New Solar Products Testing Labs To Boost Renewable Energy
MILFORD, Conn. — Long before they were installed, the flat panels collecting solar thermal energy on the roof of Glen Mirmina's Milford home needed a laboratory's assurance that they could fulfill their manufacturer's promises.
With only five accredited testing labs in the U.S., though, manufacturers can wait up to two years for those "green" systems to reach the market – and without the certification, buyers like Mirmina can't claim thousands of dollars in energy conservation tax credits.
Now, two new solar thermal products testing labs are in the works: one at North Carolina State University and the other at Mirmina's alma mater, the University of New Haven.
The federal government, which is giving them a financial boost, hopes that having more U.S. testing labs will reduce certification delays and boost interest in solar thermal energy as an alternative to oil, natural gas and electricity.
The projects also are giving students at the two universities the chance to design the specialized facilities and, eventually, get hands-on testing experience that could lead to jobs in developing and testing "green" technologies.
"They're doing real-world engineering, coming up against real-world obstacles and finding ways around them," said Tommy Cleveland, manager of the new lab in UNH's Tagliatela College of Engineering. "It's really drawing on all aspects of engineering."
Design work for the university's lab kicked off last fall after the school received $500,000 from the U.S. Department of Energy and $100,000 from the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. It's expected to open in 2012.
The North Carolina State lab is closer to completion and could be operating by summer if all stays on schedule.
Both labs are being designed specifically to get accredited by the Florida-based nonprofit Solar Rating and Certification Corp., which sets standards on the reliability and durability of solar products.
Its standards date to 1980, but the laboratory testing delays only started about three years ago when the federal government started tying certain lucrative tax credits to SRCC certification.
None of the five U.S. laboratories that currently are accredited by SRCC to test and certify the items are anywhere near the Northeast. The closest is in Cocoa, Fla., and the others are in Plano, Texas; Menlo Park, Calif.; and Phoenix and Tempe, Ariz.
Other certified labs do the same work in Canada, Australia, Spain, Germany, China, Sweden and Switzerland.
For solar thermal collectors like Mirmina's rooftop panels, the testing determines if they are durable enough to withstand hail and other potential damage, will deliver as much energy as they claim and won't leak or crack over time.
Cleveland hopes the Connecticut lab will eventually expand enough for testing on other types of solar products, along with research on other energy technologies.
Coincidentally, the North Carolina lab director's name is also Tommy Cleveland, though the men were unaware of each other until learning they were in the same specialized field and building the same kinds of specialized labs.
Joey Dorwart, director of Sunlight Solar Energy in Milford, said the shortage of accredited labs and the testing delays have a direct effect on manufacturers and on companies like his that sell and install solar thermal systems.
It limits the types of equipment from which buyers can choose and the amount that distributors have on hand, and makes it slower for manufacturers to get the next generation of products on the market quickly, he said.
Mirmina, 41, said he spent almost $11,000 on the solar thermal energy system he bought to run his new home's water heater, but is recouping about half of the amount with state and federal tax credits – and will recoup the rest in the money he saves over the next several years.
The three flat rooftop panels collect solar energy in tubes containing a syrupy substance that gets hot, much like water in a garden hose heats when it sits in the sun.
The substance, propylene glycol, circulates in a constant flow through vertical tubes inside the walls and down to a coil inside his basement water storage tanks, warming the water that Mirmina and his family will use for showers, dishes and everyday life when they move into the house that's still under construction.
Some people also use solar thermal energy to heat their swimming pools, usually in warm-weather locations where sunlight is abundant.
Mirmina's water storage tank is connected to the home's electrical supply as a backup, though the solar system has held enough thermal energy even on cloudy days that it hasn't needed to kick over to electricity yet.
Mirmina, an engineer at Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., said he looked at geothermal technologies that take advantage of the Earth's heat, but settled on the solar thermal system because he was more comfortable with it. The SRCC certification provided by accredited labs added to his comfort level, especially since the tax incentives translate to thousands of dollars in savings.
"The more labs there are, the more developed it becomes as a technology and the less it might be viewed as a novelty – and you don't want a novelty in a home you want to live in for the next 50 years," he said.
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STEPHANIE REITZ 02/20/11 12:23 PM ET Associated Press