[RE-wrenches] ARCO Solar and Carrizo Plain

[Dan Fink]

I got a bit of my start in the PV biz back then buying big lots of 
Carrizo modules and distributing them to local hippies for cheap to 
frame up DIY. (hey, I resemble that remark).

Everything Carrizo and ARCO that we got had the substrate seriously 
browned...bad plastic formula that ARCO soon abandoned. Even the modules 
that were not under concentrators got burned, at least all the ones that 
I sold ("gold," "silver" and from many other distributors too.) The 
"mud" modules were browned to burnt toast color, and the "bronze" not 
much better. I got great pictures if anyone wants them.

There are still a few of these 4-module series arrays functioning in my 
extended neighborhood, with homemade wooden or aluminum frames. They 
still do about 75-150 watts per array, about the same as when folks 
installed them....though there were many bad DIY and removal-mangled 
connection terminals that have since crumbled into galvanic powder.

ARCO built the place in the early 80s because of the late 70s energy 
crisis, to kick start their solar module manufacturing business. The US 
Military was becoming a big solar customer then too. The Carrizo Corp 
bought it in about 1990, gambling on energy prices continuing to soar, 
but they were at about half the $/kWh sold to the utility to make it pay 
off after (that) energy crisis eased off, and they scrapped it all to 
pay their debts.

So I think it's more about $ per kWh than politics (isn't it all? ;-). 
Think of how much PV you could put on 177 acres today....
And I just read now they are thinking solar steam there now (sigh). 
Don't wanna even go into that this fine evening.....

Dan Fink
Executive Director;
Buckville Energy Consulting
Buckville Publications LLC
NABCEP / IREC / ISPQ accredited Continuing Education Providers
http://www.buckville.com/
info at buckville.com
970.672.4342 (voicemail)
970.373.1311 (fax)



Chris Daum wrote:
> Marco:
>  
> Maybe they did it so people who had modest power requirements could meet 
> their needs with the M51s and mmmmm....RC2000s  (is that right folks)?  
> Buying them in sets of four....  This was some of the first technology 
> that worked, and was rather cheaply available at the time.
>  
> I remember those old acrylic-faced modules well, and shipped quite a 
> few...perhaps hundreds or thousands of them...for the solar company I 
> worked for at the time.
>  
> SO, IN THEORY, if the later technologies are being dismembered (that's 
> so harsh, how about disassembled?) then those modules will be worth 
> something too.
>  
> I do not know why ARCO scrapped what they did, but I suspect a corporate 
> perspective was part of the scene.  At the time, it did me and my 
> then-customers good.  After all, we know what PG & E really stands for.
>  
> Just my 2 cents worth.
> 
> Chris Daum
> Oasis Montana Inc.
> 406-777-4309
> 406-777-0830 fax
> www.oasismontana.com <http://www.oasismontana.com>
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> *From:* re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org 
> [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On Behalf Of *Marco 
> Mangelsdorf
> *Sent:* Monday, October 31, 2011 7:55 PM
> *To:* 'RE-wrenches'
> *Subject:* [RE-wrenches] ARCO Solar and Carrizo Plain
> 
> Us old-timers remember the dismemberment of the then big ARCO Solar 
> grid-tie project down in So. CAL. In the 1980s and the parting out of 
> that project in dribs and drabs for years.
> 
>  
> 
> I was wondering recently with all these ever so big and getting bigger 
> grid-tie projects sprouting like mushrooms across the developed world: 
> why did ARCO Solar and the utility (PG&E?) scrap the whole thing after a 
> relatively short period of time?  Causes me to wonder about the fate of 
> so many of the mammoth projects now going in as far as what’s going to 
> happen when the owner-investors likely bail, having made their handsome 
> ROIs, after the tax credits and MACRS depreciation plays out.
> 
>  
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> marco
> 
>  
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
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