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Earth911’s 5 Things Today: Greenland’s Glacial Lakes, Floating Solar, & Salty Seas

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Earth911’s 5 Things Today: Greenland’s Glacial Lakes, Floating Solar, & Salty Seas

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Earth911 Podcast, April 1, 2019: Green Myths, Falsehoods, and Greenwashing

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Earth911 Podcast, April 1, 2019: Green Myths, Falsehoods, and Greenwashing

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Solar vs. Nuclear: Battle for the Best Carbon-Free Power

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Solar vs. Nuclear: Battle for the Best Carbon-Free Power

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Summing Up the Biggest Green News Stories of 2018

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Summing Up the Biggest Green News Stories of 2018

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10 Sustainable Mattress Companies: Choosing Your Perfect Green Sleep

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10 Sustainable Mattress Companies: Choosing Your Perfect Green Sleep

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Solar Water Heats Up

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Solar Water Heats Up

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New U.S. Solar Tariff to Stall Solar Energy Growth

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New U.S. Solar Tariff to Stall Solar Energy Growth

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7 Fast Food Chains Going Green

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7 Fast Food Chains Going Green

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4 Reasons the Cost of Solar Energy Keeps Falling

The U.S. now has enough solar energy capacity to power 6.2 million homes, according to a recent report by the Solar Energy Industry Association. Solar power is growing at an unprecedented rate of 43 percent, year over year. The plummeting cost of solar energy is fueling a boom in popularity.

The mission of the SunShot Initiative by the Department of Energy is “to make solar energy fully cost-competitive with traditional energy sources before the end of this decade, making this clean renewable energy resource more affordable and accessible to Americans.” The goal is to reduce the cost of solar energy to $.06 per kilowatt hour by 2020, and this appears to be very attainable at this point.

In fact, solar has already achieved price parity in 10 states. How’d that happen? Let’s look behind the scenes to gain a deeper understanding of price trends and how they impact the solar energy market.

1. Manufacturing Costs Taper Down

Solar panels, inverter costs and panel racking costs have come down at a steady pace each year, resulting in large declines over time. There are a variety of causes, including manufacturing efficiencies, a steep decline in polysilicone prices from their high levels a decade ago (a material used by the photovoltaic solar industry) and fierce competition among manufacturers.

This downward price trend is very common with new technologies. Remember how expensive new DVD players and cell phones were when they were first introduced? The cost per unit declines sharply once manufacturing kicks into high gear.

2. Solar Technology Advances

The greater the efficiency of the solar panels (and other equipment), the greater the overall energy production of the system. Although the most efficient solar panels available on the market have an efficiency of 22.5 percent, most panels are in the 14 to 16 percent range. This difference in efficiency means that one system can have a solar energy output that is 50 percent greater than a less efficient system. Some other associated costs are reduced by greater efficiency, such as racking system equipment, installation and transportation costs. Efficiency in turn fuels greater opportunities to sell more solar generation capacity, as many residential systems are limited by the space available for mounting panels.

3. Solar Investment Tax Credit

Since its passage in 2006, the Solar Investment Tax Credit has offered greater stability and a significant incentive for installing solar energy systems, for both the residential and commercial markets. The tax credit was created to support the rapid deployment of solar energy until it is cost competitive without it. The incentive offers a 30 percent tax credit for both residential and commercial solar energy systems. The credit was extended in 2015 and will be in effect until 2023, tapering off over time.

For residential solar systems, the tax credit is a dollar-for-dollar reduction in the federal income taxes owed by the homeowners by 30 percent of the installed cost of the solar system. A $10,000 solar system can qualify for a $3,000 tax credit. This is different from a tax write-off and is more valuable to the taxpayer.

Homeowners who lease solar systems cannot take advantage of the tax credit directly, but the solar leasor can. In theory, some or all of the savings generated from the tax credit are passed onto the homeowners through solar leases with more-affordable terms.

GTM Research predicts the tax credit extension will boost U.S. solar energy installations by 54 percent through 2020 and add enough solar energy generation capacity to power 4 million homes. Although the tax credit doesn’t directly reduce the cost of solar energy, it does help create the economy of scale needed for solar panels to be cost effective and helps create stability in the market for companies wanting to invest in research, infrastructure and other investments with a longer return. It’s worth noting that some, however, argue that the tax credit stifles innovation by artificially lowering prices.

4. Synergy Allows for Greater Solar Energy Growth

The trends that have surrounded the growth of the solar energy industry continue, making future growth likely. Today’s solar systems are generating more electricity and  a larger percentage of total household energy use. EnergySage, the so-called “Expedia of solar,” gathers data on quoted solar systems, offering insights into the months ahead. EnergySage recently released the third semiannual Solar Marketplace Intel Report, which indicates that recent solar energy trends will continue. For example, the quoted H1 2016 solar systems have a payback period of 7.5 years on average, compared with 8.2 years in H1 2015. EnergySage reports that the average quoted solar system size is 7.9 kW, compared with the average installed solar system size of just 5 kW.

The lower the price of a solar system and the shorter the payback period, the more people will go solar. People also tend to install solar energy systems when their neighbors do, thus solar installations encourage greater growth.

Featured image courtesy of Shutterstock.com

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Sarah Lozanova

Sarah Lozanova

is a renewable energy and sustainability journalist and communications professional with an MBA in sustainable management. She is a regular contributor to environmental and energy publications and websites, including Mother Earth Living, Earth911, Home Power, Triple Pundit, CleanTechnica, The Ecologist, GreenBiz, Renewable Energy World and Windpower Engineering. Lozanova also works with several corporate clients as a public relations writer to gain visibility for renewable energy and sustainability achievements.

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4 Reasons the Cost of Solar Energy Keeps Falling – November 21, 2016
Tesla’s New Solar Roof Is Pretty, But Is It Practical? – November 7, 2016
3 DIY Compost Bin Designs You Can Make This Weekend – November 3, 2016

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4 Reasons the Cost of Solar Energy Keeps Falling

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Robots And A Recyclables Recovery Revolution

It’s exciting to watch the green economy unfolding all around us. There are many problems to solve and many companies out there solving them. Take, for example, recyclables and a startup named Jodone.

Recyclables, robots and a recovery revolution

What’s Jodone?

Today, a municipal waste worker at a facility typically stands next to a moving conveyor belt, picking out recyclables like glass and plastic by hand. Jodone envisions letting robotics do the dirty work. Image Credit: Jodone (LinkedIn)

This Massachusetts-based company has a patented system of robots and software designed for use in waste recovery facilities – specifically municipal waste, which is some of the toughest to handle. Unlike waste streams like construction waste or medical waste which are confined to a subset of materials, municipal waste handles everything – from packaging to dead animals.

Today, a municipal waste worker at a facility typically stands next to a moving conveyor belt, picking out recyclables like glass and plastic by hand – an unpleasant and dangerous job.

Jodone envisions a day when that worker sits in an office with a tablet while a robot arm stands by the conveyor. Cameras over the conveyor relay images of the waste back to the worker’s tablet. The worker uses a super-simple touch screen to virtually “sort” the recyclable materials into appropriate bins – at a pick rate far higher than what a human can typically do (400 picks per hour vs. 2500 picks per hour for the robot.) According to Michael Rivera, Jodone’s COO, at that rate of speed, the cost per pick drops from about 50 cents/item to about 12 cents/item – a huge reduction.

The worker uses a super-simple touch screen to virtually “sort” the recyclable materials into appropriate bins – at a pick rate far higher than what a human can typically do. Image Credit: Jodone (YouTube)

Benefits: Both the “green” and profitable kind:

It helps mitigate climate change
Better, faster sorting of recyclables from waste reduces the amount of recyclables that are sent to landfills. And that means that landfills can become physically smaller. Indeed, many landfills are increasing the amount of waste they incinerate in order to shrink their physical footprint. There are simply better uses for land than landfills, as exemplified by the epic restoration of the enormous Fresh Kills Landfill on Staten Island.
Smaller, fewer landfills will also result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) like methane and less leaching of toxic materials like mercury and lead into water ways.

It helps cities make money through:
Sale of recyclables. Cities have long handled municipal wastes and recycling because they have been a revenue stream in the past. As Jodone CEO Cole Parker says, “By saving perfectly good recyclables from the waste stream, you stop burning money.” Instead, those materials can be sold to companies that use them for new products.
Handling more customers. In addition, when recyclables are removed from the waste stream, more actual trash can be burned by the waste facility. They can take on additional customers. And lest you worry that burning trash creates more GHGs, most of what comes out of those carefully monitored smokestacks is steam, which may be sold to industrial customers for heating and other purposes.

It’s a boon to MRF workers
A marriage of technology and people. Not many kids say, “I want to grow up to sort trash for a living” — but they might once they see Jodone’s system. The system is designed to augment workers — not replace them. Robots do what robots do best — the heavy lifting — while people do what people do best — identifying and handling exceptions.
Safety. The U.S. Department of Labor acknowledges that working at a waste handling facility can be dangerous for many reasons. Jodone’s system enables the removal of workers from that environment to an office environment (even a home office!), and that will reduce lifting injuries, trips, falls, and exposure to toxic fumes.
Fun. The fancy word for this is “gamification.” A key feature of Jodone’s system is a software platform that allows workers to engage in a little “friendly competition” as they sort the material coming in. Should waste facility management wish to incent workers on speed and/or accuracy of their work, they can turn the work into a game, and reward winners with performance pay. Jodone’s system introduces an element of fun into a set of tasks that traditionally have been unpleasant at best and dangerous at worst.

This patent-pending gaming interface allows humans to use their intelligence and problem-solving skills to solve real-world tasks in real-time. Additionally, Jodone decreases liability by removing employees from non-desirable environments. Jodone’s software platform works with industry-standard robots, from multiple providers. With the intelligence provided by humans, the robots can now complete complex tasks at extraordinarily quick speeds. The gaming interface also enables the collection of massive amounts of data. The data collected enables statistical modeling for improved performance, concrete performance data for training, performance rewards, and audits. Jodone’s solution provides practical solutions for seemingly impossible automation tasks. (Jodone LinkedIn)

What’s next

The team at Jodone is currently piloting their system at the Pope/Douglas Waste-to-Energy plant in Minnesota. They are busy calibrating everything from their software to the speed of the conveyor belt so that the facility runs optimally.  They are also preparing to train workers on using the tablets.

In addition, because their software includes a database that keeps a history of pictures and picks, the robots actually learn and get better every day. By year end, Jodone will have millions of data points to use to make the robots smarter and their human handlers even more efficient.

Their 5-minute “pitch” video on YouTube is worth a look!

How Jodone exemplifies the green economy

Jodone’s systems support a circular economy, which is fundamental to achieving a sustainable future. What’s neat is that, rather than asking people to make sacrifices, Jodone’s systems ideally will mean more money, more safety and more fun for workers and citizens alike. Jodone also represents the best in innovation, combining everything from “software-as-a-service” to machine learning to gamification.

Now that’s a future to look forward to!

Feature image credit: Photick / Shutterstock

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Alison Lueders

Alison Lueders is the Founder and Principal of

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– a green business certified by both Green America and the Green Business Bureau. She offers copywriting and content marketing services to businesses that are “going green.”Convinced that business can play a powerful and positive role in building a greener, more sustainable economy, she launched Great Green Content in 2011.

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Robots And A Recyclables Recovery Revolution – June 15, 2016
Get Ready To ‘Spring’ Into Composting – March 25, 2016
Waste Reduction, Recycle Rates And Yard Trimmings – February 26, 2016

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Robots And A Recyclables Recovery Revolution

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