Distributed Energy Generation / Micro-CHP / Solar

Technology and economics are converging to create new opportunities. 

"Take a look at Germany. Generous subsidies there caused solar panels to sprout all over what is hardly a tropical paradise.  As traditional utilities E.ON and RWE have struggled to adapt, their combined market value has slumped 56% over the past four years... Subsidies and falling technology costs are making distributed solar power - panels on roofs, essentially - cost-competitive with retail electricity prices in places like the southwestern U.S... And once panels are installed the energy is free... For most of the U.S., natural gas from shale is a bigger energy opportunity.  Gas isn't free like sunlight. But it's still cheap - and available day or night... it can fuel  generation equipment in the basement... What looks too expensive or esoteric today can quickly make gains; think mobile versus fixed-line phones... U.S. electricity consumption this year is forecast by the Energy Department to be 2% below the peak in 2007.  Efficiency efforts keep eroding electricity requirements." (WSJ 12/23/13) [Bold added for emphasis]

"A particular advantage of distributing power generation locally at the end-user rather than a remote power plant is that it can reduce the need for new power plant installations and free-up transmission line capacity for other uses (e.g. solar energy or wind turbine farms). There is also the advantage of it reducing long-range power transmission losses. Avoiding transmission line losses and power plant construction reduces costs, energy consumption and pollution for everyone. In a fully realized distributed power generation scenario, micro-CHP offers a reliable answer to the less predictable generation provided by other alternative energy sources and can, therefore, increase grid reliability.

In conventional power systems like the utility grid, thirty to forty percent (30- 40%) of the fuel used to produce energy is delivered to the household. The rest, or sixty to seventy percent (60-70%), is lost to the atmosphere as heat in the production or transmission of the electrical power. This contributes to global warming and the green- house effect."  (M-CoGen Company Brochure) [Bold added for emphasis]

Solar panels and natural gas micro combined heat and power units (micro-CHP) have the ability to change The Townlet from energy consumer to producer that may share excess power with the public grid.  Power generation can be provided by photovoltaic panels (PV Panels), internal combustion engines, fuel cells, Stirling engines  or micro turbines.  The micro-CHP/PV Panel combination provides reliable 24/7 power and heat.  Super insulated construction, passive solar storage and DC power distribution for lighting and  other DC devices assure that loads are minimized.