John Wright, vice president and co-owner of Hudson Valley Clean Energy, talks about the ever-growing demand for renewable energy and the company's groundbreaking zero-net energy headquarters.
How much has Hudson Valley Clean Energy grown since you started?
We started the business in our garages. In 2002, my business partner, Jeff Irish – who is also my brother-in-law – put a solar electric system on his house. We wrote our business plan and incorporated in 2003, installing 10 more systems. And from there we expanded. Now we're up to 25 employees. Demand has been growing steadily. The global market for solar has grown about 25 percent a year. I think it's for three reasons: first, the financial reasons. The cost of electricity, oil, and propane are going up sharply year after year, so it's starting to hit people's wallets, and that usually gets people's attention. Secondly, the environmental benefits; all the concerns about global climate change. Third, the independence and security. Most Americans feel renewable energy is a national security issue and the more independent we can become the better off we are as a country.
What do you say to someone who is skeptical about renewable energy and its effectiveness?
First I would encourage them to do their research. Most of the time, they have bad information. They've talked to a friend or neighbor who has no affiliation with the business or the technology and they're just going off of their word. I'd have them look at the data on all the different systems and all the pluses and minuses. There are so many resources now to do research on renewable energy. Often, I have customers call me and say their neighbor told them solar energy doesn't work because we don't get enough sun in New York. That's just simply not true. There are thousands of installations in New York State that are working at spec or above spec. All our systems that we've installed are generating the power that we've guaranteed they were going to get, or more. Typically we're averaging 10 percent more than what we guarantee, so we're essentially over-delivering.
What do you see for the future of the clean energy industry?
I see continued growth. Americans are searching for many different energy answers, and certainly right now the strongest contenders are solar, wind, and geothermal. The speculation of whether these systems work is going away and it's becoming more mainstream. The biggest thing is that we need a plan; we need incentives and we need to move forward as fast as possible because even at the rate it's been growing, it's not going to grow fast enough. We truly want to curb our addiction to oil and other fuel sources. We need a green work force to back that up. We set aggressive goals and we need the skilled work force in these technologies to grow the industry, so it's also a great answer to this economic slump we're in, because we can create as many or more jobs that have been lost over this past year and keep the money in the United States.
Tell me about the zero-net energy HVCE headquarters in Rhinebeck.
We built our headquarters a year ago in May. We have been recognized by the governor to be the first documented zero-net energy commercial building in New York State, and possibly the northeast…and possibly the country. We spoke to the Department of Energy and they're not aware of any other zero-net energy buildings in the country which don't use any fossil fuel on site. So that's a big feat. We've demonstrated that both residential and commercial construction can have a zero carbon foot print; we're basically a carbon-neutral facility. We generate 100 percent of our electricity with solar, 100 percent of our heating and cooling with geothermal, and we've obviously built a very tight envelope – we used high-performance building techniques and spray foam insulation in the whole building. If we were using oil, central air conditioning and electricity, our operating expense would be $841 a month at today's prices. Instead, we're paying $702 a month over a 20-year mortgage. That $702 a month is fixed for 20 years, whereas that $841 can increase with today's volatile energy prices.
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