce the amount of energy consumed by the appliance.

Finally, there are several companies that are designing software that helps homeowners monitor their energy consumption. One company called Lucid Design is developing software that helps people understand their consumption, and therefore make more informed decisions on power usage. Lucid Design Group’s pilot programs have shown that real time feedback can reduce consumption by between 10% and 56%.

I haven’t been able to test these devices myself, so if anyone out there has any experience, or other great gadgets, please, let me know.

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Over the next couple of days, I’m going to be looking at a few easy ways for homeowners to make their dwellings more energy efficient with the aim to save money. Overall, I’ve found that the quickest and easiest way to accomplish home efficiency is to merely brush up on a little home energy use knowledge.

For example, did you know that the average household has 20 phantom loads? A phantom load refers to the power consumed by devices when they are switched off or in standby mode. In a snowstorm, the individual snowflakes are insignificant, but for anyone who has ever shoveled snow, you know that when combined they can weigh a ton. Phantom loads are the same. Alone they don’t consume very much energy (an average of 3-20 watts), but when added together, they can cost a household an additional $200 a year. Sally Deneen from The Daily Green writes, “Here are some clues to identify your energy suckers: They’re appliances with remote controls, such as TVs, VCRs and audio equipment. They feature a continuous digital display — like those glowing clocks on stoves. They feature rechargeable batteries, such as cordless phones (which use energy even after the battery is charged). And they’re appliances with external power supplies, such as inkjet printers and iPod chargers.”

All of this talk of phantoms and the damage they do is pretty scary, but thankfully we don’t need the Ghostbusters to take care of them. There are a couple of really easy ways to beat these power guzzlers. The first, and most certainly the easiest way to deal with phantom loads is to simply unplug the device when you aren’t using it. Similarly, if you plug everything into a power strip, you turn can them all off at once. What could be easier?

The next time you need a little motivation to bend over and unplug your cell phone charger, just think what you would do with an extra $200 is your pocket?

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Last week Danny and two other industry leaders recorded a round table discussion on “How to Build a Business in Clean Energy.” The podcast features Sramana Mitra, entrepreneurial consultant and author of the book “Entrepreneur Journeys,” and Wayne Krouse, founder and CEO of Hydro Green Energy.

This is a great opportunity to hear some leading entrepreneurs who are making a difference in the clean economy.

Give it a listen!

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In the last few years China has emerged as the world’s solar powerhouse. By setting the ambitious goals of generating 15 per cent of its energy from green sources by 2020 and becoming the world’s largest exporter of clean energy technology, China is posed to become a model for the rest of us to follow.

Serious Chinese Government support has allowed Chinese entrepreneurs to develop and produce some of the cheapest materials, which in turn have driven prices throughout the market down. This trend has helped make it possible for companies like Sungevity to bring affordable solar to Californians!

In addition to emerging as major solar manufacturers, the Chinese are starting to work on their own solar projects. In September 2009, it was announced that Arizona’s First Solar, in conjunction with the Chinese Government, is going to start working on a 25 square mile photovoltaic farm on the Mongolian Steppes. The plant, expected to be complete in 2019, is projected to generate enough energy to power 3 million households!

Check out what Danny Kennedy has to say on the subject at sfgate’s City Brights.

Here at Sungevity, our hats are off to the Chinese for all of their progress. Gung Hay Fat Choy!

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Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN) have just introduced the 10 Million Solar Roofs and 10 Million Gallons of Solar Water Heating Act of 2010. Modeled on California’s Million Solar Roof Initiative, the act would provide rebates to residential and commercial property owners to install solar arrays and solar hot water heating systems. Who knows whether they’ll get it through this Congress!? You can read more about it here: Renewable Energy World

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With rising customer demand and steady growth, Sungevity announces $6m Series B and adds CFO, COO and VP of Technology and Product Development

BERKELEY, Calif.  September 22, 2009. Leading online solar provider Sungevity announced today that it has raised an additional $6 million led by Greener Capital, a new venture capital firm.

Charles Finnie, managing partner in Greener Capital, said. “This is the best business model we have seen in the residential solar space. Sungevity’s unique web-based direct selling model has enabled the potential for rapid deployment, great customer service and scalability at the lowest installed cost in the industry. We are excited to invest in Sungevity, as solar power becomes competitive with grid electricity across the US.

Finnie will join the Sungevity Board. The company has also added three key members to its executive team, doubled its salesforce, and plans to enter three new geographies by the end of the year.

We’re very pleased to welcome such a remarkable group to Sungevity, said Danny Kennedy, president and cofounder of the company.  We believe that the support from Greener Capital and our growing world class team will be a tremendous boost to our mission of giving more customers greater access to solar electricity. We’re making going solar easy, an excellent investment and a smart way for you to reduce carbon pollution.

Joining Sungevity are:

• Charles Ferer, CFO. Most recently Ferer served as CFO for SolarCity, the USA’s largest solar installer, where he helped raise over $60M in tax equity and launch a successful solar leasing program. He has more than 20 years of experience for companies including Gap and PepsiCo. Ferer has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Puget Sound, and an MBA in Finance from Indiana University.
• Daphne Li, COO. Li has held key leadership positions in marketing, product management, strategy and M&A at ADP and Apple. As Chief Strategy Officer and VP, Marketing for DoveBid, she helped start up business online auctions and grew revenue from $12M to $150M. She currently sits on KQED’s board. Li has a B.A. in Economics and an MBA, both from Stanford.
• Ariel Tseitlin, VP of Technology and Product Development. Tseitlin was most recently the Founder & CEO of CTOWorks, a software consultancy advising early-stage start-ups on their technology strategy.  Prior to CTOWorks, Tseitlin was the VP of Engineering at Playboox, a SaaS CRM start-up.  Tseitlin has also held senior management positions at Oracle and Siebel Systems. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from UC Berkeley and an MBA with Honors from Wharton.

With our easy online service, we have the lowest-cost way of getting solar power into American homes said Andrew Birch, CEO and cofounder of Sungevity.  Now we have the team and resources to make sunshine online available to millions of home-owners.

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Numbers are in for kilowatt reservations for the month of August under the California Solar Initiative. And the greenest green shoot of recovery I’ve seen that we have proof of is the solar industry picking up. Certainly Sungevity experienced it’s strongest sales month ever, which is good news for all our new customers who are going to save money and good news for the planet because they’re saving CO2 too!

There is some question whether this spike was driven only by the rebate drop in PG&E’s turf, which I’m sure had a strong effect on motivating people to buy (basically the money you got back on a system dropped a chunk - see my previous post on this “The rebate drop is coming”). But now is still the best time to go solar in terms of economics for the end customer so we expect demand to continue to grow. Shine on!

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Thanks to the CarbonWarRoom, which provides this cool widget tracking the number of solar watts being installed in the USA this year…

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