NABCEP [RE-wrenches]

[Matt Lafferty]

Joel (Cal-SEIA Member):

I must speak up.  I've been biting my tongue hard on all this....Travis said
a bunch of what many have heard me say, over and over and....Thank you,
Travis.  I, for whatever reason, see both sides.  There has to be balance.

Yes, I'm here in California, but I see the potential for the "California
Dream" to impact the rest of the Country...This can be in a good way or a
bad way.  I prefer the first.  Much of what I have to say is relavent to
California today but, the results of our experiment will affect the rest of
the country.  Fact.

OK.  Back to your "on-the-job-training" reference.

Just because you "learned it on-the-job" doesn't make it right.  There are
many factors....Misunderstanding or application of Code or principles of
operation, bad teaching, lack of oversight, un-trained inspectors, laziness,
bad work ethic in general, hurry-up-and-get-it-done, GREED, missing
conscience, "supply house didn't have the right thing so I used this
instead", etc.  This doen't make it OK!

All these things create an "I did it that way last time and it worked" sense
of "it's OK to do it that way again".  As you've stated previously, nobody
wants to repeat the mistakes of the SDHW "money grab".  I think all
reasonable persons recognize the shortsightedness of doing so and that
anyone who really gives a *&it about this thing we call an industry must do
what they can to prevent that from happening.

Is NABCEP the answer?  I don't in any way believe it is the whole answer,
but I do believe it can be part of the answer.  I am strongly opposed to any
one program/agency/certification being mandatory.  If you read all the
legislation as it stands in California, you will find that some form of
training program or certification is required to install PV period, not just
to receive a rebate.  That portion is coming.  My voice was not heard in
fighting this, even though I strongly believe in the intetgrity of
installations.   The industry doesn't have anything fully in place to
protect our interests.  The "rubber stamp" will be IBEW or similiar
apprenticeships.  Not only to receive rebates but to be in compliance with
licensure requirements.  I know you are a former brotherhood member, if not
still active, but that is not the direction WE want to go.  The closest
thing to "developed" that represents the interests of the PV people that
could meet these requirements is NABCEP.  Fact.

Neither, and no other, option should be mandated or exclusively stipulated
but it is in our best interests to have at least a PV oriented option
available.

There are other things that snaked their way into the current legislation,
like Prevailing Wage.  I see this as being a MAJOR problem, yet to raise its
head.  Another battle to fight....Sigh.  I currently work somewhere that
this is an issue.  For the next 3 weeks anyway.

Ultimately, it is a personal responsibility.  My statement is that "It all
comes down to the guy with the hammer.  The guy who actually drives the
nail.  You can have the best design and engineering, but it still comes down
to that nail and where and how it's put in."

In order to sustain the "good intentions" of the various agencies dispersing
incentives, it is on the backs of The Wrenches in the Trenches to ensure
integrity of installations or else the money goes away because the people
behind the glass who write the checks don't want headaches, and like others
on this list have said, "Only those of us who have comitted to this as a
career" will remain.  When the money dries up, so does the incentive for
manufacturers to pony up the money to develop more cost-effective solutions
and products.  It'll just be us, paying the prices we have to pay for
limited efficiency options and charging the prices we have to charge and
hearing the rejection of potential customers who can buy a Petroleum Powered
Generator cheaper than the system we can offer.  It may not be us, since I
invest $2 a week in the Lotto Retirement Fund. :-)

Slippery slope....

Delicate stuff.....

PV, especially Grid-Tied and vying for the monies available, is an emerging
technology and practice and as such, requires some "Yankee Ingenuity".  It
also attracts the type of flies that are attracted to cow crap, due to the
perceived potential for a "quick buck".  The flies I refer to are more
inclined to devote their energies and resources to the marketing side of
things than the "Yankee Integrity" side of things.  Marketing is not the
Multi-Billion Dollar industry in the US without a reason.  We all can cite
examples of "bad apples" and "who the hell is that?" companies.

When publicly dispersed funds are involved, the agencies involved have a
responsibility to responsibly issue payments and protect the public.  I
support this in concept since it's my $$$ too.  None of them I know are PV
Experts and have no alternative but to rely on the information available.
That means the first ones in their ears and the most persistent voices are
the ones they will hear and listen to.  Remember, we do this seven days a
week, they do what it is they do 40 hours, maybe.....(Another discussion)

We don't want mandates, but we have to make a living.  We want to see costs
come down and technology improve so this dream can become reality, but we
don't want mandates.  See where this is going?  There has to be a
compromise.  Find it!  That is my challenge.  We will never be given all we
want without paying for it somehow.

There also has to be $$$$ invested and time to get from where it is today to
cost-effective, viable and sustainable on a broad basis.  Products and
applications need to be developed.  Perhaps it's Lafferty's Law:  Trickle Up
Economics.  Manufacturing is one thing.  Products need to be installed,
tested and evaluated.  This takes $$$ and time.  If the Gooberment folks are
willing to put up the $$$, they need us to come to the table with something
besides a bunch of bitching in order for them to give us (the whole
industry) the time to get there.  It takes both.

See it from both sides.  They have their needs.  We have our needs.  There
is a middle ground.  Finding it in time is the key.  Those of us who've made
this our career will be back in the woods, onesy-twosey (which is a valid
thing) and never see the full potential reached.

I, for one, want this to work.  There will be a whole lot of tears streaming
down a lot of cheeks one day when we're all older and look around and see
QUALITY PV installed on every home in every subdivision.  When we see
systems, on and off-grid, that require small areas to generate the power
neccessary to serve the connected loads and the cost for these systems is
competitive with retail electricity rates, then we can cry.  I'll be there,
sobbing like a baby from overwhelming joy.

We are all very dependent on electricity (I'm typing this on a computer), no
matter where it comes from.  Face it.

It is up to us to support developing alternatives to the "status quo" with
more than just a closed mind and "this is what there is" thought about the
future.  Yes, that may be what we have today, but I'm going to bed and I'm
going to wake up with an answer.  It may not be "the" answer, but it will be
"an" answer.  And I'm going to do that again tomorrow and next week and . .
. . .

Pray for Sun!

-Matt Lafferty

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