solar water lentador may seem unconventional aim for clean energy innovation, but that is not the way Zach Axelrod, President and CEO of the Solar Water Heater solar energy company innovations Skyline sees.

 

"A couple of things makes it attractive," said Axelrod TPM in a telephone interview, his decision to launch the company Washington, DC, three years ago.

 

"Many of us in the founding team came from the smart grid and smart metering worldwide," said Axelrod, "we saw that solar solar water heater has a better economy fundamental to solar photovoltaic".

 

Axelrod here refers to the commonly recognized type of solar - photovoltaic - which basically includes all types of fixed solar panels that provide electricity.

 

On the contrary, the Axelrod team uses specially designed, mounted on the roof of glass boxes to catch sunlight and produce heat, how a car gets hot and stays hot when sitting directly under the Sun, even on a cold day. The company then transfers heat to the boiler of its clients, storage in water or substances such as water-(glycol) and then uses them to heat municipal water.

 

The technology works in conjunction with existing natural gas or electric water heaters and no substitutes, only kicks in when you can provide hot water at a lower cost per BTU than conventional fossil fuels.

The company is clearly something: at the end of February, Skyline announced that it had signed an agreement for 10 years with the Annapolis City Housing Authority (do) to provide services of solar heating solar water to 11 buildings of public housing and 2,000 residents in the port House and Glenwood Highrise complex.

 

"Going solar with Skyline is a smart choice for our residents and taxpayers in Maryland," said the executive director of do Vince Leggett in a press release of the time. "To reduce our operating costs and the availability of clean energy, Skyline helps to maintain our goal of ensuring the availability of affordable housing and a better quality of life for our residents."

 

"Is one of our larger coast global systems this", said Axelroad. The company has about 60 projects in total, about 20,000 solar hot water supply.

 

To make it clear, Skyline actually do solar water systems heat is installed. Skyline buys the team, mainly from four major manufacturers in the U.S. market.UU. and puts it into practice its own system of Fund tracking to know when and if you must deliver the water warm, conducive to the needs of customers, the availability of the solar hot water and the comparative cost of fossil fuels.

 

"We are the end customer", Axelrod told TPM, "We are selling heat through something like a power purchase agreement", a form increasingly popular to finance renewable energy projects, where a company offers the energy generation system and agrees that a client to host the system on your site and the purchasing power of the same, but does not actually possess or operate the same.

 

Skyline ensures that customers will receive an energy bill cheaper using their services.

 

"Only the customer's invoice based on what it has issued", Axelrod told TPM. In fact, the energy savings are guaranteed point of sale of the company on its main web site.

 

As for what started the horizon of the coast this, more well that in areas where solar energy is most predominant with more Sun a year - the United States.UU. -Western Axelrod pointed out to the State and local renewable energy specific tax incentives for solar hot water in Washington DC and Maryland as main reasons.

 

A report of 2011 by the alternative energy Institute Enerf supervision company supports Axelrod claim that State policies are Intergal to assist Spurr sector developing.

 

"We are very pleased to be based here", said Axelrod, "are very fortunate and have had a good welcome here." And D.C. really is sunny pretty well "."

 

Axelrod said that "a little more than 1 percent" of the buildings of DC Skyline systems were on the ceiling so far, but the company was looking to expand in markets such as Los Angeles and San Diego.

 

But Axelrod acknowledged that it would be a path uphill since natural gas and electric heating systems are so developed here.

 

"Around the world is being a huge adoption of customers of this technology in natural low-density gas markets." This is the great differentiator "."

 

However, relies on its horizon model will work in the United States.UU. Clearly there is a hunger, with several online guides that are intended to tell the reader how to create your own homemade solar hot water heaters. And surveys by the Solar energy industries Association suggest a strong support among Americans for the idea.