Early adopter of renewable energy shows off his self-powered home » Yale Climate Connection

Power outages can range from a minor inconvenience to life-threatening, or somewhere in between. For Scott Sklar, it's a chance to invite neighbors to charge their phones, store medications in his refrigerator and stay warm on cold nights. Sklar's home is powered entirely by renewable energy and has battery storage so he has access to electricity even when the grid fails near Arlington, Virginia.

Sklar's passion for renewable energy began decades ago when he was a young staffer on Capitol Hill and later served as a director of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the solar industry's national trade group. He said that because of his work and connections in the field, he was able to begin turning his property into a self-sufficient energy center in the 1970s and 1980s. But he said the technology is now advanced enough that anyone can do it.

Although Sklar led the solar industry group for more than a decade, he didn't just advocate for solar power. Instead, he said a combination of technologies is a better approach, especially when combined with energy storage. Today, Sklar focuses on educating others about the potential of clean energy as a renewable energy consultant and director of sustainable energy at the George Washington University Institute for Environmental and Energy Management.

Yale Climate Connection spoke with Sklar about his career, how it led him to where he is today, why he believes in incorporating renewable technologies to increase resiliency, and how he welcomed neighbors into his light-filled, warm home when the power went out.

Yale Climate Link: Where does your focus and passion for sustainability and energy efficiency come from?

Scott Clears: In the 1970s, I began working in the U.S. Senate for the senior senator from New York. In the seventies, the oil embargo hit and there were long lines at gas stations. This was the first time the United States of America experienced an energy shortage, and at that time, except for a few committees, there was no energy staff on Capitol Hill. So a whole group of us were brought in and trained very quickly, and I was immediately attracted to this high-value energy efficiency combination of renewables and energy storage and helped co-found the Bipartisan Solar Caucus.

YCC: Can you talk about how long you've owned your home and what it was like when you first bought it?

Sklar: I bought this Sears suite bungalow in Arlington, Virginia, about 10 minutes from downtown Washington, when it was just an isolated small bedroom community. I said, “We have a lot of power outages. My basement floods. Maybe I'll make a tiny solar cell system for the sump pump. That's what I did, and my basement didn't flood.”

Then I said, “Why don't I put in a solar water heater?” Since I worked in the solar industry, I could get help with equipment and design. So I did that in 1985.

A few years later, I said, “Well, we're going to have power outages a few times a year because of the tree canopy. Let me do a bigger project for my refrigerator, a few lights, and a little TV.” That's what I did. About two years later I added a little more and then I went crazy finishing the whole house.

When I added extras to the house, I installed a hybrid system of many different types of solar panels (solar thermal, solar electric, photovoltaic), then installed a huge battery bank, and then installed a geothermal direct exchange heat pump . I had the most energy-efficient house and then put all this renewable energy on it. It is 100% self-powered.

A few years later, I built a small two-story office building behind my house. It has solar electric roof panels, small wind turbines, a connected battery pack, and a permeable exchange membrane hydrogen fuel cell to help ensure I can keep up with the load during the hottest days of the summer.

Then at the end of 2022, I bought a Nissan SL EV and installed solar on the roof, so [the car is] My house is 100% without power.

So I have zero-emission transport, zero-emission houses, zero-emission office buildings, and I come here every week to visit, mainly engineers and architects, some media, some international tourists and of course a lot of students and professors from the area.

YCC: It's really cool that you're able to generate all the power you need, but to clarify, you're still connected to the grid, right?

Sklar: Well, I'm grid connected because the lines are connected, but I'm not using any electrons from the grid or sending any electrons to the grid. But when I was thinking about separating, I found out they wouldn't give me home insurance if I didn't have a grid connection. So I still use it to keep my homeowners insurance, but I don't really use it.

YCC: Can you talk more about wind power and how it works with solar power?

Sklar: I am a huge advocate for all renewable energy sources. I'm not a big advocate of one or the other. So I'm combining solar and wind because I can downsize the battery bank and use solar during the day and wind at night. By the way, it's usually windy during the day during storms. This is definitely a more reliable method than just using solar energy, especially if you have energy storage.

So my office building has an offshore wind turbine. There is not much wind, mainly from 8pm to 4am, five to six days a week. It is very quiet and will not kill birds or bats. So this is an elegant solution. I know there's a lot of wind resistance, but on a smaller scale it's actually an elegant and comfortable piece of technology that, if done correctly, can blend naturally into a living environment.

YCC: Let’s talk a little more about these trips. What reactions do you hear when people encounter this situation?

Sklar: Well, when engineers and architects ask me about something, I always answer first: “That's what I don't like about it.” They're surprised that I start like that, but in the end I say, “But that's why it's Better than what you're doing.”

I did this on purpose because I didn't want engineers and architects to think I didn't understand the drawbacks. Every technique has drawbacks, but it's still much better than what they do and is better for the client and better for retaining the functionality, resiliency and reliability of the building. Since I'm not just an educator or an advocate – I'm a practitioner – they respect that.

With students and professors, I get them to understand the substance—the application side, the end-use side, the financial side of the application, not just the intellectual side of climate change. The students enjoyed seeing viable technologies and learning about them, and seeing so many technologies together.

Finally, for the media and international tourists, I really try to show them that there are a lot of very practical options. In most cases, they have never seen all of these options working together, which makes what I do so unique.

YCC: Like you said, you've been in this industry for a long time and have the network and knowledge to do all of this. But is this replicable for the average consumer?

Sklar: Now it is, yes. When I did that, I was running a solar trade group and had a lot of industrial and [government] Entity helps me solve this problem because we don't have a huge industry base or knowledge base. Now we do it.

first thing [I tell people to] The thing to do is choose an experienced company – you don't want to be a guinea pig – you want them to be knowledgeable. If your home has a unique situation, or you want your home to have a unique look or approach, contact a local trade group or efficiency group in your area, which has diverse members from universities, technical schools, and industry – that way you can There is a group of knowledgeable people who can collaborate and help you do this.

The good news is the technology is here and the experience is here. It's a bit like a cell phone. When I started, I had a pocket phone the size of a wine bottle with a 20-pound battery pack on my shoulder, then flip phones, and now we have these hybrid computer iPhones that have packages that can do things for us Apps for all these things. It wouldn't have been possible without early adopters and the two or three steps we took to get there. That's where we are now – we're at the point where this could explode – but people have to be willing to take that step.

YCC: Can you also talk about your energy demonstration vehicle?

Sklar: When my daughter grew up, I converted the family van into a demonstration van, which I installed two 500-watt photovoltaic panels and a 150-watt wind turbine. They charge a lithium-ion phosphate battery pack in the back of the van and power a DVD player and giant all-weather video screens hanging on the sides of the van. [the van]. I took the van to science, technology, and environment fairs at 11 area universities around Washington, DC.

There's a board full of gauges that allow them to see real-time how much solar or wind energy is being produced, and students can plug their phones into it and watch videos of renewable energy efficiency shown on the screen as the solar, wind and battery packs charge. Kids in the neighborhood call it the Back to the Future van. But the real focus is exposing educators, students and the public to a converged, elegant integration of clean energy technologies.

YCC: Do you have any final words you would like to share with you?

Sklar: when we had a power outage i [might] I have 30 cell phones charging on my dining room table, 18 bags of medicine in the refrigerator, and my neighbors are sitting in my house on a very hot or cold night. I asked my neighbors who didn't like solar and wind power to stand up and tell everyone why they hated it. Of course they are laughing because they are drinking my single malt scotch and benefiting from lighting, air conditioning or heating.

So the point is, now we're in a world where climate change is increasing – we're seeing more power outages, longer hours, higher heat, higher cold, stronger winds, higher floods and waves – Energy flexibility is disappearing as a necessity – it will not become a luxury.

It doesn’t have to be the entire home. That's probably what I would have thought in the beginning – a refrigerator, Wi-Fi, a few lights, a TV, a window air conditioner – and you could get through a three-day or three-week power outage and be OK. When all goes well, not only do you save energy, but the icing on the cake is that you reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is nothing wrong with looking at this story from any angle.