Creative Energies Blog

For Immediate Release

Date: 2.18.2010

Contact: Scott Kane, Creative Energies

Creative Energies hired for Largest Solar Project in Wyoming

Town of Jackson contracts with Creative Energies for 810 panels

Lander-based Creative Energies has been contracted to design and install several of the biggest solar power systems in the state and region. The Town of Jackson, WY has hired Creative Energies, to install an additional 810 solar panels on Town facilities, creating the largest solar installation in the state.  When the project is completed this summer, the town of Jackson will have four solar projects with a total capacity of 225kW. The largest of these projects will be at the town’s wastewater treatment facility, where a total of 842 panels will produce roughly 200kW. Of the three other systems, two are already in place — on the stair tower of the parking garage and at the Deloney street public restroom – and the third system will assist a town water project in Karns meadow.

  27kW solar array installed at the Jackson Waste Water Treatment plant in 2008 by Creative Energies. The 2010 installation will be six times as large!

“Our goal with these projects” said Mayor Mark Barron “is to continue to move the ball forward with our commitment to becoming energy sustainable. We have good baseline data about usage and have made significant strides in setting out energy efficiency retrofit strategies. Renewable energy is also a critical piece of our overall sustainability goals, and we are thrilled to partner with Creative Energies and leverage stimulus dollars to save energy, create jobs, and work towards national goals of energy security.”

In addition to the Town of Jackson project, Creative Energies have also been selected to design and build several other major projects. The company won a highly competitive bidding process to secure and a a contract with the US National Park Service to design and build a 76 kilowatt  solar power system for at Mesa Verde National Park in Southwest Colorado. They are also currently under construction on a 50 kilowatt solar installation for the Wyoming Department of Tourism and Travel and WDOT’s  North East Wyoming Welcome Center near Sundance, Wyoming.

The Town of Jackson solar farm will be the largest solar array in  Wyoming and several of the surrounding states, and the Town of Jackson will be the largest grid tied solar customer in the region. “Two hundred and twenty five kilowatts of solar is a very large system for this area” says Creative Energies owner Andy Tyson. “The Town is really making a sound investment in this technology. By targeting stimulus funding on a technology that will yield steady energy generation with minimal operating cost for decades to come, the Town has made a shrewd long-term investment.” The solar panels will create as much electricity as is used by 33 Wyoming homes.

Creative Energies has been designing and installing renewable energy systems in the Rocky Mountain west for nine years. They have completed solar energy systems, wind power systems and geothermal heating and cooling systems for residences, ranches, businesses, schools and state and federal agencies.

Creative Energies

P.O. Box 1777, Lander,  WY 82520
Lander, WY office  307.332.3410
Victor, ID office  208.354.3001
Fax  888.456.6625
scott@creativeenergies.biz    

www.creativeenergies.biz

PO Box 1777 · Lander, WY 82520 · 307.332.3410 · www.CreativeEnergies.biz

By Scott Kane
3/13/2010

Each year, somewhere around the beginning of March, things at Creative Energies get busy. Well, if Creative Energies is busy that means Toby Schmidt, Co-Owner and project manager, is going full speed. This is what he did last week:

Monday:
6am start. Fort Washakie Entrepreneurs Center PV installation. Load 40 solar panels and the solar mounting rack in the CE work truck. Toby, Dan Kilcoyne (Electrician) and Curtis Tronlone (solar and geothermal installer) arrive on site and spend the day building three solar mounting structures and installing 40 Evergreen ES-A 205 modules on a flat roof of a great looking new commercial building. Beautiful day. Done by 5pm. The solar array looks great. Dan will go back to complete the electrical work.

Tuesday:
6 am start. 10 kilowatt residential PV solar installation near Cody. Load up 45 Sunpower solar modules and rack material on a truck and trailer. Drive three hours, again with Dan and Curtis. Today’s solar install is on a 8/12 pitch roof. Fall protection equipment slows the pace of work but that’s what it takes to put solar on a roof with an appropriately steep pitch. The work gets harder when the snow started to fall. An inch or two of snow complicates work on a steep roof. According to Dan, the last half hour of work took three hours. Once again, a great looking solar array installed in one go, though this time the finish was in the dark. Again, Dan will go back to do the remaining electrical work.

Wednesday:
Toby and Curtis switch gears from solar to geothermal. They travel to Sundance, WY to continue work on an ongoing geothermal project. We are installing both solar and a geothermal loop field at the Northeast Wyoming Welcome Center, now under construction. After five hours driving to get there they stage our Bobcat skid steer, our drilling rig and our grout pump at the geothermal field site. Spring mud conditions prevented them from getting the vehicles to where they wanted but they made it work somehow. “Grouting” means injecting a precise mixture of silica sand, bentonite grout and water down into the full depth of each of our sixteen 200 foot deep geothermal bore holes. It is not a clean or quiet process. Done well, though, it allows the geoxchange field to capture or release heat into the ground efficiently.

Thursday:
More grouting. All day. Lots of mud and sand. Drive five hours back to Lander. Arrive 2 am.

Friday:
6 am start. Project planning meeting in Mesa Verde, CO. Creative Energies has been selected to design and install a 76 kW solar installation at Mesa Verde National Park, CO. Toby’s list of skills is long and full of surprises. New to the list is flight. Toby and Phil Schneider (system engineer) meet at the Lander airport at first light. At 8:30 they are 500 miles south. A productive working session with National Park Service staff helps to map out a complex installation. Phil and Toby touch down in Lander just before dark.

Above and following are photos from my recent visit to the Solar Decathlon event in Washington DC. Teams of students from 20 universities design and build small homes that need to meet specific performance and comfort goals. The event is held every two years, when the homes are “built” on the Mall in Downtown Washington DC. Tours are given to the public and the houses are tested and judged. The application of quality building materials and the innovation in small footprints (800 sqft is the maximum) is really interesting to see and experience. There was plenty of variety in the solutions to the meet the engineering challenges of the event, but one thing remained the same as the last Solar Decathlon – Germany won. I had a couple favorites – Ontario and California, with many bits and pieces from other homes. Check out the Solar Decathlon website for virtual tours, product lists and links to competing teams websites. http://www.solardecathlon.org/

As my internship winds down, I am able to reflect on my experiences with Creative Energies and realize how much work I did this summer.  It has been an amazing experience for me here in Lander.  I have worked on 14 jobs as well as several office projects that I completed while not in the field.  One job that stood out for me was working on the PV install at the Pioneer Senior Center in Marbleton, Wyoming. This was the largest project I was involved in which involved installing 112 modules between 2 arrays. It was a great learning opportunity for me because I was able to see how these systems were installed at a larger scale and the different techniques that are used when dealing with larger systems like these.

I wanted to work for a renewable energy company this summer for several reasons. The most important reason being that I wanted to gain experience in the field that I plan on getting into after I graduate this May. Networking is another reason why I wanted to work for a renewable energy company. It is an important to get your name out there when finding any job because the more people that know who you are the more likely you are to have a job opportunity arise. I also realized the need to gain experience in this field because although studying this is college is important getting real work experience is even more important. Overall this has been an amazing opportunity, which I have taken full advantage of, and not only have I gained experience but I have made friends that I will stay in contact with in the future. 

Hello loyal blog followers, I am Allen Roth, the Creative Energies summer intern, I come from the University of Vermont and I am majoring in Environmental Studies with a focus on renewable energy.

Several weeks ago Curtis and I installed a geothermal system at a property in Lander, Wyoming. The system consisted of 6000 feet of piping strung out in 6 – 1000 foot coils. It was a big learning experience for me as it was my first geothermal install. In my studies I learned about the different loopfields and had diagrams that explained how the system worked. After working on a system myself I realize that the diagram is not enough. I think a lot of people can relate, so here is the quick and dirty. A geothermal system can be compared to a refrigerator where the pipe coils in the loopfield represent the coils on the back of your refrigerator. Instead of removing the heat from inside the refrigerator and dissipating it out the back, the coils in the ground collect heat energy available in the ground, concentrate it, and dump it into the home. The heat pump does this by circulating water through the loop field where the temperature is consistently 50 degrees Fahrenheit. This thermal energy, collected by the water, enters the heat pump where a compressor concentrates and exaggerates the temperature. Traditional ducting and plumbing systems deliver the heat throughout the home. In cooling mode it works exactly like a refrigerator, the home becomes the icebox and the heat is dumped in the ground through the coils.

We began by setting up the 6 strings in the grass next to the pit before moving them to their final resting place seven feet below the ground. We pre-constructed the loops because the high water table in the area made it necessary to pump the water out of the pit every 30 minutes! This made moving the strings difficult, but with the help of Dan, Toby, and Phil we managed to get them in without a problem. It was an experience to say the least. Trying not to fall face first in the mud every step you took, and knowing that the excavation crew above were just waiting for one of us to take a fall was quiet a thrill!

The environmental impacts of using a geothermal system are great as the main source of heat is the earth itself. These systems have a drastically smaller footprint because there is no need to burn fossil fuels to produce the heat. The heat is just being collected from the ground, and concentrated in the home. Energy consumption can be as much as two thirds of alternative heating systems. On average the savings from a geothermal system will pay for itself in 5-7 years, which makes it the most economical renewable heating system on the market.

Dan and Donna were very nice to meet.  They were both nterested in my studies and my thoughts about renewable energy and climate change. We had several discussions about what I thought the future held in regards to climate change and the move towards a more sustainable world. While we were working on their geothermal system, they both were fully involved in building their log home. This home has been designed with the environment in mind. The moderate size (2,000 sqft), and airtight construction alone makes this home more energy efficient than most. On top of these basic fundamentals the crawl space is insulated and the roof is constructed of SIPs (structurally insulated panels) (http://www.sips.org/content/about/index.cfm?pageId=7). Having a log home happens to be a dream that I have had since I was young. Watching them both work on the house really inspired me not only to keep that dream alive, but also to improve it by incorporating renewables. Adapting to the world now is a must if we plan on becoming a more sustainable world in the future. It was great to see how enthusiastic they were about their home and the different renewable systems they have installed. They mentioned how they raised their children to uphold a strong environmental philosophy, and they realized that building a home that incorporates renewables gave them an opportunity not just to preach about that philosophy, but also to apply it in their everyday lives. Aside from the geothermal, they also has us install  2.7 kW photovoltaic system earlier this spring. This system produces approximately 12 kWh per day. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, this will offset close to half of the electricity used by the average consumer. It’s clear that Dan and Donna’s decision-making has been motivated by their desire to reduce their carbon footprint. Although their efforts won’t stop climate change, it is a giant first step in the right direction. 

Earlier this spring Toby and I headed down to Mulege Mexico to do some work on the NOLS Mexico off grid solar power system. As the school continues to grow so has their energy loads. Seeing as the roof that the solar panels were mounted to was being replaced it seemed like a good time to make some updates.

In all we added two inverters, two charge controllers, 20 solar panels, connected the new battery bank and a new reconditioned generator courtesy of the NOLS bus. When we left we had more than doubled their production, allowing the batteries to be at a higher state of charge at the end of the day.

I was personally shocked to see the power production jump ten to fifteen percent just after cleaning all the existing panels. Being a bit of a self-proclaimed clean freak, I can tell you it was the most satisfaction I have ever experienced on the job! The system is approximately a six kW system. NOLS Mexico uses power in their daily operations for water pumping, fans, lights, internet and computers. During the day they are able to produce more than enough energy for daytime loads, the excess energy gets stored in their battery bank, and is used throughout the night. all the folks that work at the branch were very nice, and our time spent their was a refreshing change of pace from daily life in Lander. It turns out that its true what they say, that all work and no play makes jack a dull boy. In some down time we were able to do a little sailing……thanks to Alex for literally showing me the ropes! My natural sailing ability is a telltale sign that Ill be back at some point for some more fun, sun and good food.