Posted: Wednesday, Auguest 31, 2011
PROSSER, Wash. – Solar hot water projects are popping up around Washington, with more do-it-yourselfers beginning their own projects. Correspondent Courtney Flatt visited with a rancher who installed several solar thermal tubes about a year ago.
As the sun peaks out from behind a rare cloud, about 20 cattle graze in a field covered in blue Chicory flowers. 74-year-old rancher Charlie Card has been in and out of agriculture his entire life. His four-wheeler rounds the corner, and his dog, Whitey, runs along side. Card says running his small ranch in Prosser, Wash., would be just a drop in the bucket for most folks. But at his age, it’s plenty. And he views the entire place in terms of energy, starting with the grass the cows eat.
“But this is the way we harvest the sun. We harvest clean energy with these cows. We don’t have to buy any diesel, burn any carbon, or whatever they’re worried about.”
With what he calls the truest form of solar energy already ingrained in his ranch, adding newer technologies may have come naturally to Card. About a year and a half ago, at an agriculture show in Pasco, Wash., Card wandered over to a solar booth.
“Well, when the show was all over, and everybody was puttin’ their stuff away. The younger people, they really get busy and do that, and an old boy like me, I get to stand around a little bit. So I got to visitin’ with this guy, and he had this solar hot water stuff.”
Card got to thinking about his garage, and some pipes he installed in the floors.
“And I said, well, that’ll heat my shop.”
After that, he was hooked. Twenty solar tubes line the back wall of his garage. On a sunny day, the tube’s inner core can exceed 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
“Feel that.”
Card pulls out a tube he uses to experiment on.
Reporter: “That’s pretty warm.”
Card: “If you hung on to it good and tight, you’d find out it was probably hot.”
Ray Lam – the guy Card visited with a year and a half ago – is the president of Silk Road Solar in the Tri-Cities.
He develops these systems for use on small farms or in houses.
“It’s basically two tubes, with a vacuum in between the two tubes and a coating on the outside surface of the inner tube.”
That coating absorbs UV rays, which boils water that surrounds a copper pipe inside the tubes. The water then flows through the system, generating heat.
For agricultural projects Lam says the USDA will provide grants up to 25 percent of the cost through its Rural Energy for America Program.
Back in Prosser, Card climbs into an old white and blue-striped pick-up truck that almost matches his cowboy hat and overalls. He’s been advocating for solar thermal energy around town. But he admits not everyone is quick to take up new technology.
“Well, it’s new and it might now work, and what happens if? And what happens if? Well, I don’t know. We’re scared to try. It took a lot of people a long time to get out of the horse and buggy and in the car.”
A dairy farm down the road has installed five units. Card hears about a recent mechanical problem after running into a worker.
Worker: “That thing went crazy, that hot water thing. You heard about it?”
Card: “Well, I heard a little about it. Tell me about it.”
Worker: “Well what happened is that water went up over 160 yesterday. Too hot, like, crazy.”
Just down the road from the dairy, another of Card’s friends, Buck Enos, may soon use the solar thermal tubes in a less conventional manner. He wants to power a restored 1894 compound steam engine.
Card: “We’re gonna hook it up with the solar panels.”
Enos: “Make the steam with the solar panels.”
Card: “Yeah, and then he wants to run a d-belt offa there to an alternator to generate a little power and put it in a battery or something. Just for the hoot of it.”
Card says he also plans to expand his own solar fixtures, as soon as he gets a little more money and more time.
Solarthermal