The following is the third installment in an ongoing Utility Dive series, "Diary of a Grid Defector." Each month, Utility Dive's Robert Walton will report on his adventures setting up an off-grid cabin and exploring developments in distributed energy in upstate New York. We hope his experiences will give our readers an insightful, first-hand look at what life is like at the edge of the electricity system—and how the revolution in distributed energy technologies is changing it. The first four installments can be found here.

The wind is howling outside — loudly, and it does this for hours almost every day. 

I moved into the cabin in mid-June, so I'm pushing a half year of living on this six acres of land. Most of that time has been spent on basic and essential tasks of construction and planning – walls and insulation, a wood burning stove, chopping wood for the winter.

Back in D.C., a season change mostly meant dusting off your winter coat and changing shoes. Public transportation, large populations, heavy infrastructure and big buildings have a way of mitigating the elements -- and that's really the point. Aside from grumbling about the colder temperatures, there's just not that much you can do to prepare.

Not so, living on the edge of a farm. That's where the howling comes from, like living in the bottleneck of a laboratory wind tunnel. I get sustained winds of 20 miles per hour now, and stronger gusts. Summer was peaceful, calm, but now I'm forced to stake things down, lest they get swept away by a strong wind. I've twice now reassembled the small shed guarding the generator, and extended the chimney to counter sudden changes in air pressure. Stacks of chopped wood stand ready for the winter.

It's hunting season, too. When you go to the store, half the customers are in camouflage and the other half in orange. Tough wardrobe choices just to get the mail.

Small-scale solar in New York

My office is going solar.

Okay, so it's not exactly my office. But the Trumansburg library, where I often post up to get a few hours of quiet writing done, is installing solar panels that will generate nearly all of its power. They've started site preparation, have funding from New York state and have tapped Taitem Engineering in downtown Ithaca to do the construction, which should be completed early next year.

“As a Board we were looking at our overall budget and were looking for ways to save money and be greener,” said Annette Birdsall, director of what is formally known as the Ulysses Philomathic Library. “Solar wasn't the only idea we explored, but with the grants and programs available we realized this was the right time.”

UPL is a small library that sits on Main Street in the village of Trumansburg (pop. 1,800) – across from a bar and church, and just down the street from the high school, dairy and coffee shop. On any given afternoon it is filled with a mix of kids huddled around the library’s computers, and people like me, bunkered down in a quiet corner working.

But out front is a fundraising sign, fashioned out of plywood and with a needle slowly inching its way up towards $58,865 – the matching amount the library must raise to go along with a grant from the New York State Education Department.

Right now the needle sits around $31,000; $60,000 is a lot to raise in a village of less than 2,000 residents, but there is no rush. “We will complete the project,” says Birdsall. “What we might do is take a long time to raise the match, but there's no particular time frame for that.”

UPL Solar

When I sat down to talk with UPL's Birdsall, she said something that really jumped out to me: Solar wasn't the only project the library had considered.

"We as a board were looking at our overall budget and were looking for ways to save money and be greener," she explained. "Solar wasn't the only idea explored, but it was one of them."

The library also considered geothermal projects, but found more funding available for the solar panels. LED lighting was looked at, but due to the specific nature of the building's lighting fixtures, they were advised to wait a year. There are appliances which could be replaced with more efficient models, but there is little benefit in accelerating the replacement schedule.

UPL had an energy audit done before deciding to go with solar, and while that may be standard practice what surprised me was how much was not recommended. That's the thing with energy efficiency: it's very site-specific. LED lighting is at the top of most lists, but for the library a delayed installation made the most sense. 

Solar specifics

The total project cost of UPL's solar installation is about $132,000 (including tree removal). They have an estimated contribution from NYSERDA of $18,000 and a grant from the state's Department of Education, through library funding, for construction of the panels for $55,000.

The installation, 46 kW, will produce about 48,500 kWh annually, and is expected to save the library roughly $6,000 each year in energy costs. 

I asked if library fees would go to help the fund the solar panels, and was surprised to learn they would not. The panels will be funded entirely through donations for the project. But Birdsall threw in another interesting fact: The library counts on about $10,000 annually in late fees to fund new book acquisitions. Which is small compared to the neighboring library system in Tompkins County, where they receive closer to $100,000 each year.

"We try not to look at it as an income generator," she said. "Unfortunately, that's how you get books back."