By Robert Lagerblad
NTREG event coordinator for the DFW Solar Tour 2022
Saturday, October 1st was a lovely day for the 2022 solar tour in the Dallas/Ft. Worth metroplex, the first tour in two years. This year’s tour was in-person.
“We originally considered making this year’s tour a hybrid one, in person and via zoom, but we ultimately went with in-person only,” said Robert Lagerblad, NTREG event coordinator for the 2022 solar tour. Homes on this year’s tour were single family.
This year’s tour featured six homes; five in the Dallas/Plano area and one in Frisco.
According to Lagerblad, the Abdalla site was the most visited, with more than 30 visitors signed up. “Actually, more than 30 showed up since some didn’t sign up,” said Lagerblad. The Abdalla House has a 9.3kW rooftop system with a Span electrical panel and EV charger and a 13.5kWh Tesla Powerwall storage system.
According to the owner, his solar experience came after he was fired from his corporate oil and gas job.
“I wandered for a year throughout South America, Europe, Africa and Asia. During long train rides, I thought a lot about the carbon footprint I had created from working in the oil and gas sector,” he said. While he was in Germany, he learned 40% of the country’s power comes from solar.
“I was now fully bought into transitioning away from the mine-and-burn hydrocarbon economy, towards the solar-electric economy, which I believed to be the primary sustainable solution,” Abdalla said. “A future where everything is powered by the sun, including the electric vehicles in your garage.”
When I returned home, he learned about the North Texas Renewable Energy Group and the Plano Solar Advocates, two nonprofits based in DFW dedicated to the advancement of renewable energy education and advocacy. “I spent the next 24 months volunteering my time in an effort to soak up as much knowledge and experience as I could to bring my renewable energy project development dreams to fruition.”
There’s more to the 9.7kW rooftop array and 26kWh battery storage system at the Motta house.
“This combination of solar and battery backup power came to be a valuable asset during the cold and snow event of Feb 2021,” said Rick Motta. “The house generated power doing the daytime and the batteries powered the house at night during all the brown and black-outs experienced across Texas. In fact, neighbors were able to come by and warm up, shower, cook during the extended outages providing a valuable community service opportunity. During other severe weather, the solar and battery systems help keep the house functional and provides a degree of security during these stressful times.”
Lagerblad was pleased with the turnout. “We think it was successful, especially since there was a two-year hiatus and people’s solar awareness is considerably more acute after Winter Storm Uri,” he said. “A huge shout out to our hosts and volunteers who helped make the 2022 DFW solar tour a success.”
What does it take to keep a preeminent, 40-year-old solar nonprofit thriving during a pandemic, extreme weather conditions and intransigent decision makers? For the past three years, Patrice ‘Pete’ Parsons has been at the helm of TXSES, carrying out the organization’s mission to educate and inspire every Texan to adopt solar energy as part of an equitable 100% clean energy future. Keeping the organization growing requires exemplary leadership and vision.
“My professional career in clean energy has prepared me for this assignment,” said Parsons. “Technologies have advanced. Consumer awareness has never been higher; demand has never been stronger. Climate change is no longer a speculation. My work at TXSES feels more urgent than ever.”
We sat down with Pete for an in-depth conversation about where TXSES has been and where it’s going.
TXSES: It’s been three years since you took over at TXSES. Where has the time gone? Your career has included work in the public, private and NGO sectors. Did that prepare you for a 40-year-old statewide solar nonprofit with regional chapters in five major metropolitan Texas cities?
PP: I’ve had a rewarding, inspiring professional career in clean energy which started back when Ann Richards was governor. I was at the General Services Commission (GSC) at the time and tasked with implementing her executive order directing all state agencies to recycle and buy recycled paper. I also worked on re-writing the Architectural and Engineering (A&E) Guidelines for state construction which included recycled building materials. I was fortunate to work on the state’s very first wind project in the Davis Mountains that would provide power to all state buildings in Austin.
After GSC, I took over the Governor’s Energy Office which I renamed to SECO, the current State Energy Conservation Office. I was focused on exploring how renewables could make an economic and environmental impact on the state. From there, I worked for the General Land Office (GLO) and Land Commissioner Garry Mauro which included representing him on President Clinton’s National Alternative Fuels Task Force and the EPA Clean Air Advisory Committee. It was a ton of fun!
TXSES: Feels like we’re only halfway to present day!
PP: After the GLO, I worked for HARC (Houston Advanced Research Center) where I started a Fuel Cell Research Center. I assembled a team of privately held companies to fund research on PEM (proton exchange membrane) fuel cells for stationary applications. From HARC, I went to ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability as its South-Central Director to help 50 cities implement climate action, sustainability and resiliency plans. It was exciting but exhausting! That’s when Ann Hamilton, formerly with the Houston Endowment and current TXSES board member, told me about the ED opportunity with TXSES. In addition to my interest in seeing how I can make a difference in the solar arena, returning to Austin felt like the right move so I could be closer to my mom, my children and my grandchildren. So to answer the question: did my previous work prepare me for TXSES? Absolutely. So much has happened over the past 30 years. Technologies have advanced. Consumer awareness has never been higher; demand has never been stronger. Climate change is no longer a speculation. My work at TXSES feels more urgent than ever. We have no time to waste.
Pete Parsons at HARC meeting, ca 2000
TXSES: So tell us what TXSES is focusing on these days.
PP: With all that’s happening in the clean energy space, it’s easy to get overwhelmed. To respond to consumer demand for solar, we see strategic distributed solar opportunities for a more resilient grid with rooftop and community solar. There’s no drop in consumer demand; in fact, our installers tell us they need workers! In response, we jumped in to help. For the past 18 months, we’ve been focused on building an educated, quality-trained diverse solar workforce for low-income populations; we’re pleased with our progress.
TXSES: Who else is TXSES targeting with education and training?
PP: Thanks to marketing support from the Texas Electric Cooperative, we’ll be holding training for Texas rural electric coops with experts from industry, national labs, and consultants who will share their experience and knowledge about technical opportunities and challenges, funding, state and national examples of community solar, residential and commercial solar programs, how to value solar. We hosted two of these workshops for New Braunfels Utility (NBU) earlier this year which were wildly received. According to NBU, these workshops provided a wealth of information that increased its understanding of and confidence in implementing initiatives that are new to many coops.
TXSES: TXSES was involved in last year’s effort to educate homeowners in the Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) service territory. How did that go?
PP: There’s good news and not-so-good news. Working with other stakeholders, we focused on organizational change at the PEC to diversify its leadership and promote clean energy programs. Our efforts included leadership diversity, a vigorous public awareness campaign for solar in PEC’s service territory and a value of solar study to quantify the costs and benefits of each solar owner’s array to PEC’s system.
We hosted several town halls to educate PEC homeowners about proposed changes to PEC’s rates for solar generation. Despite our efforts, PEC prevailed its bid to implement anti-solar policies that affect current solar homeowners and potential solar homeowners. As the largest rural electric coop in Texas AND the US, PEC’s actions are especially concerning. That said, we’re not deterred. In fact, it only fires us up to ramp up our consumer awareness efforts so PEC homeowners have fact-based information to make decisions that will impact their lives and ours as well.
TXSES: The recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has substantial funding opportunities for states. In fact, we’ve not seen such a tranche of federal money for energy initiatives since ARRA (American Recovery & Reinvestment Act). What are your thoughts about this?
TXSES: It is the most significant climate legislation in US history. Modeling finds IRA’s $370B in climate and clean energy could help cut US greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions up to 43% BELOW 2005 levels by 2030…just seven years away! Reports of job growth exceed one million new jobs, affirming our work to educate and train a quality, diverse solar workforce. To capitalize on those federal dollars, Texas must pass bold clean energy targets. But with actions like appointees to the quasi-secretive State Energy Advisory Plan Committee by the governor, lieutenant governor and speaker, opportunities to realize those bold clean energy targets will be a challenge.
But the opportunities are huge. The State Energy Conservation Office (SECO) will have its hands full administering those dollars. While fossil fuels do benefit from this bill, clean energy resources like solar, wind and efficiency are the real beneficiaries of IRA. One of the really big wins: the 30% federal tax credit for rooftop solar installations now has a 10-year extension! Other consumer tax credits include energy-efficient windows, doors, electric water heaters, furnaces, electric vehicles (EV) and EV recharging equipment. Just a couple of weeks ago, SEG Solar announced it will build a 2 GW capacity solar module manufacturing plant in Houston. Construction is expected to begin at the end of this year and be operational by mid-2023. And while this was in the works before IRA, I think we’ll see more solar manufacturing facilities pop up all across the US, thanks to the IRA.
TXSES: Another reason to make sure we’ve got a strong solar workforce! But…what about the delays in permitting? This has been publicized a lot lately.
PP: Bret Biggart, Freedom Solar (and TXSES Platinum Business Member) wrote about this very issue in a recent issue of Texas Monthly. If Texas consumers want to go solar and help relieve pressure on the grid, why make it so difficult? It’s not that difficult a process, and certainly not helping consumers have a favorable view of their utility. But there’s a great tool to help alleviate this issue. Solar App+ software developed by NREL is a free online tool that completely automates the permitting process, shaving five to 10 days off the process. Solar App+ is projected to add solar to 2.4 million homes and 30,000 jobs across the US. We’re working to raise awareness of Solar App+ by Texas local governments and coops so they can deploy it.
TXSES: This was one of the hottest summers on record. We’ve not seen final numbers for August or September but 2022 ranks as one of, if not the hottest summers on record, and the likelihood that this kind of weather pattern is now the norm. How do you see TXSES responding to this over the next five years?
PP: It’s not just summer temperatures that are extreme. Remember Winter Storm Uri in February 2021? This is everyone’s conversation today. What do we do? Where do we go? How do we pivot and adjust to this new existence? Our collective response must be thoughtful, smart, common sense. We formed a policy committee for our business members to ensure we know first-hand what issues are impacting the industry. Five years is just two legislative sessions. In fact, we’re gearing up for the 86th legislative session in January which is safe to assume will have a significant energy focus. We’ll be busy doing what we do best: educating decision-makers and individuals with fact-based information about the value and benefits of solar. We can no longer limp along with an antiquated, volatile electric grid and policies that support the status quo while consumer demand for solar is off the charts. At TXSES, we’re not standing idly by, hoping our decision-makers boldly confront the issues of climate change, drought, extreme heat and cold temperatures. Consumer demand drives policies. We’re deeply committed to our decades-old work to make sure all Texans are educated about solar.
In his nearly three decades of public service work, Dub has been a tireless advocate for energy efficiency, clean energy and performance contracting in the public sector. Currently, treasurer of the Texas Solar Energy Society Board of Directors, Dub splits his time between the Energy Services Coalition, where he’s its Executive Director and the Texas PACE Authority where he’s COO. From 1999-2020, Dub was Executive Director of the State Energy Conservation Office (SECO), the state agency charged with helping state and local governments, schools and state agencies reduce their energy footprint through conservation and renewables. With the recent passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, we wanted Dub’s thoughts on how those funds will impact SECO. Here’s our conversation.
TXSES: How did you find your way to the SECO office?
DT: Typical of state government, it wasn’t a direct path. I was doing campaign work in Dallas when I got recruited to work for the Railroad Commission. I agreed, assuming it would be a short six-month stint. Six years later, SECO moved from the General Services Commission (GSC) to the Comptroller. And while the office moved, it moved without management. That’s when I got the call from the Comptroller’s Office to help. The office needed to be evaluated; was the legislature interested in retaining the office? Ultimately, the decision was to keep SECO. My task: assess, determine what needed to be done and pivot to enhance its inherent value to the state.
TXSES: The energy office has had many iterations, as you said.*
DT: SECO’s move from GSC to the Comptroller was its eighth. It had different names, it was its own agency twice, went through Sunset twice. Historically, it was a political office, very policy-oriented. It had resources and programs that were aligned with the current elected official and when that changed, programs and resources started all over again. It was very inefficient. Moving SECO to the Comptroller’s Office de-politicized it. As the state’s CFO, the Comptroller is concerned with revenue, expenditures. Its very existence starts and ends with the bottom line. SECO is the state office responsible for maximizing tax dollars used to support public facilities. Overall, the Comptroller is a good, natural fit for SECO.
TXSES: Has SECO’s scope of work changed over the years in response to ever-changing statewide needs?
DT: Yes. While energy efficiency opportunities are still at the core of SECO, it now includes water management. We can make more energy; we can’t make more water. We can conserve precious water resources by measuring and managing. Like energy audits, SECO performs water audits. The Loan Star Program funds water or energy projects, or both. The split of funding is about 75% energy, 25% water.
TXSES: How are funds allocated to SECO?
DT: Hard to believe but some funding is still oil overcharge – most all allocated to LoanStar making up half of the fund. For that initial investment, LoanStar has a 3x impact by leveraging Federal funds and generating tax dollar savings of $750 million. Beyond that, SECO does rely much on state appropriated dollars. Since SECO has been successful going after federal dollars for program activities, this affects how much state funding is appropriated.
TXSES: The Renewable Energy Demonstration Program…why is it still referred to as a demonstration? Are we still demonstrating new technologies?
DT: That’s how it’s referred to in statute under oil overcharge funding. SECO is very careful to stay within the guardrails of the statutes, not to stray outside its authority.
TXSES: What are your thoughts on how the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will impact Texas writ large and SECO particularly?
DT: The IRA is largely tax credits and incentives, more tailored to individual homeowners. There are some programs, like the HOMES housing rebate program that states can apply for. For any low-moderate income housing incentive funds, SECO could partner with the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA), where SECO would administer the grant and TDHCA provides its expertise for that set of homeowners. . It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out.
TXSES: In your experience, what are some of SECO’s biggest challenges?
DT: Staffing. Currently, SECO has as small a staff as has ever been. This is due to retirements and COVID-related attrition. Filling vacancies is challenging. Finding people with subject matter expertise is one thing; retaining those with institutional knowledge is another. When you compare state service employment with the tech sector in Austin, it’s little wonder why it’s a challenge to hire and retain public servants. SECO has always been off the radar. It does really good work and deserves more attention.
TXSES: What would you say are some of SECO’s biggest successes?
DT: Without a doubt, it’s the LoanSTAR Revolving Loan Program. Launched in 1989, the low-interest revolving loan program finances energy retrofits in public facilities and local governments. Loans are repaid with the cost savings from the energy projects. As of 2022 , this wildly successful program has funded more than 340 loans totaling more than $600M creating savings of $230M each year! Even more impressive: there’s never been a default in its three- decade history.
TXSES: That’s some serious bragging rights, especially for a state program. That said, what’s surprised you the most with this work?
DT: There’s always been a deep, genuine appreciation from SECO customers. Working with under resourced small school districts, SECO is able to offer technical and financial resources to the facilities that are in dire need of repair and upgrading. Students and faculty are so appreciative. It’s enormously rewarding and humbling.
TXSES: Where do you see SECO in the next five years?
DT: How to thoughtfully maximize the recent surplus of federal money (i.e., Inflation Reduction Act). That includes leveraging those funds where possible. These Federal stimulus package fundings happen about once in a decade; the last one was in 2009 with the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA). It’s absolutely essential to maximize the opportunity when it comes along.
*Originally known as the Governor’s Energy Advisory Council (1975), SECO has been housed in a number of state agencies and undergone several name changes since its inception. In 1999, the 76th Texas Legislature transferred the energy office to the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts. The primary funding source for SECO programs has been oil overcharge settlement dollars resulting from federal court settlements of alleged violations of price controls in effect for crude oil and refined petroleum products between 1973 and 1981. While the U.S. Department of Energy is the federal agency responsible for ensuring compliance with the court settlements, the state’s responsibility is to return these funds to the citizens of Texas through promoting and supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy programs according to state and federal guidelines.
Touted as “the single biggest climate investment in US history,” President Biden signed the historic $739 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on August 16, signaling an unprecedented level of federal support toward our transition to a clean energy economy.
One of the more celebrated provisions in the IRA is the 10-year extension of the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) which applies to individuals like you and me. Instrumental in launching the solar industry in 2006, the ITC’s 10-year extension at 30% of the cost of the installed equipment will step down to 26% in 2033 and 22% in 2034.
As more Texans consider going solar, the opportunity for scams increases.
Our friends at Austin Energy have details on their website to avoid being scammed. Check it out!!
Born into a farming/ranching family in eastern New Mexico, Raina Tillman Hornaday has been a key player in Texas renewables. Currently General Manager and Co-Founder of Caprock Renewables since 2015, Raina spent more than 10 years as GM and co-owner of Cielo Wind Power, the largest independent wind developer in Texas with more than 1 GW of operational projects. She’s been a board member of the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance and CleanTX. Incredibly busy running a business and parenting, Raina was gracious to talk with us about her work.
TXSES: How did Caprock Renewables come to be?
RH: I come from a farming and ranching background in eastern New Mexico. In fact, the Caprock formation is where our family’s homestead is located. Because of that upbringing, I developed a strong connection to the land and earth stewardship. There are immense environmental challenges out there. I like to say that landowners are the ultimate environmentalists because we deal daily with the elements: water, wind and sun to the extreme. Next to drought, wind was and still is a huge factor in our lives. The wind starts building in Roswell and by the time it reaches the Caprock, it takes off! Before grid transmission, every farmer and rancher had wind generators that produced electricity and pumped water from wells. In the 1980s, my dad partnered with a California wind company that installed an 80-meter meteorological (MET) tower to gather data. I founded Caprock in 2015 to help landowners take advantage of additional income by harnessing renewable resources.
TXSES: Did the MET tower inspire you to pursue renewables?
RH: I was a farm and ranch writer for a rural newspaper publication. In that capacity, I was invited to attend the Texas Renewable Energy Roundup in 2002 where I met several wind developers who I still work with today. We signed a lease with RES and provided the met data we gathered over the years from our dry land wheat farm. In 2004, Cielo Wind Power purchased the development and built the Caprock Wind Ranch. I managed operating assets for Cielo, developed a large number of utility-scale wind projects in ERCOT and established an office and business in Santiago, Chile as well. I established an Earth Day Scholarship program to support local communities we partnered with and enjoyed working with the landowners we partnered with. When I left Cielo in 2015, I became active with the Texas Renewable Energy Industries Alliance and still serve on the board of CleanTX who we merged with in 2020.
TXSES: Things have gone well for you. Tell us about some of your projects.
RH: We’ve been busy! Over the past decade, we’ve developed more than 1,000 MW of solar and storage projects throughout ERCOT. Two of our developments were recently acquired by Lightsource BP and ENGIE North America.
10kW ground mount at Raina’s ranch in Eastern New Mexico
TXSES: Being a landowner developer, you have unique insight into working with other landowners.
RH: I really love being involved with the community. As a landowner and developer, I understand the long-term commitment that comes with a renewable development agreement and the importance of going over them with landowners. The farming/ranching industry is changing. The future generations are not necessarily staying on the farm. They are going to college and often not going back home. And then there is the drought. But renewable energy can save the day, over and over. When I work with school districts and counties, I see what a great opportunity they have to work with the large renewable energy companies. Over their lifetime, the current fleet of utility-scale wind and solar projects in Texas will generate between $4.7 billion and $5.7 billion in new tax revenue for local communities. We can also provide resources for the schools to help them educate the students about the rich energy resources in Texas including renewables.
TXSES: Aren’t you interested in agrivoltaics?
RH: Yes! In fact, it’s the capstone project for my master’s in energy from Texas Tech. It will also be a white paper for CleanTX. I’m working with farmers and with the growth of utility-scale solar in Texas, it couldn’t be a more opportune time to promote agrivoltaics to increase pollinators as well as to stabilize the soil. This is my pet project! On large solar installations, we’re taking hundreds of thousands of acres out of production. This makes agrivoltaics crucial! According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, solar is expected to utilize 3 million acres of land by 2030 and 6 million by 2050. Planting native crops beneath the solar panels is an innovative technology that helps farmers utilize their farmland to produce renewable energy without abandoning the land. Crop yields and increased economic opportunity are all benefits of agrivoltaics.
TXSES: What’s your workforce look like? What kinds of skills do you look for when staffing?
RH: We’re a boutique developer. We assemble large projects for IPP’s (independent power producer) and utilities to build, own and operate. My top need is always for project managers. It’s highly competitive because they’re in high demand.
TXSES: Is it a challenge being a small boutique developer competing with the big boys?
RH: That’s definitely a challenge. Large developers have much greater resources than we do. But even more of a challenge is having good, sound policies that support our work financially. It’s why we talk about the ‘solar coaster.’ There have been so many starts and stops with the ITC (investment tax credit) and the PTC (production tax credit), but with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, we finally have some certainty and can plan with more confidence.
TXSES: What’s surprised you the most with your work?
RH: The lack of policies around development. Projects carry a lot of risk which make them challenging to find and secure the funds needed to develop the projects. Also, the amount of global interest in renewable development in ERCOT.
TXSES: Where do you see Caprock Renewables in five years?
RH: Now that we have successfully developed several projects, we will focus on the development of the other projects in our pipeline. We will also continue to evolve by reviewing the services we offer. We receive many requests from landowners, investors and other developers to provide development consulting as well as to expand our offerings to O&M and asset management. We’ve also considered adding C&I (commercial and industrial) and possibly a residential arm into our portfolio.
TXSES: Lots of work ahead! Thanks for the conversation, Raina. Best of luck!!
