Using systems to their full advantage

[Kim Vincent]

I thought that this was a good example of the permaculture idea that
you should use any design system in as many ways as you can.

Solar panels, ironically, work best in cooler weather. They lose
efficiency the hotter it gets. This gentleman has invented a type of
radiator that cools the panel and at the same time heats water for the
building!

From the Sacramento Bee
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Placerville solar startup uses waste energy to heat a building's water
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By Jim Downing
jdowning@...
Published: Wednesday, May. 27, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 8B
As an engineer at Intel Corp., Ron Smith spent years devising ways to
deal with the waste heat that builds up in microchips, sapping their
performance.

Now he's tackling a similar problem in solar panels, with a local
startup that aims to cut the cost of power from the sun and grab a
piece of the green-tech market.

SunDrum Solar LLC, based in Placerville, makes what's essentially a
snap-on radiator for photovoltaic systems. It pulls heat off the
panels, improving their efficiency, and uses what otherwise would be
waste energy to heat a building's water.

"The resource is there – and instead of just wasting it, you're
putting it to good use," said Smith, 58, who rose to senior vice
president at Intel's Folsom campus and is now SunDrum's chief
executive.

For customers who want to get both electricity and hot water from the
sun, SunDrum's combo unit has the potential to cut costs, according to
local installers. Lowering prices is one key to increasing the
adoption of solar technology, which can still take a decade or more to
pay for itself even with government subsidies.

Smith's device also trims the the amount of space a solar system takes
up. That's a growing concern, said David Shield, sales manager for The
Solar Company in El Dorado Hills, because new fire codes are shrinking
the amount of roof area that can be covered with solar panels.

It's not the easiest time to be launching a new solar technology.
After a best-ever year in 2008, the solar sector has stumbled in the
bad economy and is now trying to dig out of a supply glut. The
elaborate financing often needed for solar projects, particularly
larger ones, has gotten harder to arrange. Demand is expected to
recover over the long run, but forecasts on the timing vary.

Smith said he's content to have 2009 be a soft launch for the company,
but hopes to push sales into the millions next year. Unlike many other
solar manufacturers, he has the advantage of low startup costs. The
technology has been relatively inexpensive to develop, and SunDrum
contracts out its manufacturing. The total investment in the company
to date, from Smith and others, is about $400,000.

And the name? "The sun beats on it" – like a drum, Smith said.